It appears the Vancouver Canucks‘ search for their next general manager is nearing a conclusion.

According to Donnie & Dhali’s Rick Dhaliwal, the Canucks have begun telling candidates they are out of the running, and that it’s down to Evan Gold and Ryan Johnson.

Shortly after, Dhaliwal shared a quote from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman from the Sportsnet Hockey Show confirming Dhaliwal’s reporting:

These Gold reports match the reporting of CanucksArmy’s Irfaan Gaffar. On this week’s episode of DFO Insider Edition, Gaffar ‘put his money’ on the Providence Bruins GM and Boston Bruins AGM, Gold, for the Canucks GM job.

On Friday’s edition of 32 Thoughts – The Podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared that Gold was in Vancouver this week for an interview and that we may see the situation around him heat up soon.

“Providence got knocked out of the AHL playoffs on Thursday night after a tremendous regular season. So, Evan Gold, who is definitely on their radar, and I believe was in [Vancouver] this week to be interviewed, he’s done his responsibilities.

“I heard all the noise in Vancouver [on Thursday]. I don’t have any reason to believe anybody’s wrong. I believe he was there this week, and also his team is now out. So if it is going to heat up around him, it’s really going to start to heat up around him now.”

Friedman also mentioned that Johnson was in the mix, but did not sound convinced of his candidacy.

“He’s still in the mix, but I don’t know what to make of this. If they’re going to hire Evan Gold, who has a really bright reputation, it would seem that Johnson’s really being passed over.

“The whole thing is a little bit strange to me. They extended his contract. They said, ‘you’re here and you’re not going anywhere else’. And now, if it’s Evan Gold, you’re basically passing him over for somebody with a similar skill set, right? So, we’ll see. But if that was the case, it wouldn’t be good for Johnson.

“I hope they wouldn’t pass over him simply because he’s tied to the regime that they’re starting to move out. I don’t ever think that’s a good reason. If you don’t think the guy can do the job, that’s one thing. But I don’t like the idea of, ‘Okay, he was with Rutherford, he was with Allvin. Allvin’s out, Rutherford is moving to the advisory role, we just want to make the fresh change’. I don’t agree with that.

“I would just wonder why it’s gone from, ‘Boy, we think super highly of this person one year ago,’ to this. It is a little unusual.”

With these two final candidates, it appears the Canucks will hire yet another rookie general manager. Both have success at the AHL level as General Manager, with Johnson having a Calder Cup Championship on his resume. We will update you as soon as we hear more on the Canucks GM search here at CanucksArmy!