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Win, draw or loss: Grading all 41 Canucks trades in the Rutherford-Allvin regime
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Aug 22, 2026, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 22, 2026, 11:04 EDT
It seems all but guaranteed that the long-term legacy of the front office led by Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin will be a mixed one.
On the one hand, Rutherford and Allvin did not succeed at the job they set out to do, which was to turn the Vancouver Canucks into a competitive team. On the other hand, their lack of success at that task wound up pushing the Canucks into a much-needed rebuild, which might just have been the best way to get the Canucks back to competing in the long run.
Either way, their time at the helm of the franchise has come to an end. Rutherford has faded into the background as a Senior Advisor, and Allvin is already the AGM of the Seattle Kraken. That makes it possible to do some retrospectives on their tenure, and today we’re focusing specifically on their trade record.
The Rutherford-Allvin Regime’s first trade came on March 20, 2022, when they dealt Travis Hamonic to the Ottawa Senators for a third-round pick. Their last came on March 13, 2026, when they swapped Josh Bloom to the Edmonton Oilers for Jayden Grubbe. In total, they made 41 different trades over four years, and today, we’re here to apply a Win, Loss, or Draw to each and every one of them, one at a time.
2021-22
Date: March 20, 2022Trade: Travis Hamonic to Ottawa for 2022 Third Round PickRecord: Win.
Getting anything back for Hamonic, who at this point was a clear detriment to the Canucks, would be a win. Getting something as good as a third seemed like a coup at the time, and that’s only more true now that we know that pick turned into the younger Elias Pettersson.
Date: March 20, 2022Trade: 2022 Third Round Pick to Toronto for Travis DermottRecord: Loss.
That first win on the Hamonic trade was a bit diminished when Rutherford-Allvin turned around and traded a different third-rounder for Dermott on the same day. Dermott only played 28 total games in Vancouver and had minimal impact during that time.
Date: March 21, 2022Trade: Tyler Motte to New York for 2023 Fourth Round PickRecord: Draw.
At the time, fans hoped for a higher return for Motte, but since then, it’s become increasingly apparent that this was relatively fair value for him. The Rangers got 15 playoff games out of Motte, the Canucks got a pick, and everybody wound up okay with the exchange.
2022-23
Date: October 7, 2022Trade: Jason Dickinson and 2024 Second Round Pick to Chicago for Riley StillmanRecord: Loss.
This was seen as a cap dump at the time, and an expensive one. But Dickinson was also plagued by a recurring, perhaps misdiagnosed hand injury in Vancouver, and almost immediately rebounded in Chicago. The Blackhawks got 266 games, 94 points, and eventually a first-round pick out of Dickinson, which makes this a considerable loss for the Canucks.
Date: October 27, 2022Trade: Michael DiPietro and Jonathan Myrenberg to Boston for Jack StudnickaRecord: Loss.
At the time, fans were most upset about losing Myrenberg, an RD prospect with some potential. In the end, the most valuable player in this whole trade was DiPietro, who went on to become one of the AHL’s best goaltenders and has the inside track on the backup role for the Bruins next year after trading Joonas Korpisalo to the Rangers this offseason.
Date: October 28, 2022Trade: 2023 Fifth Round Pick to Carolina for Ethan Bear and Lane PedersonRecord: Win.
Neither Bear nor Pederson were smash successes in Vancouver, but both contributed for parts of a season, and a fifth-round pick is a pretty low price to pay for that.
Date: January 30, 2023Trade: Bo Horvat to New York for Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Räty, and a 2023 First Round PickRecord: Loss.
The Canucks got plenty back for Horvat, but history will tell that A) the Canucks should have been trading JT Miller at this time instead, if possible, and B) Horvat’s best was still yet to come. Since arriving in New York, Horvat has firmly established himself as a 1C, scored a career-high 33 goals (and, in this most recent season, 31 goals in just 68 games), and been named to the Canadian Olympic team. On the whole, that should have been worth more than a first and change, even if that first turned into Filip Hronek eventually.
Date: February 25, 2023Trade: Will Lockwood and 2026 Seventh Round Pick to New York for Vitali KravtsovRecord: Draw.
Kravtsov was a bust twice over, but Lockwood and a seventh was a fine price to pay for the gamble. Easy enough to call this one a draw.
Date: February 27, 2023Trade: Riley Stillman to Buffalo for Josh BloomRecord: Draw.
Canucks fans thought they had a win in getting back a genuine prospect for the dreadful Stillman. In the end, however, Stillman played more games for the Sabres (18) than Bloom did for the Canucks (0). But he didn’t really play well in those games, so a draw is fair.
Date: February 28, 2023Trade: Luke Schenn to Toronto for 2023 Third Round PickRecord: Win.
This was a fairly standard deadline rental deal, and although the third was a little lacklustre as a return, it ended up being fair enough for where Schenn’s career has gone since. Ultimately, the Canucks got a decent pick for a player who they weren’t going to re-sign, and then Schenn eventually came back anyway. That’s enough to call it a win.
Date: March 1, 2023Trade: 2023 First Round Pick and 2023 Second Round Pick to Detroit for Filip Hronek and 2023 Fourth Round PickRecord: Win.
The Canucks paid a large price for Hronek, but since then, he’s developed into a true top-pairing D and easily ranks somewhere within the top 10 or so RDs in the entire game. It really didn’t take long for Hronek to surpass the value that was spent for him, and he’s still under contract until 2032 at a bargain rate.
Date: March 3, 2023Trade: Curtis Lazar to New Jersey for 2024 Fourth Round PickRecord: Win.
Getting something better than a bottom-end pick for a fourth line centre rental is good value, any way you slice it.
Date: March 3, 2023Trade: Wyatt Kalynuk to New York for Future ConsiderationsRecord: Draw.
Not much more needs to be said about an AHLer being dealt for nothing.
2023-24
Date: September 19, 2023Trade: Tanner Pearson and 2025 Third Round Pick to Montreal for Casey DeSmithRecord: Draw.
This one is tricky to judge, because it was ultimately a successful move to open up cap space…but it was cap space the Canucks probably didn’t really need. A third was a lot to give up for that, but then the Canucks got a serviceable backup back in the deal, too, and DeSmith wound up being fairly valuable when Thatcher Demko’s season ended early. A draw seems like the safest call here.
Date: October 8, 2023Trade: 2024 Fifth Round Pick to Toronto for Sam LaffertyRecord: Win.
Lafferty was a better-than-average fourth liner, who managed 24 points in his one and only season in Vancouver. That’s honestly pretty great value for a fifth-round pick, even if those points didn’t really mean much in the end.
Date: October 17, 2023Trade: Jack Rathbone and Karel Plasek to Pittsburgh for Mark Friedman and Ty GloverRecord: Win.
This was a pretty meh trade across the board, and only Friedman would end up playing NHL games for his new team, so we have to give the Canucks a win. It’s a sad end to the whole Rathbone Saga, however.
Date: November 28, 2023Trade: Anthony Beauvillier to Chicago for 2024 Fifth Round PickRecord: Draw.
Another one that is tough to judge. Beauvillier was a cap dump, at least to the Canucks, and to make a dump while getting a pick back, instead of giving one up, is a win. Beauvillier would eventually rebound elsewhere, but not for a couple of years, and not with Chicago, who would trade him to Nashville for a different fifth a few months later. Guess that means this was fair value.
Date: November 30, 2023Trade: 2024 Fifth Round Pick and 2026 Third Round Pick to Calgary for Nikita ZadorovRecord: Win.
Zadorov only played 67 total games in Vancouver, but few have made a larger impact in that amount of time than he did. Few would complain about that coming at the low, low cost of just a third and a fifth. This deal was a win the moment it was made.
Date: December 15, 2023Trade: Jack Studnicka to San Jose for 2024 Sixth Round Pick and Nick CicekRecord: Win.
Studnicka was pretty close to done as an NHLer by this point, so to get a pick and a decent enough D for Abbotsford out of him has to be looked at as a minor win.
Date: January 31, 2024Trade: Andrei Kuzmenko, Hunter Brzustewicz, Joni Jurmo, 2024 First Round Pick, and 2024 Fourth Round Pick to Calgary for Elias LindholmRecord: Loss.
This was a big swing, and enough time has passed to call it a miss. Lindholm only scored 12 points in 26 regular season games for the Canucks, and while his 10 points in 13 playoff games were appreciated, it just doesn’t add up to the cost of the pick (which Calgary used on Matvei Gridin), a better-than-average prospect in Brzustewicz, and the eventual trade return the Flames got for Kuzmenko. This would be one the Canucks would take back if they could.
Date: June 26, 2024Trade: Ilya Mikheyev, Sam Laffery (rights), and 2027 Second Round Pick to Chicago for 2027 Fourth Round PickRecord: Loss.
This is the second time in a row that Rutherford-Allvin paid a second-rounder to Chicago in order for them to take on an injured cap dump, and the second time it ended up being mostly a mistake. The Blackhawks didn’t get as much out of Mikheyev as they did out of Dickinson, but they did get a 20- and an 18-goal season out of him, which is a lot for a player they got paid to take on.
2024-25
Date: August 18, 2024Trade: Vasily Podkolzin to Edmonton for 2025 Fourth Round PickRecord: Loss.
We’ve covered this one plenty already in the Regret-rospective, so you know where this is going. Podkolzin has 61 points in 164 games for the Oilers thus far, and 16 points in 28 postseason games. In general, he’s looked like a player that the Canucks should have never given up on, and certainly not for a lowly fourth.
Date: October 6, 2024Trade: Tucker Poolman and 2025 Fourth Round Pick to Colorado for Erik BrännströmRecord: Win.
We find another situation here where the Canucks made a trade to earn some cap space that they ultimately didn’t do much with. That said, Poolman’s career was outright over at this point, and the Canucks got some decent value out of Brännström for half a year. It’s hard to hate that value for a fourth-round pick.
Date: November 8, 2024Trade: Daniel Sprong to Seattle for Future ConsiderationsRecord: Draw.
Meh. The Canucks didn’t want Sprong around, and the Kraken did. Sure, Seattle eventually flipped Sprong for a seventh-rounder, but that’s hardly enough reason to call this a loss.
Date: January 31, 2025Trade: JT Miller, Erik Brännström, and Jackson Dorrington to New York for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini, and 2025 First Round PickRecord: Win.
Context really matters here. There’s definitely an argument to be made that Miller never should have been re-signed, and instead should have been dealt at a higher value, but that opportunity was long gone by this point. Overall, the Canucks got a decent RD prospect, a pick that ended up at 12th overall, and a skilled-but-concussion-prone NHLer back for Miller. This player had become an overall negative asset in Vancouver and looks to be on a continued downslide in New York. If we ignore the fact that the Canucks flipped that first to Pittsburgh later the same day, it sounds like a good return, especially in the moment.
Date: January 31, 2025Trade: Danton Heinen, Vincent Desharnais, Melvin Fernstrom, and 2025 First Round Pick to Pittsburgh for Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’ConnorRecord: Loss.
Here’s the other side of that coin. O’Connor has been great in Vancouver, and probably washes out into a second-rounder as a rental this year. Pettersson has already been cashed in for a conditional 2030 first. But it’ll take some real luck for those assets to end up as valuable as the 12th overall pick the Canucks sent away here. And we should also mention that Desharnais, stylized as a cap dump here, rebuilt his value quickly and just signed a huge UFA deal this past summer.
Date: February 7, 2025Trade: Mark Friedman to Nashville for Future ConsiderationsRecord: Draw.
The Canucks dealt Friedman to Nashville so that he’d get a chance to play and perhaps compete in the playoffs. He only played for their farm team in Milwaukee, but then the Predators got him for absolutely free.
Date: March 6, 2025Trade: Carson Soucy to New York for 2025 Third Round PickRecord: Win.
This one feels like an underrated win. The Canucks got a third back for Soucy as a rental, which is more than they get for most rentals, and that’s for a player who performed relatively poorly in New York thereafter and is now sitting around as a UFA with no contract. The Rangers also got a third out of him when dealing him to the Islanders a year later, but that doesn’t take away from the Canucks’ win.
Date: June 25, 2025Trade: 2025 Fourth Round Pick to Edmonton for Evander KaneRecord: Loss.
Oof. Talk about subtraction by addition. We don’t think we need to spill too much ink explaining why paying any price for Kane was a mistake. In fact, if the Oilers had given up the pick in this exchange, instead of the Canucks, we’d still probably call it a loss.
Date: June 28, 2025Trade: Future Considerations to Chicago for Ilya SafonovRecord: Win.
The Canucks got a prospect back from the Blackhawks for nothing here, signed him, and now Safonov is in the running to win their fourth line centre job out of camp. Hard to call that anything other than a free asset, and thus a win.
2025-26
Date: July 13, 2025Trade: Arturs Silovs to Pittsburgh for Chase Stillman and 2027 Fourth Round PickRecord: Loss.
The Canucks felt they had to trade Silovs instead of losing him on waivers for nothing, and by that token, a fourth-rounder is an okay return. But Silovs went on to prove himself an NHL-quality goaltender in Pittsburgh, and the Canucks went on to have Demko play just 20 games last season and Lankinen’s performance fall off a cliff. It feels like they’d be in a much better spot if they just held on to Silovs a little longer.
Date: July 17, 2025Trade: Dakota Joshua to Toronto for 2028 Fourth Round PickRecord: Draw.
The Canucks signed Joshua to a large extension after a career year that is increasingly looking like a one-time anomaly. This trade was really about getting out of the contract, with the fourth-round pick coming back just an added bonus. Joshua hasn’t really done anything in Toronto to suggest this was a bad call by the Canucks. But it’s tough to call this a win for Rutherford-Allvin when they signed that extension in the first place.
Date: October 24, 2025Trade: 2027 Fourth Round Pick to Chicago for Lukas ReichelRecord: Loss.
A fourth-round pick for a player with Reichel’s one-time potential was a fine gamble, but it was a gamble that the Canucks lost. Reichel was given every opportunity to succeed in Vancouver, and simply did not.
Date: December 12, 2025Trade: Quinn Hughes to Minnesota for Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Öhgren, and 2026 First Round PickRecord: Win.
The full assessment of this, perhaps the biggest trade in franchise history, will take years to play out. For now, however, the Canucks got a top under-23 defender, a young top-six centre, a former first, and a future first for a player who was on the way out. Even in terms of blockbusters, the Canucks got an absolute haul back here, and this still feels like the very best they could have got out of a Hughes deal.
Date: January 19, 2026Trade: Kiefer Sherwood to San Jose for Cole Clayton, 2026 Second Round Pick, and 2027 Second Round PickRecord: Win.
At the time, not getting a first for the uber-impactful Sherwood felt disappointing. But given what other rentals went for later in the season, it now feels like the Canucks probably cashed in at the right time. Now that we know it was Sherwood for Niklas Aaram-Olsen and another pick coming next year, the trade feels plenty palatable.
Date: March 4, 2026Trade: Tyler Myers (50% retained) to Dallas for 2027 Second Round Pick, 2029 Fourth Round PickRecord: Win.
Ask Dallas fans how they feel about the value on their trade for Myers, who struggled mightily with the Stars. A second and an extra pick is a great return for a defender who had realistically fallen out of top-four ability on most rosters, and the retention is minimal and won’t impact the Canucks much at all.
Date: March 5, 2026Trade: Jett Woo to San Jose for Jack ThompsonRecord: Win.
A small win, but a win all the same. Woo had run his course with the organization, and Thompson plays the same position, is two years younger, and racked up 13 points in 14 games for Abbotsford after the trade. Now, he’s got an outside shot at cracking the NHL roster this year, which would not have been the case for Woo, even if he’d been retained.
Date: March 5, 2026Trade: Conor Garland to Columbus for 2026 Third Round Pick and 2028 Second Round PickRecord: Draw.
Another one where context is king. The Canucks never should have extended Garland, but the whole Hughes situation made that decision complicated. With the extension on the books and Garland’s production wilting, the Canucks were up against a deadline of July 1, 2026, at which point Garland would have received a full no-movement clause. All that being said, it was a benefit to walk away from the situation with a second, a third, and Garland out of the picture. As with Joshua, since Rutherford-Allvin signed the contract themselves, we can only give them a draw for getting out of it.
Date: March 6, 2026Trade: Lukas Reichel to Boston for 2026 Sixth Round PickRecord: Draw.
The Canucks lost on their initial gamble for Reichel, but there’s nothing wrong with their getting a little bit back from the Bruins thereafter. It’s fine value, even if Reichel cracks the Boston roster this year, as some think he might.
Date: March 6, 2026Trade: David Kampf to Washington for a 2026 Sixth Round PickRecord: Win.
Trading a rental for a sixth is standard business, but the difference here is that the Canucks signed Kampf for cheap mid-year after he terminated his contract with Toronto, and then flipped him for a pick. It’s free real estate.
Date: March 13, 2026Trade: Josh Bloom to Edmonton for Jayden GrubbeRecord: Draw.
The last trade of the Rutherford-Allvin trade was a quiet, post-deadline one that involved the swapping of two AHL/ECHL tweeners, neither of whom has signed another NHL contract this summer.
Overall Record:
We’ve got the Rutherford-Allvin Regime at a trade record of 18 wins, 11 losses, and 12 draws, or 18-11-12 for those who like a stat block.
That’s a fair bit better than their actual win-loss record at the helm of the Canucks, but this is ultimately a fairly surface-level analysis. One issue we’ll mention here is that not all trades, and thus not all trade wins or losses, are created equal. By our count here, winning on the Curtis Lazar deadline deal balances out losing on the Elias Lindholm acquisition, and we all know that’s not actually true.
The fact that the Rutherford-Allvin Regime went 6-3-4 on trades in their final year in the front office is probably what counts the most, but even within that, we’d say the importance of winning on the Hughes trade outweighs the impact of all the other 12 trades combined.
In the end, this is a big-picture, top-down view of Rutherford and Allvin’s record on trades, and it looks much the same as their overall tenure upon reflection: good in some spots, less so in others, but overall lacking a consistent vision and never quite good enough.
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Vancouver CanucksTeam Cap Summary
Cap Summary
2026-27
2027-28
Projected Cap Hit
$86,185,833
$62,923,333
Projected Cap Space
$17,814,167
$50,576,666
Current Cap Space
$17,814,167
$50,576,666
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13/23
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