What we learned about Canucks’ offseason plan from Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin

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VANCOUVER — Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin held court at Rogers Arena on Monday morning.

At the heart of their voluminous commentary on several hot-button topics surrounding the Vancouver Canucks as they enter a deeply unsettled offseason, was the fallout from an underwhelming campaign, and what the club plans to do to pick up the pieces.

“We had a very disappointing season that we feel bad about,” Rutherford said. “We started the season as (what) a lot of people would view the Canucks as a contending team, we ran into an unfortunate incident early in the season that hurt the chemistry of our team.

“We ultimately had to make a trade that we didn’t expect to make and didn’t want to make. So we went from being a contending team to being a team in transition.”

While other moments in the news conference will garner more attention — especially Rutherford’s joke about acquiring the Hughes brothers’ triforce, and the club’s deeply qualified expression of belief in embattled first-line centre Elias Pettersson — the quote that started us off was a stunner. An admission that this was a year that went so far off the rails due to locker room unrest and dysfunction that it necessitated a new direction for a club that seemed to be ascendant just 12 months prior.

Over the course of a 45-minute availability, Canucks hockey operations leadership didn’t mince words. This is a franchise that’s steering headlong into choppy waters, and Rutherford and Allvin weren’t going to sugarcoat that fact or minimize it to mollify fans.

The stakes of this offseason are enormous, the path back to contention is narrow and treacherous, and as Monday’s commentary made crystal clear, it’s critical for Rutherford and Allvin that their next step lands in the right spot.

Here’s what we learned from the year-end availability with Canucks hockey operations leadership.

1. On Monday, the club toned down the rhetoric on exercising a team option in his contract to prevent head coach Rick Tocchet from becoming a free agent coach this summer.

Stepping back from some negotiating bluster over the past few weeks, Rutherford’s commentary on the Tocchet file left no doubt that the ball is in Tocchet’s court on his Canucks future.

“It’s been a really good dialogue,” Rutherford said of the club’s discussions with Tocchet. “We will not exercise the team option for him to stay, we don’t feel it’s right to have somebody here who may have his mind somewhere else — and I’d say that about anybody.”

Rutherford went on to defend Tocchet’s coaching performance this season, despite the Canucks’ middling record. In fact, Rutherford opined that given the circumstances, he felt that Tocchet’s coaching performance was as good this season as it was last year — when Vancouver gained 109 points, won the Pacific Division and Tocchet was recognized as the Jack Adams winner.

Tocchet, who spoke independently of management at garbage bag availabilities on Friday, has already left Vancouver following the conclusion of the regular season. He will be back in town later this week, however, and with negotiations ongoing, the club seems to be expecting him to make a decision on a similar timeline.

Rutherford says the #Canucks have made Tocchet an offer in excess of where head coaches have been paid by the organization previously.

Club expects Tocchet to make a decision this week.

— Thomas Drance (@ThomasDrance) April 21, 2025

We’ll see where this one goes, but while the precise words that management said — especially the “who may have his mind somewhere else” portion — will provide fodder for speculation, the cooling off of the club’s stance can also be read as meaningful progress. A sign of a cooperative negotiation that could yet result in Tocchet remaining in Vancouver.

Either way, it doesn’t sound like this will drag on.

2. One of the other tap-in orders of early offseason Canucks business that sounds like it may drag on is the contractual stalemate with top prospect Tom Willander.

On Monday, Allvin suggested that the club’s understanding is that Willander intends to remain in college for another season.

In a statement provided to The Athletic contributor and CHEK TV co-host Rick Dhaliwal, Willander’s adviser Todd Diamond reiterated following the conclusion of the news conference that Willander’s intent and first choice is to turn pro. Willander’s side, however, is comfortable with pursuing other options — including remaining in school — if they can’t come to terms with Vancouver on an entry-level deal.

As The Athletic has reported, at issue throughout is the Schedule A bonuses. Even more unusual than the club refusing to bend on that, however, it seems telling that the Canucks haven’t been able to sell their vision for Willander’s development. It’s a vision that includes playing major AHL minutes in the Calder Cup playoffs this spring, and having an inside track to make the club’s 23-man roster out of training camp next fall.

Allvin didn’t pay lip service to that subject on Monday, instead noting the financial stakes for the player.

“It’s a lot of money for a young player to pass on,” Allvin said.

3. Rutherford is clearly getting annoyed by the lack of progress the organization has made during his tenure in securing a location for a new practice facility.

“It might not get done while I’m here, maybe not even when I’m still on this Earth,” Rutherford said, as clear an indication of significant frustration as you’re likely to ever see from the Hall of Fame executive.

“We’ve tried hard to find a partnership with the local rinks, and we’ve tried 3-4 different facilities and it didn’t work out,” Rutherford added. “I do feel like we have more people working on this now, and I know you don’t trust what I say (on this subject) … it looks like a new facility is going to have to be built to get this done … It’s going to take a while and we’re all disappointed in that.”

The Canucks are one of only two teams in the NHL that don’t have a designated practice facility; the other team, the Calgary Flames, has a new arena coming which will address that shortfall.

This is a significant issue for the franchise, one with no clear or apparent solution on the horizon. It’s also an issue that could complicate both the franchise’s player recruitment and player development efforts going forward.

4. Rutherford’s answer to the final question — which covered Quinn Hughes’ Canucks future — stood out on Monday, largely because the quiet part was said out loud by the Canucks president.

“This franchise cannot afford to lose a guy like Quinn Hughes and we will do everything we can to keep him here.”

Jim Rutherford speaks on Quinn Hughes’ future with the Canucks pic.twitter.com/2DGIUVtVLw

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 21, 2025

It’s an incredible sound bite, obviously, but the reaction is likely to outstrip the significance of what was actually said.

Silly accusations of mild tampering aside, and Rutherford even joked after making the comment about the Hughes brothers that he “may have crossed the line,” much of this should be self-evident. The sort of thing that adults should’ve been able to safely assume.

Hughes’ Canucks future hangs over this Vancouver offseason, something we’ve already pointed out at length. How could it not?

Nothing said on Monday alters that, or should change the urgency that the Canucks feel this offseason to get this turned around after a challenging campaign.

5. It’s no secret that the Canucks are facing a franchise-altering decision on Pettersson’s future. The 26-year-old centre will own a full no-movement clause on July 1 for the seven remaining years on his $11.6 million cap hit contract. Vancouver isn’t necessarily stuck with Pettersson forever if it passes July 1 — players with NMCs, like J.T. Miller, can still be traded — but the flexibility and leverage the franchise has obviously dwindles significantly.

On Monday, management fielded several questions about Pettersson. They once again hammered home their belief that Pettersson didn’t adequately prepare himself last summer, and how that was a major contributing factor to his down season. On multiple occasions, management mentioned that they are happy and encouraged by how hard he has been training at the Rogers Arena facilities over the last few days.

This front office still thinks he needs to grow significantly on and off the ice, however.

“He’s a guy that’s always going to be able to get his points, but can you be a contending team with your top player just getting points?” said Rutherford. “And I can answer that question, the answer is no. You can’t. He’s going to have to buy into being a complete player. He’s going to have to buy into working hard … he’s going to have to buy in to what the coach wants him to do.”

It may be confusing for fans to hear management referencing Pettersson’s need to become a more “complete player,” when generally speaking, his defensive play has been sturdy. But rather than specifically referring to his play without the puck, we think that commentary is about him leveling up to being the kind of all-around franchise player that can be the best forward on a Stanley Cup-winning team.

That means being stronger on your feet. It means having the obsessive drive to get better and developing the kind of elite on- and off-ice habits that a player like Quinn Hughes has. It means being harder to play against. It means being a player who elevates in big moments and under pressure come playoff time rather than struggling under the spotlight like he did during last year’s postseason. It means being an elite game-breaker all the time, not just sometimes. It means developing into a strong leader who inspires teammates. Those are the sorts of things Rutherford and Allvin are likely referring to when they say they need Pettersson to take the next step.

Allvin was asked whether they are unequivocally committed to keeping Pettersson. He didn’t want to make any sweeping declarations.

“I want to keep all my options open … We still believe in Pettersson, but I’d be stupid not to keep my options open,” he said.

The Canucks may not love all of Pettersson’s qualities, and they may have doubts about being him being The Guy on a Cup-winning team. But they also seem to have a realistic understanding that they may be too short on high-end centres to give up on all his talent. After management acknowledged the need to upgrade at centre, Ben Kuzma asked a question that suggested that the calibre of centre Vancouver will have to hunt for this summer is a true, top-flight No. 1 centre. Unprompted, Allvin brought Pettersson up and said he believes he can rebound to being a first-line centre for them.

“I think that’s what Petey is capable of,” Allvin said. “He’s shown the last three years except for this year that he’s more than capable of being a first-line centre. He’s talented enough to do it.”

6. Management expressed that they’re content with the state of the club’s blue line and goaltending. Their biggest priority, by far, is targeting another top-six centre. Rutherford said that the bulk of their shopping will likely be done via the trade market rather than free agency.

“Maybe we get a good free agent to come here, but I think it’s more likely that we’re going to need to trade for the players we need,” he said. “And if we have a good offseason, we can jump back up (the standings) again.”

In relation to adding a centre, specifically, Rutherford said that they’ve taken a look at the free-agent list and noted that “we’re going to have to do better than that,” in terms of who they target, which again, reinforces the trade market as a critical avenue for the club’s summer plans.

“It’ll be expensive,” Rutherford said of trading for a marquee centre. “But it will also be very expensive not to get one. We’re gonna be open to do whatever it takes, and probably on the trade market, to get that player. It depends what level the player is at as to what we’re willing to give up.”

Could doing “whatever it takes” to land an impact centre mean being open to dangling Willander as a trade chip, especially if getting him signed continues proving to be a challenge?

7. Last Friday, Thatcher Demko told reporters that he’d “like to get an extension done” with the Canucks this summer. He’s entering the final year of his contract and will be eligible for an extension on July 1. Extending Demko would be a risk after his injury-plagued season, but management is also open to exploring a new deal.

“It’s a tricky one. There will be risk to it on both sides if there’s an extension,” said Rutherford. “The thing that I feel really comfortable with is leading up to him returning to play, he had a different approach to his training, which is more of a preventative training for injuries.

“I almost relate it to Gary Roberts when he was in Calgary and the neck injury. All the doctors said he couldn’t play anymore, nobody wanted to give him a chance. I traded for him when I was in Carolina and I said ‘I’ll take that chance.’ He had a certain way of training and I relate this to what Thatcher has started to do. And Gary went on to play; he played in Carolina for a bit, then played a long time in Toronto after that with a much more serious injury than Thatcher.”

Reading between the lines, Rutherford seems to think that a large chunk of Demko’s past injury troubles may have been related to his previous training style, and that his new approach should minimize injury risk moving forward. If the organization believes that he’ll stay healthy and bounce back as an elite netminder next season, you could understand them perhaps looking at this summer as an opportunity to extend Demko at a discount.

“I like what he (Demko) has found,” said Rutherford. “He’s 100 percent healthy now. He’s in a great frame of mind. We would like to extend him. Now, the question is — and it’s a fool’s game to negotiate publicly so I won’t get into that too much — but it’s gonna be a matter of how much risk the team is willing to take and how much risk is he willing to take as to the term of that contract.”

(Photo of Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford: Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press via AP)

This news was originally published on this post .

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