Vancouver Canucks Expect to Hire New General Manager Next Week
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Wednesday morning with Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick. There, he was asked about the Vancouver Canucks and their GM search.
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Scott Laughlin: “I said at the beginning that Joey Kenward is going to join us, too. We’re going to talk a lot about the Canucks. And, sadly, of course, they get the third pick in the upcoming draft, but it’s a deep, deep draft, of course, in terms of what we’ve been led to believe, whether it’s the defense or the top two guys, obviously whether you get the top two guys, Gavin, whether you get McKenna, Gavin (Gavin) guys in Caleb Malholtra, obviously, who have some ties to Vancouver, would be an idea choice as well.
But what do you do with Jim Rutherford announcing during the fall of the third election Friedge that he was going to step down, enter after the draft in June, and that next week, they will hire a general manager, maybe next week, the announcement can come out.
What do you feel about Vancouver in this transition from Jim Rutherford to a new general manager? And we’re looking at Pierre Dorion, Ryan Johnson, somebody else? What are you doing?”
The latest on the Vancouver Canucks and their Front Office Search
Elliotte Friedman: “A few things.” First, I think we all knew that Jim Rutherford’s role as CEO there was coming to an end, and there was a lot of talk about him taking on an advisory role. I don’t think anyone knew the timeline, but now we do.
I will say this, it will be a sad day for media in the National Hockey League when Jim Rutherford is no longer around the microphone. He is one of the best. But it was about time, and now, at least we know the exact timeline. I had a feeling they would probably check next week before they finished. They had Dorion in a personal interview, and they had Evan Gold from Boston in a personal interview.
They had Ryan Bowness of the (New York) Islanders for a personal interview. Shane Doan, I think it was done by Zoom, I don’t think he did it himself. Ryan Johnson, who I really believe deserves serious consideration and who I think is the man that Rutherford recommended. You’re still there. and I think he’s still a candidate, but there seems to be some bending of the Canucks to give him a job, which I don’t agree with, but that shouldn’t be here or there.
I heard I said it in a stick that just came out this morning. I believe they have now added Scott White from Dallas to that search. White was the one who entered the finals with Chayka in Toronto, he did not get the job. White has run around here where he’s been in a few different interviews, and people I’ve talked to have said that this guy has been close to Jim Nill for a long time and has worked hard to get better at his job. And we will see.
The Vancouver Canucks GM position is still up for grabs
Another name, and I don’t know if he was one of the finalists, but I heard his name the other day, and I was very impressed with it was Martin Madden from Anaheim, and I heard them talking to him. I don’t know if they do it manually. I don’t know where you stand, but Madden is famous for finding players.
He’s been a big part of Anaheim’s Ateur scouting for about 17 years, so I found it very interesting that he was on their list. Another thing here is that some of these guys, I think they will have to hire a President of Hockey Operations instead of just being a GM. So I don’t know how this is going to work, but Rutherford said last night that they will probably be in next week.
That’s what I heard, too, and we’ll see where it goes. They did a good job of keeping some words quiet, so it was hard to figure out where everything stood.”
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