Quantum

Love this hiring! It's really great to see this club go from having one of the worst run, small group, closed minded management teams (basically Benning/Weisbrod with Gear/Linden there for parts of it) to a big, open, collaborative management group spearheaded by Rutherford. Between Rutherford, Allvin, Clancey, Castonguay, Johnson, Granato, and the Sedins + Smyl as special assistants/advisors, I feel like this management group can dig this team out of the hole Benning created. I was initially skeptical of Rutherford and thought he'd be more of an "old boys club" manager like Benning but I've been pleasantly surprised. If Rutherford's GM factory continues, he's bound to propel one of Castonguay or Granato to a GM job in the future and really cement his legacy as an all time leader in hockey. The more minds in the front office the better. There may be a cap for on the ice but there's certainly no cap for the front office. Big win for the Aquilini family here going out and being the first NHL club to have multiple female AGMs.

I'm so curious what his KHL contract situation is like. I've always liked him as a prospect and hope the Canucks can bring him over to North America. It seems like this guy needs some stability considering he's played for five teams this season across three different leagues (KHL, VHL, and MHL). If I'm not mistaken, Craig Button is really high on Zlodeyev as a prospect and Craig's been pretty on the money with his prospect evaluations dating back all the way to when he *rightfully* slammed the Canucks for drafting Virtanen over Nylander. And the Canucks need more prospect aged C's down in Abby right now and Zlodeyev fits the bill.

With Hughes out on the Covid list, I see no good reason why Rathbone shouldn't be in the Canucks lineup starting tomorrow. This feels like a statement game for him telling the Canucks management that he's ready for the NHL again.

The Canucks have his rights until August 2023 so chances are he's not on the radar to sign this year. I think they'll monitor his third year at Cornell and see if he makes any improvements statistically and otherwise. Unless the pipeline gets filled with undrafted college players and European free agents, I'd say Malone's chances of inking an ELC are 50/50 right now. He probably won't get many NHL offers if the Canucks don't sign him. I think from Malone's draft year, Arvid Costmar and Aidan McDonaugh are more important prospects to sign than Malone even though Malone was drafted ahead of the former two.

I believe Trent Cull will be fired at the end of the season. My suspicion is that his contract is up at the end of the season and they likely won't extend him. The AHL is a huge part of Rutherford/Allvin's approach to developing talent for the NHL club and I expect a more interactive approach with the Abbotsford Canucks soon. If I'm not mistaken, Thomas Drance a few weeks ago floated the name Mike Vellucci as a possible Cull replacement. He's currently an assistant coach with the Penguins (shocker!) but was the head coach of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins before that. If Vellucci wants to be a head coach again, him going to Abbotsford wouldn't be a huge shocker. In the past, Rutherford has basically had his AHL teams play the exact same way stylistically as the NHL clubs he has run so players can transition from the AHL to the NHL seamlessly. This has not been in the case in Vancouver for years and the closest the Canucks resembled this model was back in the 2000's when the Canucks AHL affiliate was Winnipeg. I also would be curious to see if the Canucks would circle in on Ben Boudreau as a possible coach for Abbotsford. He's Bruce's son who has been coaching the Fort Wayne Komets for the last few years (he's the head coach) and he won the Kelly Cup with the Komets last season. Not sure if it's a realistic option but Ben Boudreau is a younger coach (he's 37) with lots of potential and could do well if given the chance. Regardless, I feel like all signs point to Trent Cull being dumped by the Canucks at the end of the season regardless of result. He's not a stylistic match to Bruce Boudreau and doesn't coach a "Rutherford" style of game.

Honestly, probably.

Watch Tye Felhaber turn into one of Tampa Bay's next great "finds". He'll play in Syracuse for the next season and a half and then explode on the Lightning hahaha.

Kind of shocked Niku cleared.

And the Sabres lose yet another goalie! The carousel continues to spin!

A little bit of an overpayment given his age (he just turned 37 a few weeks ago). That said, he was on the verge of retirement before going to Pittsburgh and it's really interesting watching him revive his career in Pittsburgh for one last chapter to his incredible NHL career.

Yeah, would have been a terrible look if Sean Burke got the GM job days after the Canucks hire the first female AGM since the 90's. So glad he's not gonna be part of this team right now.

They won't rebuild as long as Ovechkin is in the lineup. Similar mantra to what the Penguins are doing with Crosby (and Malkin to a lesser extent). Keep building for playoff runs until they retire. In Ovie's case, he's chasing Gretzky's scoring record. They won't interrupt that.

When the rumors that it could be Matthieu Darche were coming out earlier today, I was pretty excited by that. Felt like he was gonna be the perfect fit as GM. I'm a little disappointed by the Allvin hiring. However, I don't want to rush to judgement on Allvin. He's got experience working with Clancy and Rutherford and he's been working as an AGM for awhile. Also, it's very fitting that the Canucks would hire the first Swedish GM in NHL history. The Jarmo Kekkalainen hiring by CBJ was met with a lot of doubt when it happened. I feel like that hiring has been a huge boon for CBJ. It could be the same here with Allvin. With that said, this hiring definitely still signals that Rutherford is running the show and this hire might be more "elevated AGM" than GM for now. Regardless, it feels like a good hire. Maybe not the best hire. But a good one. Watch Darche go to the Ducks.

Yeah, according to Capfriendly, his draft rights expire June 1st along with our rights to Toni Utunen and Nikita Tryamkin. SOURCE: https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/reserve-list/canucks

Lots of former NHLers on the roster. And a good showcase for some guys who may be trying to make a run at getting back into the NHL next season. And it's cool to see a few young guys get Olympic opportunities (Owen Power, Devon Levi, Mason McTavish). Although, the only snub I can see is Kent Johnson not making the team. I thought he was a shoe in.

Weisbrod needs to return to being the most hated man in Basketball. Hockey ain't working for him hahaha.

Love this hire! The Hockey News did an article a few days ago listing who they think has the best chance at being the first female GM in NHL history and Emilie topped the list at #1. She's got a great reputation in hockey circles and this seems like a perfect opportunity for her. So happy to be seeing an expanded front office in Vancouver. (Here's the list for those interested: https://thehockeynews.com/news/who-will-become-the-first-woman-to-serve-as-an-nhl-gm)

Yogi is Jaroslav Svejkovsky, former NHLer (he played on the Washington Capitals in the 90s). He's a skills coach who worked with the Vancouver Giants for years (from like 2006 to 2018). He was hired to be a skills coach for the Abbotsford Canucks in the Fall but it seems like he may have been promoted to the main club when Travis Green and company were fired in December. https://www.delta-optimist.com/local-sports/point-roberts-coach-hired-by-canucks-farm-team-4344412 (Fun fact: Jim Rutherford drafted Yogi's son, Lukas Svejkovsky, when he was GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins back in 2020).

Jalen Chatfield has scored more goals this season than he did his entire Canucks/Comets tenure.... wild. Good for him, though.

Very good hire. Rutherford is beefing up the front office. Love to see it. There may be a salary cap for the on ice roster but there's no cap for how you fill out your front office. I expect that she's not the only woman who will be hired in a front office position. Canucks are still rumored to be hiring a female AGM. Doerrie has the potential to be a future GM in the NHL. Again, exceptional hire!

Gemel Smith gets to re-unite with his younger brother Givani Smith now that he's headed to Detroit. Cool story there. And a good move by Detroit. I think Gemel's a really good bottom six player... I think Gemel would be an upgrade on someone like Dowling/Di Giueseppe but alas, it's not the right time.

Seattle should have hired Mike Gillis. He'd have built a better day one team. It always seemed like the wrong move to hire Ron Francis down in Seattle. Hell, even the hire of Dave Hakstol as the coach seemed odd when coaches like Bruce Boudreau, Claude Julien, Mike Babcock, and Rick Tocchet were available at the time. (I know people don't like Babcock but he did start his coaching career in the WHL guiding the Spokane Chiefs). That said, we have to remember that VGK are an expansion outlier and almost all expansion teams struggle out of the gate. But I think I'm just surprised by the amount of players struggling in Seattle. Grubauer has been terrible, Dreidger can't stay healthy, Larsson has regressed. It'll be a tough couple of years in Seattle -- that said, they'll have their own AHL team next year and Francis did draft most of the stud d-core in Carolina -- so there's a chance he can build a really great team. I just thought they'd be more competitive now.

LOL. HOLLAND?!? WHAT?!?!? We did hire a real GM and his name is Jim Rutherford and he's won 3 cups with 2 NHL clubs. He's in the Hall of Fame and he's gunning to make NHL history by winning 4 cups with 3 different NHL clubs. This GM job is going to be going to somebody Rutherford can mentor. It really does feel like this is Patrik Allvin's job to lose.

I believe working in the NHL in any big capacity (GM, player, Coach) is a huge privilege and people who beat their spouses, at any point in their life, don't deserve this privilege. This wasn't an isolated incident. He did beat her multiple times. And worst of all, Burke was playing for Rutherford (Rutherford was GM of the Hurricanes, at the time) when this incident went down and the team chose not to suspend him during the incident. Sure, he plead guilty and did the classes. Still doesn't dismiss the fact that people have lost more opportunity for doing less. It's all detailed in this article: https://apnews.com/article/28d32fc5586566aaf258994a840e410c