[Report] Canucks name Jim Rutherford as president & interim GM

[wallstreetamigo]

Just now, DIBdaQUIB said:

Just got of the phone with Jim Rutherford.  He pushed me hard on the GM gig  but I am otherwise committed.  I suggested he call  Phillipblunt. 

I told him to call Mike Gillis then leak it on cdc. 

[canuck73_3]

1 minute ago, wallstreetamigo said:

I banned myself. That’s how much of a $&!#hole HF is

I go to HF like once a year, roll my eyes and leave. That cesspool makes Calgarypuck Edmonton/Vancouver threads seem level headed and neutral.

[Cromeslab]

Seems like a good addition still wondering about GM

[48MPHSlapShot]

At the end of the day, my opinion on the Rutherford signing is very much so going to be tied to how I feel about his pick for GM. As of this moment, I'm fine with him as president. 

 

That said, if we do something stupid like hire Botterill or Bergevin as GM I imagine my opinion will change in pretty short order.

[Jester13]

14 minutes ago, wallstreetamigo said:

I can help you with your doom and gloom. Maybe instead of using Chiarelli as your example, use Rutherford himself from his time with the Pens as your example. He surrounded a good core with the right players who had significant impact on winning two cups. He has no history of trading young, core players (or even older core players), and he doesn’t hang onto depth players past their point of usefulness.

 

Sounds kind of like a good fit for exactly where this team is at.

I hope you're right, and I hope he hires the right GM. I haven't eaten much today either, so that probably has something to do with how I'm feeling. 

[PositionOfPower]

3 hours ago, PhillipBlunt said:

Hearing Dean Lombardi is being considered.

Source?

[JM_]

13 minutes ago, wallstreetamigo said:

I banned myself. That’s how much of a $&!#hole HF is

I was arguing with some regulars on there about how some of Jim's trades were not as bad as they said. I wasn't being disrespectful, but a mod banned me saying that Bennings record had been "established" and I was trolling

 

So you can't even discuss it over there.

 

The place runs on ad revenue and subscriptions. If you argue with a regular member you get banned.

Edited December 10, 2021 by JM_

[V12]

He’s got to have an idea for who he wants as GM already. I can’t see him being interim GM for more than a month here. That’s too short a time for him to blow up the team. He still hasn’t even seen them perform over time with Bruce yet to know what they need. 
This is a smart move by Aquaman, getting both Jim and Bruce. Respect. 

[AlwaysACanuckFan]

27 minutes ago, Hairy Kneel said:

Can I call him

Old balls

Aged like a fine Scotch 

[Jester13]

6 minutes ago, 48MPHSlapShot said:

At the end of the day, my opinion on the Rutherford signing is very much so going to be tied to how I feel about his pick for GM. As of this moment, I'm fine with him as president. 

 

That said, if we do something stupid like hire Botterill or Bergevin as GM I imagine my opinion will change in pretty short order.

You've summed up how I feel. Cheers.

[JM_]

2 minutes ago, AlwaysACanuckFan said:

Aged like a fine Scotch 

unless you sit on them by accident

[grandmaster]

1 hour ago, The Arrogant Worms said:

'This is now Rutherford's team': New Canucks prez has full control

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/now-rutherfords-team-new-canucks-prez-full-control/

 

 

 

 

VANCOUVER -- There are two vitally important things to know about Jim Rutherford: he manages up but demands autonomy, and he wants to win now.

Just four days after firing general manager Jim Benning, Vancouver Canucks owner and chairman Francesco Aquilini announced Thursday that the 72-year-old Rutherford is the National Hockey League team’s new president of hockey operations.

 

Rutherford also has the title of interim general manager -- ending the Stan Smyl GM era in Vancouver at a perfect 2-0 -- and he will oversee the search for a more permanent replacement for Benning to work under the new president.

 

He was hired after meeting Aquilini at Rutherford’s home in Raleigh, N.C., and agreed to a three-year contract to build upon the Canucks’ excellent young core pieces and steer the franchise back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

 

Rutherford already has a new coach in 66-year-old Bruce Boudreau, who replaced Travis Green on Monday and has, at least for now, re-energized a team that won only eight of its first 25 games, sparking Aquilini’s intervention and the most eventful week of operational changes for the Canucks this century.

 

The addition of Rutherford, one of the most successful and respected NHL managers of his era, a three-time Stanley Cup winner who is already in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder, further fuels momentum for an organization that has gone from zero-to-100 in a hurry.

 

Game 3 of this brave new world for the Canucks is Friday night against the Winnipeg Jets, but in these formative days it looks like the positive, experienced, gregarious Boudreau is exactly the coach the Canucks needed after their shockingly bad first quarter.

 

t will take far more than a few days to know if Rutherford is also the right choice, but he is an eye-catching one.

He resigned as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ general manager in January, four years after orchestrating consecutive Stanley Cup victories, for what was characterized then as “personal reasons.” But those reasons partly had to do with autonomy and what Rutherford felt was the growing encroachment by those above him into hockey operations.

He needed autonomy more than he needed the money, so Rutherford abruptly walked away.

 

Whatever the Aquilini family is paying him now, Rutherford wouldn’t be coming to Canucks without the owners’ promise of autonomy and full authority on hockey matters.

 

It doesn’t mean hat Rutherford won’t be in frequent contact with Francesco Aquilini -- part of what gave Rutherford an advantage in Pittsburgh over his predecessor, Ray Shero, was his ability to manage up -- but the new president won’t need permission to make a trade.

 

And Rutherford is likely to make more than one.

 

One aspect of the new president that became clear Thursday when Sportsnet canvassed senior executives from other NHL organizations is that Rutherford is aggressive by managerial nature and fiercely driven to win.

 

This would be the case even if he were not 72 years old and working on a three-year contract.

 

He wants to win.

 

That aggressiveness paid off in Pittsburgh, where his bold moves included surrendering the equivalent of two first-round picks in 2015 to acquire Phil Kessel from the Toronto Maple Leafs at a time when both the player’s salary and reputation were semi-toxic. Two straight Stanley Cups followed.

 

But Rutherford also traded Patric Hornqvist for Mike Matheson and signed Jack Johnson to a five-year contract that was bought out after two seasons. And in the Penguins’ last seven entry drafts, the GM left his scouting department with just one first-round selection. In last summer’s draft, after Rutherford left, the Penguins had one pick among the first 153 players.

 

Rutherford regularly sacrificed picks to add players to push for championships while the Penguins still had Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang in or near their prime years.

 

The fundamental difference in Vancouver is that the players regarded as foundational are mostly in their early 20s. Elias Pettersson is 23, Quinn Hughes is 22. Bo Horvat and Thatcher Demko are 26. This core is not aging out for a while, but that doesn’t mean Rutherford won’t still be aggressive.

 

A rebuild, or even a re-set that requires a couple of steps back to fix the Canucks’ problems on defence, probably aren’t appealing options for Rutherford.

“I’ll be shocked if Jim’s not aggressive,” one NHL source said.

 

It shouldn’t be understated how important it is for the Canucks to re-establish a president of hockey operations, a role that has been vacant since Trevor Linden was pushed out of that position in 2018.

 

There needs to be a buffer between ownership and the general manager, whose job is difficult and complicated enough without needing to keep the chairman apprised daily of hockey operations.

 

The president should do that. Given his experience and contacts, Rutherford will know exactly what he is getting into in Vancouver. The Canucks belong to the Aquilinis, but this is now Rutherford’s team.

 

Buckle up.

He is a winner and a very experienced NHL Hall of Famer. Canuck intelligence has skyrocketed in the management field. Very happy with this signing.

[khay]

4 hours ago, combover said:

Iain MacIntyre

 

@imacSportsnet

Jim Rutherford will have to manage up. But vitally important that Canucks hockey-ops gets autonomy. Rutherford wouldn’t come without that assurance.
 

looks like autonomy 

from FA is part of the deal to come here . 

OK at least that's a good news. 

 

Someone experienced that won't cave in to the owner.

 

 

 

[awalk]

2 hours ago, ShawnAntoski said:

It took, the scare, of an aggressive offseason with a.disastrous start, for Aquaman to see his mistakes: in how he builds a leadership group. Hopefully, he finds a good balance and doesn't become a McCaw 2.0.

Cheers to that.

[erkayloomeh]

26 minutes ago, JM_ said:

he wouldn't do it if he didn't see potential here, thats what I'm happy about today.

That's a good point. I never thought about that.

And here I've been all along thinking I'm smarter than you. 

[MaxVerstappen33]

17 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

I don't believe he'd be the GM, so he wouldn't be making any trades.

That's not what I've heard from some ppl. JR will hire a pencil pusher GM but he will be making the trades 

[AlwaysACanuckFan]

5 minutes ago, JM_ said:

unless you sit on them by accident

Then you walk around with a severe case of "frog eyes"

[erkayloomeh]

22 minutes ago, JM_ said:

I've been banned twice.

Funny thing is being banned is supposed to be punishment. But we take pride in it. 

[MaxVerstappen33]

7 minutes ago, grandmaster said:

He is a winner and a very experienced NHL Hall of Famer. Canuck intelligence has skyrocketed in the management field. Very happy with this signing.

He's insanely agressive and will risk burning it all to the ground to win now 

[erkayloomeh]

22 minutes ago, canuck73_3 said:

I go to HF like once a year, roll my eyes and leave. That cesspool makes Calgarypuck Edmonton/Vancouver threads seem level headed and neutral.

That's how canuckscentral used to talk about cdc.