Just days after dismissing head coach Bruce Boudreau and replacing him with Rick Tocchet, reports have surfaced of Vancouver Canucks President Jim Rutherford wants out.
Vancouver talk show host, Rick Dhaliwal, said in an interview on Monday that at least one source mentioned that Rutherford could be near the end of his time with the Canucks. Dhaliwal then posed a question if Dale Tallon could end up in the President's chair. Tallon currently serves as a senior advisor and professional scout for the Canucks.
Rutherford has served as the Canucks' President since December of 2021, and in that time the team has a 50-41-14 record. Assuming they miss this season too, that will make the Canucks 0-for-2 on making the playoffs under Rutherford.
73 years old, Rutherford's career is nearing its end regardless of how this situation shakes out, but the state of the Vancouver Canucks cannot be ignored. GM Patrik Allvin and Rutherford have done objectively poor jobs constructing this team and running the whole organization.
Ownership presents its own problems, no doubt, but for all of his faults, Francesco Aquilini is not responsible for negotiating contracts, facilitating trades, signing free agents, and so on. Those responsibilities fall on the President/GM, and in that regard the Canucks have been mediocre at best.
According to
CapFriendly, Vancouver has the NHL's 7th largest payroll. They currently sit 26th in the NHL standings and have $0 in salary cap space heading into the Trade Deadline where they are expected to be heavy sellers.
Problem is, their situation severely limits the leverage with which they can negotiate trades, so the expectation is that they will lose more than one trade.
If Rutherford doesn't walk away on his own accord, it's only a matter of time before he is dismissed in the same fashion as Bruce Boudreau. e
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