Canucks ICYMI: Ryan Johnson named General Manager for AHL affiliate

The Vancouver Canucks are making progress with their AHL affiliate.

The team released an official statement on Friday, announcing that Ryan Johnson has become the first General Manager of their Abbotsford team, starting in the 2021-22 season.

Johnson, who previously played for the Canucks from 2008 to 2010, has been involved as a team executive since shortly after his retirement. He first joined the organization in 2013, serving as their Player Development Consultant. He held this role for three years before being promoted to Director of Player Development in 2016.

In 2017, he was named the General Manager of the Utica Comets, which made him the natural frontrunner for the same position in Abbotsford this time around. He also took on the position of Senior Director of Player Development in 2018, a role which he still holds today. During his time as General Manager in Utica between 2017 and now, the club finished with a record of 122-93-17, including a 16-11 record during the shortened 2020-21 campaign.

The team only qualified once for the playoffs in 2018, and were unable to make it past the first round.

Johnson, who played 701 games over his 13-season career, including 120 games with the Canucks, will also work alongside current Assistant General Manager Chris Gear, representing Abbotsford on the AHL Board of Governors.

“I’m looking forward to continuing our work of developing our organization’s prospects and fielding a competitive team at the AHL level,” said Johnson. “It’s an exciting step for our fans, players, and organization to have our affiliate closer to home, and I’m personally grateful for the opportunity to work in a great hockey market like Abbotsford.”

It is also expected that Johnson will be working with former teammates Henrik and Daniel Sedin, who will officially be starting their roles as Special Advisors to the General Manager on July 1st. The Sedins will be involved in player development and evaluation, which will include participating in scouting meetings and NHL Entry Draft preparations, both of which Johnson is already involved with.

As expected, Johnson will also continue to deal with a number of promising young prospects in Abbotsford, some of whom have already been able to experience small amounts of NHL action. This includes players like Kole Lind, Jonah Gadjovich and Will Lockwood. Although it is likely that they players will end up back in the AHL to start the 2021-22 season, there’s no doubt that they’ll still be trying to crack the opening night roster coming out of training camp next season.

Fortunately for Johnson, it will be much easier for him to work alongside the Canucks’ organization on a day-to-day basis, given the much-closer proximity between clubs compared to his time in Utica. This will also give Johnson more development opportunity for his players, as his team will only be an hour away from Rogers Arena moving forward.

Outside of naming their General Manager and confirming the home arena (although we all knew it was going to be the Abbotsford Centre anyways), the Canucks still have quite a bit of work to do for their AHL affiliate leading up to the 2021-22 season. The team is currently without a new name and logo, and would ideally need to sort this out before July 19th, when season ticket holders can officially select their seats for next year.

The 2021-22 AHL season is set to begin on October 15th, 2021, and will conclude on April 24th, 2022. The Abbotsford team will be playing out of the Pacific Division, which is home to eight other clubs, and are expected to play 68 regular season games.

What are your thoughts on Ryan Johnson as Abbotsford’s new General Manager? Let us know in the comments!