Canucks hire Derek Clancey as assistant general manager

The Vancouver Canucks have hired their new assistant general manager and his name is Derek Clancey.

The Canucks announced the hiring on Wednesday afternoon.

Clancey’s hiring was first reported on Wednesday morning by Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff.

“We are building a front office with people with a variety of backgrounds,” said Canucks President of Hockey Operations, and interim general manager Jim Rutherford in the announcement. “Derek has excellent experience and has played an important role on three Stanley Cup-winning teams. He will be a key member of our leadership team as we create a progressive, collaborative hockey operations group that can support our team and players at all levels.”

Clancey has years of experience in an NHL front office. From 2007-2015, he was part of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization and won three Stanley Cups with them. He joined them as a pro scout and in 2010 was named Director of Pro Scouting. In 2019, Clancey was named the Penguins’ director of player personnel and resigned from the club in early 2021 after Rutherford did the same. He has spent this season working as a scout with the Calgary Flames

Now Clancey and Rutherford are working together again, this time with the Canucks.

Seravalli also reported that Rutherford is looking to hire three assistant GMs and each one will have different voices, roles, and backgrounds. They will work under the new GM who is to be determined and all four of them will be mentored by Rutherford.

The Canucks also stated in the announcement that the 52-year-old will be working closely with Rutherford and oversee the pro and amateur scouting staffs.

St. John’s, Newfoundland native also played eight seasons in the ECHL as a centre and has also coached in the minor leagues. Clancey coached in the ECHL coaching the Jackson Bandits from 1999-2003, the Reading Royals from 2003-2005, and the Dayton Bombers from 2006-2007. He was also the assistant coach for the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs (who are the Los Angeles Kings’ AHL affiliate) from 2005-2006.

Clancey was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame in 2020.

We shall see who joins Clancey as the assistant GMs and who is the next GM of the Canucks in the next few days, weeks, or even months Rutherford said in his introductory press conference that he has compiled a list of 40 GM candidates.

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