Key takeaways from Patrik Allvin’s first press conference as Canucks GM

Rutherford on the hiring process and what is next for the organization.

The GM hiring process almost took two months for Rutherford. It came down to five candidates including Allvin.

“Well, I said here, I’ve known Patrick for a long time, and I know how he works,” said Rutherford. “I knew that he was a legitimate candidate but I wanted to go through the process. I narrowed it down to five, but I talked to a lot of people, a lot of phone conversations with different people that were also good candidates. But then when we narrowed it down to five, we had the meetings in person and all the interviews were very good but Patrick did stand out.”

Rutherford also spoke about what his role is for the future and what is next for the organization, particularly off the ice.

"“Well, I’m here to support the people that are working in the hockey operations,” said Rutherford. “Everybody has to do their own job regardless, what their titles are, where they sit in the organization, I’ve always let people do their own job. Patrick is going to be able to work the day to day stuff, as a general manager, when he needs some help or something or has questions, I’m going to be right there, to try to work with him just as I’ll be with the person that heads up pro scouting, your amateur scouting or whatnot. That’s what I’m here for. We have some things that we would like to do in the organization such as, possibly have a new practice facility at some point in time. What we’re doing with development camp, what we’re doing with a rookie tournament, what we’re potentially doing maybe with upgrading the Abbotsford facilities, the facilities here and Rogers Arena, there’s there’s a lot of things to be done.”"

The Canucks originally planned to have a practice facility near Rogers Arena but the plans fell through two years ago according to Patrick Johnston of The Province and Vancouver Sun.

It will be interesting to see what Rutherford does with the facilities in Abbotsford and at Rogers Arena. Could this mean changing the Rogers Arena seat colours to blue and giving them cup holders? We shall see.

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