The Canuck Way
Fansided

Key quotes from Rutherford and Allvin’s year-end media availability

By Joshua Rey

Dec 12, 2021; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks new President of hockey operations and interim general manager Jim Rutherford watches the game against the Carolina Hurricanes with Stan Smyl in the third period at Rogers Arena. Vancouver won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 12, 2021; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks new President of hockey operations and interim general manager Jim Rutherford watches the game against the Carolina Hurricanes with Stan Smyl in the third period at Rogers Arena. Vancouver won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 06: Interim general manager Patrik Allvin of the Pittsburgh Penguins watches the game against the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum on February 06, 2021 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 06: Interim general manager Patrik Allvin of the Pittsburgh Penguins watches the game against the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum on February 06, 2021 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

On the offseason and structure

Rutherford spoke about the team’s structure.

“We’d like to see our team play a more structured game, and not depend on our goalie as much,” he said. “But we certainly feel that there’s enough good players here to continue to build here in the next year or two towards getting to be in a consistent playoff team and a contender.”

“I think it’s the structure of the team of how we’re going to play to give players a chance when they get in trouble, like, our exits from our defensive zone are not good, probably one of the worst in the league,” Rutherford said later.

Allvin talked about building culture with the Canucks. He believes there has been a change in the culture on the team but there needs to be more.

“Well, I obviously think there is, as Jim pointed out, again, that is there is more work to be done here,” said Allvin. “We did see some improvement here over the last month. But I think it’s a commitment and I think, quite honestly, if you want to be a good team, there’s sacrifice. I think some of our younger players need to understand our hard this league is. We’re done here now, we’re not even playing in the playoffs. So I think we need to get better in all areas here.”

This means that we could see a lot of players leave in the offseason and plenty of new faces in October. It looks like the bar is being raised again. No more just making the playoffs, it has to be about winning the Stanley Cup.

One of Allvin’s main goals this offseason is to create cap space but he wants to do more than just that.

“I don’t think you just want great cap space, we want to get better too,” he said. “We always looking, as Jim mentioned here to improve our team. I think that’s part of working with your cap space in the current cap situation.”

The contracts of Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller

Bo Horvat and J.T. Miller need contracts in a year but Allvin was asked about extensions for both of them.

“Those two are good players and Bo is the captain of the team,” said Allvin. “So definitely I will, you know, when the time comes, I will definitely reach out to their agents. I had exit meetings with, JT and we’ll have Bo next week. So we want to talk about it for sure.”

“It’s nice when individual players have record season and all that, but they end up today, we don’t want to sit here next year, we want to get better,” he added. ” I think that the biggest thing is that you can ask all the players to have their jerseys up in the rafters if they would take it down and change for a Stanley Cup banner, I think that’s what matters.”

Allvin also said that talks with Brock Boeser’s agent have been positive so far and they would like to get a deal done as soon as possible.

Home/Editorials