Less than one day after the 2025-2026 NHL season came to a close, the Vancouver Canucks have fired general manager Patrik Allvin.
Jim Rutherford, President, Hockey Operations, announced today that Patrik Allvin has been relieved of his duties as General Manager.
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) April 17, 2026
Finishing dead last in the entire league by 14 points will do that to an incumbent general manager, but if the Canucks knew this was coming, why not act sooner?
Given the current state of the franchise and the direction in which it hopes to go in, the person who will be making the hockey decisions going forward will need ample time to get prepared for the upcoming NHL Entry Draft and free agency.
The draft is just over two months away, but given that this will be one of the most important entry drafts in the history of the Canucks franchise, there is absolutely no time to waste, and Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford has a new general manager search in front of him now.
The Allvin era
2021-2022
Patrik Allvin became the General Manager of the Vancouver Canucks on January 26th, 2022, succeeding Jim Benning.
What Allvin inherited was a Canucks team that had won just 18 of 42 games that season, and if not for a seven game win streak in December after the hiring of Bruce Boudreau, could have been much worse. Despite the slow start, the Canucks ended up winning 40 games during the 2021-2022 season.
2022-2023
Despite what seemed like a good in-season turnaround the year before, the 2022-2023 season was much more rocky. Another slow start to the season, including the second coaching change in a year, this time to Rick Tocchet, paired with a group save percentage of .888%, yielded just 38 wins.
Prior to the trade deadline Bo Horvat was famously traded to the New York Islanders as the Canucks could not meet his salary demands, and in the end Horvat ended up signing an 8-year extension with a cap hit of $8.5 million.
Despite the tumultuous season, there were some great individual performances, especially from Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Quinn Hughes, a sign of what was to come.
2023-2024
The 2023-2024 season was Allvin’s Mona Lisa. 50 wins, 109 points, first place in the pacific division and the first playoff berth for the Canucks since the 2019-2020 season.
The Canucks made it to the second round of the playoffs and lost in seven games to the Edmonton Oilers, who made it to the Stanley Cup Final themselves, and many players had career best seasons with strong contributions from many forwards, defenceman, and goaltenders.
Quinn Hughes won the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenceman, J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson had 103 and 89 points respectively, Brock Boeser scored 40 goals and had a career high 73 points, and Thatcher Demko finished second for the Vezina Trophy behind Connor Hellebuyck.
Something important to note is that Thatcher Demko suffered his popliteus injury in game one of the playoffs, and has not been the same since, and neither have the Canucks.
2024-2025
The 2024-2025 season was much more trying under Allvin’s watch. The Canucks reverted back to 38 wins, while also having just one player score more than 50 points, Quinn Hughes with 76.
The famous incident of the season was a repeated feud between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson, causing unease in the locker room, and when it became clear that one of them had to go, J.T. Miller was traded to the New York Rangers for what has been a lacklustre return.
2025-2026
Finally, given the clear dysfunction of the Canucks, former head coach Rick Tocchet decided to make a move to the Philadelphia Flyers in the offseason, and assistant coach Adam Foote became the new head coach of the team.
What ensued was a meltdown for the ages. 58 total points, the only time the Canucks have had less points in a season was during the 1994-1995 season. A leading scorer, Elias Pettersson, with 51 points, and the only player with more than 50 on the team.
A trade that saw the Canucks former captain Quinn Hughes traded to the Minnesota Wild in a mid-season blockbuster. And finally a team searching for a new general manager, and a top three pick in store at the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.
Transactions
During his tenure as Canucks general manager, Allvin made 41 trades, 101 signings, and 24 draft selections, per Cap Wages.
Best trade:
3rd-round pick & 5th-round pick FOR Nikita Zadorov
OR
Tyler Myers FOR a 2nd-round pick & 4th-round pick
Worst trade:
J.T. Miller, Erik Brannstrom, Jackson Dorrington FOR 1st round pick (Marcus Pettersson & Drew O’Connor), Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini
Best signing:
Filip Hronek $58,000,000 x 8 years
OR
Kiefer Sherwood $3,000,000 x 2 years
Worst signing:
Elias Pettersson $92,800,000 x 8 years.
Best draft pick:
Early to say, but could be Braeden Cootes or Jonathan Lekkerimäki when it is all said and done.
Worst draft pick:
Again early to say, will revisit this once the players Allvin has drafted have a fair opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.
The Canucks future
As it stands now, the Canucks are guaranteed a top three pick in the upcoming NHL Entry draft, and who they end up with will likely shape a big part of their future.
The hope for Canucks fans is that the team can land the first-overall pick and select Yukon native Gavin McKenna, who absolutely took of in the second half of his first season at Penn State.
As of now the Canucks cupboard of draft picks is well stocked. In the upcoming draft they have:
Two first-round picks
Two second-round picks
One third-round pick
One fourth-round pick
One fifth-round pick
Three sixth-round picks
Totalling 10 picks.
The Canucks also have some legitimate prospects as of now. Zeev Buium, while still young and learning, showed what he can be capable of in terms of driving offence with an even strength Corsi For of 50.2% in a Canucks uniform, impressive given the Canucks roster.
Marco Rossi was able to finish his season strong, scoring 20 points in his final 22 games, and another young player that has shown promise is defenceman Tom Willander, who was able to get a full season of NHL experience under his belt.
Two prospects who have had limited time at the NHL level, Braeden Cootes and Jonathan Lekkerimäki, will hopefully also be lineup contributors in the future, and a goaltending prospect named Alexei Medvedev is another one to watch for going forward.
In the end
Ultimately, if the Canucks are able to effectively add to their young group of players, in addition to their top three pick in the upcoming draft, they could just be a goalie situation and some patience away from getting things back on track. But it starts at the top, and now the Canucks top decision maker will have a chance to instil a new face and new direction.
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