The Canucks will announce a contract extension for president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford today, TSN’s Farhan Lalji reports. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman believes the deal will carry a three-year term, keeping him in his seat with Vancouver through 2027.
If true, it will be the second straight three-year deal for Rutherford after he was brought on as POHO and interim general manager in December 2021. Rutherford held the GM position for nearly two months before settling on Patrik Allvin for the role in late January 2022.
Rutherford, who will be 75 next month, will spend 32 consecutive seasons in an NHL front office if he serves out the extension. The Canucks are his third organization, having previously served as president and GM of the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes from 1994 to 2014 and GM of the Penguins from 2014 to 2021.
His front office regime has seemingly ended a decade-long rebuild process for the Canucks. He’s kept together his inherited core of Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, Quinn Hughes, and Thatcher Demko, and will guide the Canucks to their first full-season playoff appearance in nine years this April.
What’s pushed this team back into contention, however, are recent acquisitions made by the Allvin/Rutherford crew. Filip Hronek has continued his ascent into a true top-pairing defender, making his duo with Hughes one of the most dominant in the league. Players like Teddy Blueger and Dakota Joshua have proved to be valuable depth players on cheap UFA deals, giving the Canucks some needed bottom-six scoring punch.
The Canucks’ 98-63-21 record ranks 14th in the league since Rutherford took over. While most of his work has come to fruition this season, it’s been a slow build for Vancouver since choosing to replace Bruce Boudreau with Rick Tocchet behind the bench midway through last season. In 81 games under Tocchet, the Canucks have a sparkling 50-23-8 record.
With the extension, Canucks ownership is entrusting Rutherford’s regime to handle one of the most important contract negotiations in history with Pettersson, who is a pending RFA and will need a long-term deal past this season. He and Allvin will also need a new contract for Hronek, who, like Pettersson, is slated for restricted free agency this summer. They’ve done a good job at getting out of what was an extremely undesirable salary cap situation a few seasons ago, but they’ll need to work even harder to manage the financials over the next few seasons with some big-ticket deals coming down the pike.
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