Rutherford talks Boeser extension, Canucks goaltending situation, centre depth, and more

Usually on July 2, upper management around the NHL is heavily engaged in boardrooms evaluating the remaining available free agents. But with just over $500,000 in cap space after re-signing Brock Boeser, there isn’t much wiggle room to go out there to continue to add through free agency.

Of course, Vancouver Canucks upper management continue to evaluate the trade market to bolster their centre depth. But Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford found some time to join TSN 590 Radio and discuss some of the decisions he and the organization has made and have to make moving forward.

Rutherford started his interview talking about how the contract came together at the very last minute to extend Brock Boeser:

“Well, there was a chance that he was moving on. It actually went past our deadline. But we knew that we wanted to keep Brock. He’s a good person, a good team guy, and he’s a goal scorer, and you can never score enough goals. But as time was going along, we went through the trade deadline, and we decided not to trade them. Then as the summer wore on, we kept the door open; they kept the door open, but I would say not by a whole lot, because the closer you get to the free agency, that door starts to almost close tight.

“We always felt that deep down, Brock wanted to stay with the Canucks. When you’re putting the team together, when you’re in a cap system, it’s like a big puzzle, and you’re moving pieces around all the time and trying to move pieces so you can get a big enough piece to hit the sweet spot for a player. Brock knew we were willing to go to seven years for a number of months, but that sweet spot of what he was going to be paid wasn’t quite there. And so finally we got to that, and we got it done.”

The Canucks wasted no time getting a deal done with Thatcher Demko when he was available for an extension. This now settles the crease in Vancouver for the next four seasons, with Demko’s three-year extension kicking in next season and Kevin Lankinen here for the next five years.

But what does that mean for Arturs Silovs, who’s coming off a Calder Cup win and an MVP? The organization has plenty of depth in net with Nikita Tolopilo and Ty Young both showing out well in the American League last season. Not to mention Aleksei Medvedev, who they drafted 47th overall in the 2025 NHL Draft.

Here is what Rutherford had to say regarding his goaltending situation:

“When you start talking about potentially what that number is going to be in a year, we all have to remember the caps going up, and we all have to remember the importance of goaltending. So, we feel very good about our goaltending, not only about the names that you mentioned, but we have some very, very good young goalies coming. Right now in our development camp, we’ve got [Ty] Young, we’ve got [Aleksei] Medvedev, those two guys are going to be very good NHL goalies someday.

“We’ve got things lined up here. Our plan going forward, right now, is to go with [Thatcher] Demko and [Kevin] Lankinen. You know, as well as [Arturs] Silovs played, he could be the odd guy out. He’s not waiver exempt anymore. So we’re going to have to deal with that here in the offseason, but we feel very fortunate where we are with goaltenders.”

The Demko extension carries risk for the organization. Can Demko stay healthy enough to play a full season and perform as he did when he finished as the runner-up for the Vezina Trophy? Rutherford spoke on how comfortable the organization is with where Demko’s health is currently, including something new that the goaltender has been working with as he trains this summer:

“You’re never 100% comfortable, especially when you’re dealing with goalies. The way goalies play, there’s always potential to get hurt. Thatcher dealt with an injury last year. It was a really unique one, which was one that was hard to heal; maybe pushed it a little too quick and re-injured it a little bit. But as far as that injury, it’s my understanding that that’s totally behind him, based on what the doctors are saying, and he’s very, very healthy.

“Now, with that being said, we know there’s a risk going forward. But he is an exceptional goalie, and on top of that, he is an exceptional leader on our team. It’s amazing his leadership skills and what he wants to do to help the Canucks win. So obviously, he’s like anybody else. We’ve got money committed [to him], but if he gets a serious injury, then he has to go on LTIR, but we still have the cap space to use. We don’t want to look at it that way. We want to look at it as a guy that’s certainly in the top three or four goalies in the league, and he’s going to be healthy going forward.

“He does have a new trainer from Kelowna that he started to work with about three-quarters of the way through his rehab. Last year, he came across this man, and he has really made a big difference in how Thatcher trains. We believe that is a difference maker for him going forward.”

One of the biggest decisions this organization had to make following the season was who they would bring in to replace their Jack Adams Award-winning coach, Rick Tocchet. Well, the Canucks didn’t look too far, as they promoted from within, announcing Adam Foote, Tocchet’s assistant, to be their next bench boss. Rutherford raved about him, indicating some of his strengths as a coach and a very successful NHL coach that he compares Foote to:

“Well, Adam Foote jumped right in. He was in the middle of some of this. These issues were very difficult to deal with, and we just felt he knew what had happened, and we felt he could fix it quicker. He wouldn’t have to take time going into the season.

“So he’s jumped right in. His communication with his coaching staff has been terrific, and he also has good communication with our core group. He even had an in-person meeting with three of them about a month ago. So he’s doing all the things that you need to do to prepare these guys for training camp, but not have to deal with it after they get here. I feel very fortunate that the transition we had to make with Rick Tocchet leaving, the whole staff that we’ve hired, I feel really good about it. So it could have gotten worse, but we were fortunate that we had some guys that wanted to come to Vancouver, [who] wanted to work with Adam Foote.

“In short, the way I would sum up Adam Foote with the fact that he hasn’t been a head coach behind an NHL bench, I view him the same as Rod Brind’Amour, who I know very well. Rod Brind’Amour didn’t have that experience either. But when you look at the makeup of those two men and their careers and what made them good NHL players, from the character and the leadership and what they know of the game and their communication, I see Adam Foote taking that same path as Rod Brind’Amour, who’s already been very successful.”

While Rutherford is raving about Foote, there was certainly a decision to be made. Abbotsford Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra went far in the process, but ultimately fell short. Rutherford outlined one of the biggest reasons the club decided to go with Foote over Malhotra:

“The biggest thing, when I look at the two guys – Manny is going to be a head coach in the NHL in the near future – but the biggest thing was that Adam knew all the things that went on with the team last year, which was a difficult year at times. The fact that he knew that and how he was going to approach that and make it better gave him the real advantage in getting this job. Because you bring in somebody new, they don’t totally understand what happened. It may take them 40 games to a whole season to figure out how he wants to approach that, and that wasn’t something that we wanted to wait for. We want the team to be ready on the first day of training camp. Let all the stuff that happened last year get behind us, not talk about it, not compare things and just go forward in a very positive manner.”

The biggest hole on the Canucks roster still remains down the middle, more specifically the 2C position. As currently constructed, the Canucks will ice Filip Chytil as their second-line centre. While you may prefer him as an elite third-line centre, these are the cards the Canucks have dealt themselves. Yet, they are comfortable with this.

Rutherford gave a health update on Chytil and detailed their plan to fix the position moving forward:

“First of all, Chytil is doing very well. He probably could have played the last few games of the season, but we didn’t think it made much sense. But he’s 100% ready to go.

“I said all along that we would probably have to do our business through trades. The free agent market is always difficult. It gets more and more difficult as the cap goes up. So we will make a trade today if we think it’s a center iceman that can help us. But if it takes some time, we’ll also wait for that time. But that is a priority for the Canucks right now: to get more depth at center. We do think that we’re okay to start the season, because Adam Foote is okay with Pettersson and Chytil as one and two centres. Then, we got a good young centre in [Aatu] Räty coming – he’s still healing from an injury. And of course, Teddy Blueger is a good veteran centre. With that being said, if we can figure out how to get a centre, we’re going to do that.”