Canucks’ Rutherford: ‘There’s no urgency here’ to make trades
It’s been a busy few weeks for Jim Rutherford. When most Hall of Famers are at a point in their lives and their careers where they are contemplating their golf game, travel or maybe taking up pottery (why not?) the 72-year-old Rutherford took on the daunting task of rebuilding the moribund Vancouver Canucks franchise and along the way put the hockey world on it ear with a series of groundbreaking hires in critical hockey operations positions.
Rutherford, the architect of a Stanley Cup champion in Carolina in 2006 and then the man at the controls for Pittsburgh’s back-to-back Cup runs in 2016 and 2017, hired former player agent Emilie Castonguay as an assistant GM and shortly after named Patrik Allvin as his GM making Allvin just the second European GM in the NHL. Then Rutherford stole another Hall of Famer, Cammi Granato, away from the Seattle Kraken where she was scouting and installed her as assistant GM to work with Castonguay.
“And don’t lose sight of Rachel Doerrie the other person that we put into analytics and she’s very impressive also,” Rutherford noted during a recent conversation with Daily Faceoff.
Of course. We would never overlook our former Daily Faceoff colleague who is now part of the Canucks’ growing hockey analytics department.
While other NHL teams have promoted women to key roles within their hockey operations departments in recent months the Canucks have taken breaking barriers to new levels almost overnight.
“Making some changes and we’ve got some work to do but I’m pretty pleased with the group we’ve put together,” Rutherford said.
And as if those key staffing decisions weren’t enough, after a disastrous start that saw Canucks ownership led by Francesco Aquilini, clean house firing GM Jim Benning and head coach Travis Green mid-season, the Canucks have shouldered their way back into the playoff discussion in the wide open Western Conference under new head coach Bruce Boudreau.
On Tuesday morning, the Canucks were five points out of a wild card spot – with a considerable distance to climb based on points percentage.
As busy as it’s been for Rutherford, it’s about to get a lot busier as we head into the final month before the 2022 trade deadline on March 21. Here is a sampling of our conversation with Rutherford.
Scott Burnside: When you make the decision that you’re going to go to Vancouver and take over the hockey operations department how quickly does this idea of what you want your staff to look like come together? How do the blocks fall together for you?
Jim Rutherford: Well it’s like always, you assemble information over the years. You tuck it away somewhere. And for different situations. When you make a coaching change people say how did you come up with your list? Well, that’s a list I do on a regular basis. And keep it stored in my head. It’s the same as this situation. I would say for the last 10 years I’ve thought about exactly what I ended up doing in Vancouver. But the Vancouver situation, with more open positions, gave me a chance to do what I thought about for some time.
SB: You’re looking at building the best hockey department you can but is there a part of it that is also, ‘I want to do something that will change the landscape on a bigger frame?’ Is that part of it? Or is it strictly really only about the Vancouver Canucks? Because I think it’s fair to say it is important what you’ve done here.
JR: It’s more about what we’re doing. Not what other people are going to do. There’s different ways of doing things. And there’s different ways of being successful. It’s like there’s different ways of winning the Stanley Cup. You can win it with a heavy team or you can win it with a fast, skilled team. There’s different ways of doing things and this is more about us. I mean now that you ask the question I suspect that it will change things a little bit but that was not the reason to do it.
SB: Did have relationship with Emilie or Cammi beforehand?
JR: No. I talked to Emilie a few times on the phone related to players she represented. But I hadn’t met her in person. Hadn’t met Cammi in person. Obviously well aware of Cammi though.
SB: Have you had staff meetings where people are looking around the room going ‘hey this is different than other teams’ meetings would look.’ Have you had that moment yet?
JR: Yeah we’ve had a full meeting. I don’t think anybody thinks twice about who our group is. I don’t think they look around the room and say ‘something’s different here.’ I think it’s just we have a really good group of people. Good people. Good hockey people. We don’t view anything as being any different.
SB: So, now you have this group together. You’re in the middle of getting used to each other and the trade deadline is in a month. What’s the challenge for you in this short term between now and March 21? How do you sort through all the things that you need to make sure you’re tracking the way you want this franchise to track?
JR: No different challenge than anybody else. It’s the reason we have people that come through the hockey system in different ways. We want different voices. Everybody’s voices will be heard. Patrik’s the general manager, he’ll have to make those decisions. But having the different voices and the people we have is going to be beneficial to us. And so certainly a decision has to be made as to where we presently are as a team and where we want to get to but we don’t have to start over. We know that. We have a number of good players here so we’ll see where it goes.
SB: We in the media get all caught up on labels; buyers and sellers and the west is so fluid do you think in those terms ‘buyer or seller’ or do you have to wait for maybe three or four weeks to come to that decision with Patrik and the rest of your hockey ops staff?
JR: Well, we’re in a position that we don’t have to feel any pressure this year because we don’t have top players where they’re going to be UFAs. So there’s no urgency here to make those kinds of decisions. Our decisions will be made step by step as to what we think is best for the franchise now and in the future.
SB: That’s a good way to have it if you’re starting out in building this organization to not to have to deal with those kinds of personnel issues right away?
JR: It is. Yeah. Yeah. It wouldn’t be as comfortable if we were sitting here with a couple of our top players going to be UFAs that would put a lot of pressure on the staff and we’re not in that position, so that’s good.
SB: Has there been a moment since you took over that you’ve been ‘I’m so glad I’m here. I’m so glad I made this decision?’ Because you didn’t have to take this job.
JR: No. No. It’s been a while. I didn’t have to take the Pittsburgh job either. And I’m glad I did. But I think right from the stat when Francesco came to my house and just gave me the whole history of the Canucks and where he felt it was now and where he wants to take it and right from the start to where I am today I couldn’t have been treated better by the Aquilini family and Michael Doyle (president of Canucks Sports and Entertainment) and everybody here. So I’m really glad I’ve taken on this challenge and it’s not going to be easy. These jobs aren’t easy. I don’t view it that way. But it’s a wonderful city. It’s a really good franchise and the passion for the Canucks throughout the province of British Columbia is really special. So it’s nice. It’s a good place to be.