Canucks GM Jim Rutherford isn’t afraid to say what he believes
Vancouver Canucks President of Hockey Operations, Jim Rutherford, has never been worried to speak his mind through his tenure as an NHL executive.
On Monday, as the Canucks hosted their year-end media availability with Rutherford and General Manager Patrik Allvin, Rutherford returned to those ways, throwing doubt into the future of defenseman Quinn Hughes with the Canucks, given his desire to play with his brothers.
“It may not boil down to money with him,” Rutherford said. “He’s said before he wants to play with his brothers, and that would be partly out of our control, in our control, if we brought his brothers here. So there’s many moving parts here.”
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli broke down what Hughes’ situation means for the Canucks, and whether Rutherford’s comments could amount to tampering.
Tyler Yaremchuk: “Frank, the camera pan to Patrick Alvin is some of the best unintentional humor I’ve ever seen.”
Frank Seravalli: “Yeah, it was almost like he was kind of like, ‘Get me out of this shot.’ Oh, and the nervous laugh. And for good reason, because we’ve seen people fined for tampering for saying way less than that… That’s classic Jim Rutherford in as clean and clear away as you can get it.
“I told this joke on Morning Cuppa Hockey, a quick little story. That’s who he is. Like the first time I ever met Jim Rutherford 12-13 years ago, I’m standing outside of a locker room. He comes up to me and he goes, ‘Hey, are you Frank?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ He goes ‘(BLEEP). You look so much better in your online photo.’ And I’m like, Oh my God. Like, what was that like? Hello. Hi. How are you? Nice to meet you.
“He just says what he’s thinking. And I think that press conference was very clear to set the table for the Vancouver Canucks and their market and their fan base to say, Hey, we’re entering a really turbulent period of time, whether it comes to what happens with Elias Pettersson and Rick Tocchet and his future; Quinn Hughes, their quest for a No. 1 center, all these different things that the Vancouver Canucks are looking at. They may get some of them done. They may get none of them done. It may turn out really poorly. And it felt like that press conference on Monday was a warning shot to everyone. This might be ugly for a bit. And if they can pull a few rabbits out of their hat, if they can accomplish some of those things this summer and turn it in a positive direction, they’re going to look like geniuses.”
You can catch the full segment and episode here…