VANCOUVER — The start of this season for the Vancouver Canucks has felt like most of last season, minus the ninth-grade drama in the dressing room.
The Canucks are again hollowed out by injuries.
As the team limps towards the quarter mark of their National Hockey League schedule with a daunting three-game road trip that starts Friday (Sportsnet, 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT) against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Canucks’ injured list is back up to seven players with goalie Thatcher Demko’s latest breakdown. Under head coach Adam Foote and general manager Patrik Allvin, the team has been just trying to survive.
Foote has rightly praised his players’ resilience. But that’s not the R-word that has inflamed the market.
We thought it would be a good time to sit down with Canucks president Jim Rutherford and ask about rebuilds, injuries and what the heck happened to that help at centre.
Spoiler alert: Rutherford believes he has the authority to conduct a rebuild, but has no plans for one. And that’s whether Quinn Hughes stays or not.
“A rebuild is not something that we’re going to look at doing,” Rutherford told Sportsnet. “Like I said, we’re in transition. But we’re not trading all these players for draft picks that may or may not end up playing someday.”
Starting where the Canucks have started, with injuries, here is the transcript of our interview, edited slightly for brevity and clarity.
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Sportsnet: After all the injuries your team endured last season, we thought the law of averages were with you this year. But you’ve had as many as nine players out already. And now Demko is injured again, out week to week. Do you feel like you can’t catch a break?
Rutherford: With a compressed schedule, yeah, we expected (injuries), but we didn’t expect it to this extent. A lot of teams have injuries. Maybe not as many as we do, but you deal with it.
Sportsnet: The injury crisis accelerated when centres Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger went down the same game in Washington on Oct. 19. How big a blow was it to lose Chytil to another concussion just six games in?
Rutherford: Well, when we made the trade (with the New York Rangers last season), we were well aware of the risk. But he was really the only centre available to get back when we were trading such a good centre in J.T. Miller. We were aware of that (injury) history and we were hoping for the best. But we openly admitted that we needed to strengthen our centre-ice position in the off season, and even to today, Patrik continues trying to do that.
Sportsnet: Yes, you said after last season that the Canucks needed to acquire a second-line centre and it would be “expensive” to make that trade but “very expensive” not to do it. Did you think in April you’d still be waiting for that trade in November?
Rutherford: No, I did not. But it’s not from Patrik’s lack of trying. He’s calling teams all the time. If it ever gets to a conversation about potentially adding somebody, the price is just too high.
Sportsnet: How high? Like Tom Willander and young Elias Pettersson too high?
Rutherford: Yeah, like that. One of the things I’ve been open about is, you know, we’re kind of caught in between here right now. I believe our organization has done a good job in building up the pipeline of younger players. Do we want to give those up now or do we want to keep building? (Until) we traded J.T. . . we were on the right track to continuing to build towards being a contender on a more regular basis. And then when J.T. got traded, we were set back. Regardless of what deal we made, you’re not going to replace him. And so then we became a team in transition again. And we’re still a team in transition. If you look at our lineup now, we’ve got sometimes six, seven first-year players in our lineup, and that’s hard. But the positive side of that is these guys are developing. So there’s somewhat of a silver lining in a disappointing first quarter of the season.
Sportsnet: What do you do to the roster in the short term?
Rutherford: We could make changes, pay heavy prices (in trades) and still not be a playoff team. Or we could stay the course, get back healthy and still have a chance to make the playoffs. But we could also miss the playoffs doing that, right? We’re in a very good draft year, and we’ve got to keep that in mind. Right now, as we speak, I would say we would stay the course with developing our young players and getting our injured players back in the lineup. And continue to look for that centre. We still really don’t know what we’ve got because we haven’t had a full lineup.
Sportsnet: So you’re not considering as trade chips guys like Willander and Pettersson, Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Braeden Cootes?
Rutherford: That is not in the plan. People use different words as to how a team goes forward. Some people use ‘rebuild.’ Some use the word ‘transition.’ You can spin it whatever way you like. ‘Retool.’ But the fact of the matter is, we’re at a point where our amateur scouts and development staff under Patrik have done a good job in building up a good group of young players, and it would take something extreme for us to start cutting into that. Now, I’m not saying we wouldn’t trade one of these players. But if we did, it would be for somebody that’s 25 years or younger. Even our core, older guys are still in their 20s; we’re still a relatively young team. It’s not like we’re an aging team that’s got nowhere to go.
Sportsnet: Quinn Hughes’ future will be a subplot all season. Will his decision next summer, whether to re-sign with the Canucks or ask out to play with his brothers, determine which direction the team-building takes?
Rutherford: No, I don’t think so. I think as long as we stay the course and keep getting younger players that we feel will play (in the NHL) and contribute to a team that can become a consistent playoff team and a contender, then that’s what we would do.
Sportsnet: Quinn told us before the season that he “could handle the noise” surrounding his situation. But he looks sometimes like he has the weight of the universe on him. How do you think he is handling this?
Rutherford: First of all, he carries that weight on his shoulders in good times, too, because he’s a true pro and leader and he wants to succeed. He wants the team to succeed, but even more so now. From what I know — anytime I’m around him — it doesn’t seem to bother him. I believe he’s giving the best he’s got . . . to help the team win. I’ve not seen a change in him that way.
Sportsnet: Your team is 8-9-1. How do you think it has handled the adversity of the first quarter?
Rutherford: I think our coaches and our players have handled it pretty well. We have showed in games how we’re capable of playing. It’s the consistency (that’s lacking). We’ve probably won games people thought we were going to lose and lost the games they thought we were going to win. It could be because of some inexperience or so many changes in our lineup, but we’ve played some games very well for 40 minutes and couldn’t get over the hump for the other 20 minutes, which has really cost us.
Sportsnet: You’re only three points out of a playoff spot, but we know how difficult it is to catch up after November. Your injury crisis is ongoing and you’re on a tough trip. Do you feel this next stretch of games is critical for staying in the playoff race?
Rutherford: They’re all critical, but you don’t want to fall too far behind. St Louis did it (coming from last place to win the Stanley Cup in 2019). One year in Pittsburgh, in 2016, we were in a bad spot and made a bunch of changes and went on to win the Stanley Cup. So I don’t think you have to panic if you’re not where you should be by the end of November. You’re not automatically out of it. But everything’s critical at this point. It’s getting the injured guys back, it’s still trying to strengthen our centre ice. That’s what I talk to Patrik about: just continue to work on things.
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Sportsnet: Pardon the pun, but your PK is killing you, last in the NHL. Is that just personnel?
Rutherford: Well, we’ve had two key guys out in (Derek) Forbort and Blueger. So that starts it. But our penalty kill wasn’t good at the start of last year, either, and it got to a point where we were really good. It has to get better. Whether we change how we kill or we get different people on the PK, it has to change if we’re going to win.
Sportsnet: Another guy who was out first on every PK last season, centre Pius Suter, left in free agency for just a two-year contract in St. Louis at $4.125 million per. Do you regret not keeping him?
Rutherford: I was going to mention him earlier. He was a guy that we thought we were still in on when he went to St Louis. And I know he wanted to come back here. There seemed to be some miscommunication on term (based on) what it eventually ended up. We would have considered bringing him back (for longer than two years), but it didn’t work out.
Sportsnet: How is Adam Foote working out as a rookie head coach?
Rutherford: I think he’s done a really good job. I’m really impressed by him, his communication, his preparation. It started in the off-season when he got the job, when he communicated a lot with the players and especially the core group. The preparation in practices is one of the things I’m sure you’ve seen. And some of the finer points that we didn’t do in the past . . . he had a game plan for three on three, he’s worked on when the goalies are pulled. Especially with him working with a lot of new, younger guys and things like that, I like the job that he’s done.
Sportsnet: So what’s the best-case scenario from here?
Rutherford: The best-case scenario is we get our players back, we (stick with) the priority we’ve had for six months to get another centre, and then see where we’re at. Take a run at making the playoffs. And if you get in the playoffs, you just never know.
Sportsnet: And if that doesn’t work?
Rutherford: Then the downside of it is stay the course, stick with what I just said, and we miss the playoffs. So we win the (draft) lottery and get a top-five pick and keep building a team that is relatively young, where most of our players are in their 20s. Just keep adding good players.
Sportsnet: But not a full rebuild?
Rutherford: Rebuilds can work. But you have to understand rebuilds take a long time. There has to be a lot of patience, and for the teams that take the biggest jump and ultimately rebuild and win a Cup, they usually have a first-overall pick. And you still have to get lucky on that. I’m not naming teams, but some have tried a rebuild and had a ton of draft picks that didn’t turn out. So a rebuild is not something that we’re going to look at doing. Like I said, we’re in transition. But we’re not trading all these players for draft picks that may or may not end up playing someday.
Sportsnet: Even if you wanted to do a rebuild, would your owner allow it?
Rutherford: To this point, I’ve had total freedom to do what I want. Francesco (Aquilini) has been very supportive from Day 1, from the time he met me and hired me. He hasn’t interfered. He has left it in my hands.
