Canucks rebuilt front office but then did nothing

Vancouver president Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin made all the right noises when they were hired at the beginning of 2022 but after an offseason where very little happened beyond a $56M extension for J.T. Miller, the team's flaws have been laid bare in a disastrous start to the new season.

Video Transcript

ARUN SRINIVASAN: Also to the point of having no plan, I agree completely. The Canucks need to find some sort of identity. What is it? Like, are they bottoming out? Are they just saying, this has been a six game anomaly and we're going to get through this? Like, what has Jim Rutherford or Patrick Allvin said?

I mean, keep in mind, like, Patrick Allvin got hired in January. It hasn't been that long ago. So what is their plan? It just seems like if they commit to a direction one way or another, great, but they are sort of stuck in that purgatory there. And I have no idea what it is.

SAM CHANG: The problem for me is, he came in, he said all the right things, I think. He acknowledged that it was a poorly constructed roster. He said, the defense required a lot of work. He said that they were probably a couple of years away from being a regular playoff team.

OK, and I think those are all correct assessments of this team. But then he proceeded to treat the offseason-- and like, I say, he, because he's the president, obviously Allvin is the GM. But like, they did pretty much nothing over the offseason to change the team, other than to extend JT Miller with a massive contract, $56 million.

And to me, that is a move that you make if they are already a regular playoff team and you want to go all-in and win now. In the same time frame that the Calgary Flames are in win-now mode. In the same time frame that Colorado is in a win-now mode. In the same time frame that Edmonton is a win-now mode.

It made no sense. It still makes no sense, other than that people really liked him. He was their best player in terms of offensive production, but in terms of a plan? Like, what Rutherford said coming in and what he actually did make no sense together. And he went from saying, this is a defense that requires a lot of work. To be fair, he said, we were able-- we weren't able to do as much as we thought we could over the offseason to improve the defense, but they did nothing.