The Vancouver Canucks’ search for the 13th general manager in franchise history has continued this week, and may even be beginning to reach the second phase of the process.
The team itself is keeping information as tight as possible, which is some undertaking given the stakes of the search for the organization, fan interest and the sheer number of people involved. In the preliminary round of interviews, as noted earlier this week, as many as 15-20 took place.
Those interviews have been conducted with more than just president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford. In fact, it seems that a panel including executive leadership from the business side of the Canucks organization and ownership representatives has been directly involved in video calls screening the first round of candidates.
A league source involved in the process but granted anonymity as they are not authorized to speak publicly about the Canucks’ GM search, told The Athletic that some candidates have begun to be informed that they won’t be moving forward to the second phase of in-person interviews, which matches reporting on Wednesday from CHEK TV’s Rick Dhaliwal. A team source, however, declined to confirm whether or not Vancouver has reached the “short list” portion of the interview process, which, as The Athletic reported on Monday, was anticipated to occur in the middle of this week.
The Athletic confirmed through a team source that Florida Panthers assistant general manager Brett Peterson was interviewed by the Canucks. Peterson, who won a national championship in 2001 as a defender at Boston College, worked as a player agent before joining the Panthers in the fall of 2020. He is well-regarded around the NHL and has been part of the league’s most successful management group this decade.
On Wednesday morning, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts podcast that Patrick Burke from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety — a longtime professional scout with the Philadelphia Flyers, a lawyer and the son of ex-Canucks general manager Brian Burke — was among the candidates who had interviewed in the first round of the process.
Daily Faceoff’s Irfaan Gaffar added another name to the list when he reported Wednesday that there appeared to be mutual interest between the Canucks and Boston Bruins assistant general manager Evan Gold. Gold, a McGill graduate with an MBA from the University of Toronto, has worked in Bruins hockey operations for 10 years, earning a promotion to assistant general manager in 2019 and taking on the duties of running the AHL Providence Bruins in 2023.
Like with Peterson, Gold’s work with the Bruins is highly regarded in both traditional and more progressive hockey circles around the NHL.
There is also some industry buzz, which was corroborated by a league source and was touched on by Dhaliwal on “Donnie and Dhali” on Wednesday, that Toronto Maple Leafs front-office hand Shane Doan has impressed Canucks ownership and decision makers who are part of this hiring process. Doan didn’t hold an assistant general manager’s title with the Maple Leafs but was widely viewed as Brad Treliving’s right-hand man over the past three seasons.
Dhaliwal noted that experience — not necessarily general manager experience, but experience at the upper echelons of decision making for an NHL team — appears to be a separating factor for the candidates advancing to the second round, and those who aren’t.
Over the years, the Canucks have tended to rush their process in replacing organizational leaders. Ownership has often had a replacement in hand before acting to move on from a head coach or a top hockey operations decision maker.
This time around, it seems, the club is intent on discussing the sordid state the Canucks are in, and soliciting input on everything from the future of Adam Foote and his coaching staff, the length that this rebuild should take and Vancouver’s options in returning the organization to prominence and competitiveness.
The proof of a thorough and well-trod search will ultimately come over the course of the next week, as the club begins to make decisions on who to hire. Realistically, it may take even longer for us to parse the cleanliness of this process, depending on how Rutherford’s immediate future with the organization plays out.
However, that representatives from Canucks ownership have taken the time to jump on calls with candidates to hear how they’d go about turning this team around can only be a good thing for the franchise.
It’s welcome, even if it’s long overdue.
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