Canucks front office trying to figure out who's leaking to the media: report

The Vancouver Canucks are looking for the mole.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Tuesday that Vancouver’s front office is “trying to figure out” exactly what — or rather, who — is causing a series of stories to leak out of their front office throughout a rollercoaster season.

“The organization is trying to figure out how all these things are getting out and what’s happening. I think it’s been a highly stressful year,” Friedman said in an appearance on the Jeff Marek show on Tuesday. “I think this year has stressed everybody out. Not just the fans and the players but the organization from top to bottom. It’s gone worse than everybody hoped. There’s been almost a tire fire every day. Things have gotten out that have affected how they do their business.”

Friedman himself likely knows one of the answers, as he was the first to report about Bruce Boudreau’s firing and his pending replacement by Rick Tocchet.

Vancouver president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford stated in Tocchet’s initial press conference that the situation that saw Boudreau continue to coach for a week following the news break was out of the team’s control.

“It was the speculation that drove this. It wasn’t us,” Rutherford said in his first media appearance after officially hiring Tocchet. “It’s played out in a way that was out of our control. We can only do our business in the way we see fit. We can’t change our business based on speculation.”

All eyes are currently on Rutherford, as a report from the Toronto Sun‘s Steve Simmons earlier this week suggested that he is believed to “want out” from his role with the Canucks, as per “more than one hockey person” Simmons saw at this past weekend’s NHL All-Star game.

“I think the organization has some long-term decisions to make about where they’re going, not only on the ice but off it, their front office, who’s gonna be there,” Friedman said.

But as for whether Rutherford calls it quits? Friedman isn’t so sure, particularly with the 73-year-old Rutherford likely ending his lengthy managerial career in Vancouver one way or another.

“I would be a little bit surprised, I think he’s pretty private,” Friedman said. “The one thing I think about with Rutherford is that he knows that if he was to walk away, this would probably be the end [of his career]. And I’m not sure yet that’s where he is. I think he would want a chance to try to fix it as opposed to walk away in the middle of it.”

So that’s where things stand with the Canucks front office. At least until the next media leak.

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