Who was Rutherford messaging while publicly ripping Canucks?

Vancouver Canucks/Twitter

Darren Dreger joined our show, telling us that Jim Rutherford has the authority to fire Bruce Boudreau.

He doesn’t need ownership’s permission.

So for those of us wondering whether the Canucks president of hockey operations was messaging to Francesco Aquilini during that radio interview Monday, it appears it was for the coach more than the owner.

Besides, Rutherford and the Canucks chairman will be together this weekend at the Hockey Hall of Fame for the inductions of the Sedin twins and Roberto Luongo. He doesn’t need to message through the media, even if media is often a great carrier of messages.

I saw one tweet wondering if Rutherford was also messaging to the market. That Boudreau is such a popular coach, that Rutherford needs to turn fans against him before the axe falls.

I can’t see that. Rutherford is an old hand, think he’s willing to make unpopular moves and take heat from fans.

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But as one listener noted, he’s acting like he’s exempt from the proceedings. He even uses the words “the Canucks” in that interview. Like the team is a third-party, as opposed to the group he needs to improve.

Now, I will say this: he’s dead right about a strong structure making it easier for defencemen to defend. More talented defencemen would also do the trick.

The interesting part now is it seems that Boudreau is on notice and not just from a wins-losses standpoint.

As we heard from Dreger, at some point the Canucks will have to make a decision on structure if they fear their young developing players — Vasily Podkolzin, Nils Höglander, Jack Rathbone — are developing bad habits or not progressing as much as management hoped.

Dreger reports there is also consideration to just sticking with the coach in order to play for a 2023 draft pick, and not get a new-coach bump like we saw with Boudreau last year.

I can understand wanting a new coach and a turnaround in order to make the playoffs, but it seems rather presumptuous that you’ll get a new-coach bump again.

There is so much to sort here, and yet once again Canucks’ dysfunction is shining through.

Boudreau was hired December 5 last year, and at this stage, you wonder whether he makes it to his anniversary.