Rutherford believed to want out of Canucks job: report

When Jim Rutherford first took a job with the Vancouver Canucks, he likely envisioned being part of a big turnaround in a rabid hockey market.

After years of instability and turmoil in the team’s front office, Rutherford was meant to be part of a new-look leadership group that would restore the Canucks to being one of the NHL’s top teams again.

Of course, it’s gone… quite differently 13 months on from his hiring, with the team sitting 27th in the NHL at the All-Star break, and having traded their captain Bo Horvat away just weeks after firing wildly popular head coach Bruce Boudreau in a drawn-out saga.

And Rutherford, who gave an awkward apology to Boudreau in a press conference announcing new head coach Rick Tocchet, might just be kind of done with this whole “sticking around to see it out” thing.

According to Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun, the 73-year-old Rutherford might already be in the one-foot-out-the-door camp.

“More than one hockey person I’ve run into this weekend believes Jim Rutherford wants out as president of the Vancouver Canucks. That’s the kind of mess this situation is in,” Simmons wrote in an article on Sunday.

Simmons did not clarify what exactly “wanting out” means. Is Rutherford expected to quit on his own terms in the next few weeks, with Vancouver still having 33 regular season games left? Or is he going to step down at the end of the season? Or, even if Rutherford’s having a bit of an existential crisis, will he swallow his pride and continue in the role past this season?

It’s rare, but not impossible, to see a mid-season managerial change in the NHL.

Two recent high-profile examples were general managers Marc Bergevin getting the sack from Montreal in November 2021, and Peter Chiarelli getting canned from the Edmonton Oilers in January 2019.

“There was a lot of sympathy for Bruce Boudreau when he was unceremoniously dumped as coach. But a prominent league scout told me this: ‘The Canucks have some players. What they don’t have is a team.’ That was on the coach,” Simmons added.

Ah, never a dull day in Canucksland.