Patrik Allvin celebrated two years with the Vancouver Canucks last week and this week, he gets a multi-year extension as the General Manager of the Canucks.
We’ve seen many changes to the lineup since Allvin’s arrival, and he’s shown that he is not concerned about making a splash on the trade market. Since Allvin joined the Canucks as GM, he has made 19 trades that have resulted in an improved prospect pool, better depth, and a team that heads into the All-Star break with a 33-11-5 record and is tied for first in the NHL.
The wins are great but Allvin is very proud of how the culture has changed in the organization. Allvin, with the assistance of his staff and the guidance of President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford, has built a winning culture that may be demanding but it’s no-nonsense and as shown this season, it brings results.
Allvin is a first-time GM in the league but the support system around him and his confidence to make a move when he believes it will improve the team have been impressive in his first two seasons. One area of improvement that Allvin is most proud of during his time in Vancouver is the buy-in from the players to what his coaching staff is preaching at Rogers Arena and also down the highway in Abbotsford.
“We believe we’ve built up the trust and the belief from the players to believe in the mission we have and how we want to do things every day,” said Allvin. “I think that's what we're most proud of and having the coaching staff in place and how the coaching staff interact with the players – I think they deserve a lot of credit here.”
We asked Allvin how much this contract extension changes things for him. Aside from stability for his family, who are beginning to fall in love with the city of Vancouver – there's not much changing for Allvin in his work life with this new multi-year extension.
"To be honest, nothing's going to change,” said Allvin with a chuckle. “I’ve got to be truly honest that the last two years have been the fastest in my life. I had no time to reflect when I got the call from Jim [Rutherford] that he wanted to talk about an extension. I was like, alright but nothing's going to change. We still have a lot of work ahead of us and we need to continue to push and build and raise the bar here to go where we need to be. I think that the direction is clearly there, but we need to push forward.”
Allvin is ultra-focused on building a contender here in Vancouver and the trust that he has in his staff is something that doesn’t take much prying to get out of him. Allvin mentioned Ryan Johnson as an important piece of the management staff. Johnson’s work with player development as well as the GM of the Abbotsford Canucks is something that Allvin has been very impressed with.
One thing Allvin wanted with the organization was for all pieces to be on the same page. He spoke about his coaches having similar terminology for their systems and structures. The teams may not play the exact same way but the spoken teaching needs to be with the same type of vocabulary so that when an AHL player comes up to the NHL, they are confident in their coach.
We saved the toughest question for last in our conversation with Allvin.
The question is: are you having fun?
“That's a hard question,” said Allvin with a big pause and a nonchalant smile. “I don't know if I’m having fun. I think I’m very fortunate to have an opportunity to work in the National Hockey League. I don’t take anything for granted and I know how competitive it is so I don't think I could use the word fun.”
Allvin continues to stay focused on improving his team with the trade deadline of March 8th fast approaching. The balance between going all in for this season and long-term success is a tightrope that Allvin will be balancing on over the coming five weeks.
The GM believes his players have shown that they are deserving of him adding to the roster and these next five weeks are sure to be interesting ones with a GM who made six trades in this same timeline before the deadline last season.
For now, Patrik Allvin is locked up for the coming years, and his early stages with the Canucks have shown that he deserves this extension.
