“Quite frankly, I had a lot of sleepless nights, and I thought a lot about this in many different ways and the decision was not made until yesterday, at noon, my final decision,” president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said. “It's unfortunate, he's a friend of mine. Patrik is a great hockey guy but we felt it was time to make a change and give somebody else the opportunity to sit in that GM’s chair and make the decisions going forward.”
The 51-year-old was hired on Jan. 26, 2022, by Rutherford, who Allvin had worked under with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Allvin was with Pittsburgh for 26 seasons; he was director of European scouting, director of amateur scouting and assistant GM. Rutherford has offered Allvin a chance to keep working with the Canucks.
“If he wants, he can stay in the organization and do some of the things he is really good at in development and amateur and professional scouting,” Rutherford said. “I'll give him a little time to make that decision. It's very emotional now.”
Rutherford was asked about the perception he made many of the big decisions.
“That's a fair comment. In my position, I do have to make some decisions, but he was in charge of most of the things in hockey, making the trades and deciding who's getting called up and down, and working with the coach and all those things,” Rutherford said. “So, I take full responsibility for the season. I head up the hockey department, but I don't make decisions for other people, and Patrik had the opportunity to make his own decisions.”
Rutherford expects the search for a replacement to begin immediately, and identified current assistant general manager Ryan Johnson, who is general manager of the Canucks’ American Hockey League affiliate in nearby Abbotsford, as “a very good candidate.”
“He built a championship team (in 2025) in Abbotsford when people weren't expecting it, and he's been a great guy to work with,” Rutherford said. “But we also felt it was important we don't limit it to one person, and that we go out into the market and open it up to a bunch of people, and maybe we're going to see something different and make a different choice.”
The new general manager will make the decision on whether coach Adam Foote and his staff will return for a second season after a difficult first year as a head coach.
“As long as I've been in this game, this coach has been dealt the hardest hand to deal with, and this is a very difficult year, so that's why I want to be respectful and give both the new GM and the coach the chance to see what they think of each other,” Rutherford said.
On Allvin's watch, Vancouver won more than 40 games once; they won 50 games in 2023-24 for the first time since 2011-12 but were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in seven games in the Western Conference Second Round.
“Obviously a tough day, tough seeing him go and I think when something like that happens, it's sort of a collective responsibility, it kind of falls on all of us,” said forward Drew O’Connor, one of four current Canucks who also played under Allvin in Pittsburgh. “Unfortunately, Patrik is gone today, but he's been great to me. He gave me a chance in Pittsburgh, gave me a chance here so I've really enjoyed working with him over the years.”
The Canucks roster saw significant change in four seasons under Allvin. Vancouver traded captain Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders on Jan. 30, 2023, forward J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers on Jan. 31, 2025, and Norris Trophy-winning defenseman and captain Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild on Dec. 12, 2025, a deal Rutherford oversaw instead of Allvin.
The Hughes trade signaled a full rebuild for the Canucks, but Rutherford said it was a move he saw coming before this season even started, and that last summer’s decision to re-sign goalie Thatcher Demko and forwards Brock Boeser and Conor Garland to contract extensions were made with an eye towards convincing Hughes to stay.
“I've known for some time that Quinn was not staying in Vancouver,” Rutherford said. “It's one of the reasons why we signed the guys -- the Garlands, the Boesers, the Demkos -- that had relationships with him, hoping for a little bit of a chance right down to the end that he would decide to stay here, but I don't think that was ever in the cards.”
