He’s one of the longest-tenured members of the Vancouver Canucks staff.
And apparently, others around the NHL are starting to take note of his work.
Former Canucks player and current front office member Ryan Johnson has been with the organization since 2013. He was originally hired as a player development consultant, but through a series of promotions, he’s held the title of assistant general manager since 2024.
The 49-year-old is also general manager for the Abbotsford Canucks, who became the Canucks’ first AHL affiliate to ever win a championship back in June.
Although Johnson has been with the Canucks organization for 12 years, could his days with the organization be coming to an end?
CHEK TV’s Rick Dhaliwal provided an update on Johnson’s status recently on the Halford and Brough in the Morning on Sportsnet 650 Radio.
“I’m hearing NHL teams were just as impressed with Johnston as they were with [Many] Malhotra,” Dhaliwal said.
“He’s going to be an NHL GM someday. It is not a surprise to me that Johnson is looked at as one of the up-and-comers.”
Abbotsford’s architect of their Calder Cup-winning squad has been viewed as an executive on the rise for quite some time. Trevor Linden was asked back in 2018 if he thought Johnson would be an NHL executive one day.
“For sure, there’s no question,” Linden told The Athletic. “He’s got a real good feel for the game. He understands players and has a good eye for them.”
Since Linden said that in 2018, Johnson has risen in the ranks within the Canucks organization. In addition to being the organization’s AHL general manager and director of player development, he was named special assistant to the general manager back in 2022, shortly after Jim Rutherford was hired.
One of his tasks at the time was that he was asked to take on salary cap management. While that structure has reportedly changed with the hires of assistant general managers Cammi Granato and Émilie Castonguay, it’s still an area of experience that Johnson now has if he does one day become an NHL general manager.
“RJ has been an invaluable resource for me and the entire front office,” Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said after Johnson’s promotion in 2024.
“Not only has he done an excellent job in running our American Hockey League affiliate in Abbotsford, but he has also done a lot of great work on the hockey operations side. His player assessment and insightful advice have been a key driver for our improvement at both the AHL and NHL levels.”
Before joining the Canucks staff, Johnson played over 700 NHL games. That included 120 games played for the Canucks from 2008-10.
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