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The Vancouver Canucks have moved on from considering offers only on unrestricted free agents.
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Published Jan 14, 2026 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 4 minute read
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Vancouver Canucks centre Elias Pettersson celebrates after scoring early against the Washington Capitals on Sunday. Photo by Patrick Smith /Getty ImagesArticle content
The Vancouver Canucks are no longer in the soft-launch era of their plan to rebuild.
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If you buy what president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford is selling, this NHL team is well and truly open for business when it comes to trades.
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“It’s our duty to take calls on everyone,” Rutherford told me flatly Wednesday morning, after a report from TSN’s Darren Dreger that the Canucks would be willing to trade even Elias Pettersson.
That is a shift from a couple months ago, the veteran hockey boss acknowledged. In November, Rutherford first said his team needed to get younger and to begin the process the Canucks were ready to trade their unrestricted free agents. They have moved beyond such a small enclosure.
“When we started the process … the intent at the start was to not get into any core player. It may very well end up staying that way,” he said. “But it certainly would not make any sense for Patrik (Allvin) to not listen to anybody.”
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Allvin’s mention, by the way, came across as very intentional. In the Quinn Hughes trade just over a month ago, it was Rutherford who directed the file, who took the calls. That prioritization raised eyebrows. While the Canucks have used an intentionally deliberative process to reach decisions, it has always been Allvin who has stood up to speak on trades, signings and the like.
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The Canucks are back to a deliberative process from here on, the management team working as a group. Allvin leads the meetings, takes everyone’s input, and then makes the call. Rutherford’s just one voice in the room.
“It’s always that way with every organization, everyone’s involved,” Rutherford. “Patrik’s the GM, that’s part of his duty — to make the changes.”
Jim Rutherford is always frank in his comments. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG
And so the offers are coming in and everything is being discussed. And when Rutherford says all players are on the table, he means all players. Even guys like Tyler Myers, who has a no-movement clause and whose family is well-settled in Vancouver.
“We may end up saying no to offers, certainly, but we’re not going to say no to having conversations about any player. This is about improving this team without taking shortcuts,” Rutherford went on.
When he says shortcuts, he means holding discipline, not taking side tours on trades or signings that don’t have the long-term in mind.
“That’s trying to do it too quickly. We’ve got to have the patience of living through where we are presently,” he explained. “Being cautious in what is being moved and what is the return. Continue to stick to either getting young players, 25 or younger, or getting draft picks.
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“There’s deals out there that could make our team better today, but does it work for us over a three-year period? I would like to think based on the number of young players that we have, that we’ve been able to pick up over the last few years, with high ceiling, that this rebuild can take two or three years, not six to 10.”
Along the way, there will be opportunities to also add veteran players who would play a developmental role for the team’s younger players. He cited Chicago’s signing of Nick Foligno in 2023 as an example of such a move. The veteran forward is now Chicago’s captain.
“I think signing veteran players is actually necessary,” he said. “You can’t just take a bunch of 22-year-olds and throw them to the wolves. It’s a tough, tough league.”
In other words, sure, they will take calls on the likes of Myers, Filip Hronek or Marcus Pettersson, but there’s no fire sale here. Some of those guys will stay.
“If we can just keep adding to young assets, hopefully we can do this in two or three years. It’s not an easy process. We have to be very methodical,” he said. “You can’t lose patience because you’re losing some games.”
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So for the time being, it’s about watching how the players develop, not what the final score is.
No one enjoys losing.
“Yes, no one does. But I don’t think it’s totally a surprise. We have, in most games, we have five to six first-year players in the lineup, three of which are playing defence, which is very hard in this league. But it’s the right thing to do in terms of development; they’re going to be better for it,” Rutherford insists.
“Losing games is one thing, some of the mistakes that are being made that are blowing games wide open, those need to be fixed sooner than later. That’s what we’re watching, who adapts. Obviously some of these guys have been put in tough spots. We have two centres who would be in our top nine forwards out of the lineup.”
And let’s be clear here: Rutherford knows they’re going to lose a bunch. It’s been tough to watch his team of late — doubly so because he’s been stuck at home battling a virus for the last two weeks. But there’s an overall purpose here. Losing does get them into a better draft position, he admitted.
“That’s correct. If we don’t stick to it, the rebuild process will take longer,” he said. “And get the people here what they deserve: a championship-calibre team. Our preference is to pick (in the draft) as high as we can.”
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