Q and A: Canucks’ Jim Rutherford on rebuilds, injuries and overall outlook

VANCOUVER — It's the start of this season for Vancouver Canucks the feeling was the same as last season, minus the 9th grade drama in the locker room.

The Canucks are once again devastated by injuries.

As the team approaches the quarter mark of the National Hockey League schedule with a daunting three-game road trip that begins Friday (Sportsnet, 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT) against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Canucks' injured list once again added seven players, given the latest hiccup of goaltender Thatcher Demko. Under head coach Adam Foote and general manager Patrick Allwin, the team was simply trying to survive.

Foot rightly praised the toughness of his players. But it's not the R-word that set the market on fire.

We thought now would be a good time to talk to Canucks president Jim Rutherford and ask him about recoveries, injuries and what the heck happened with that help at center.

Spoiler alert: Rutherford believes he has the authority to carry out reconstruction, but has no plans to carry it out. And it depends on whether Quinn Hughes stays or not.

“Reconstruction is not what we're going to do,” Rutherford told Sportsnet. “Like I said, we're in a period of transition. But we're not trading all these players for draft picks who may or may not play someday.”

Here's a transcript of our interview, starting where the Canucks started with injuries, lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Sportsnet: After all the injuries your team endured last season, we thought the law of averages would apply to you this year. But you already have as many as nine players. And now Demko is injured again, sidelined week after week. Do you feel like you can't take a break?

Rutherford: With a compressed schedule, yes, we expected (injuries), but we didn’t expect it to this extent. Many teams have injuries. Maybe not as much as we did, but you can handle it.

Sportsnet: The injury crisis worsened when centers Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger went down in the same game in Washington on October 19. How big of a blow was it to lose Chytil to another concussion in just six games?

Rutherford: Well, when we made the trade (with the New York Rangers last season), we were very aware of the risk. But he was really the only center that could come back when we traded such a good center in JT Miller. We knew about this (trauma) story and hoped for the best. But we openly acknowledged that we needed to strengthen our center ice position in the offseason, and even today Patrick continues to try to do that.

Sportsnet: Yes, after last season you said the Canucks needed to acquire a second-line center and it would be “expensive” to make that deal, but “very expensive” not to do so. Did you think that in April you would still be waiting for a deal in November?

Rutherford: No, I didn't do that. But it's not for lack of trying. He calls teams all the time. If it ever comes to a conversation about potentially adding someone, the price will be too high.

Sportsnet: How high? Like Tom Willander and a young Elias Pettersson, too high?

Rutherford: Yes, that's it. One of the things I've been vocal about is that we're kind of stuck in between right now. I think our organization has done a good job of growing our roster of young players. Do we want to abandon them now or do we want to continue building? We haven't traded JT (yet). . we were on the right track and continued to strive to become a contender on a more regular basis. And then when JT was traded, we were set back. No matter what deal we make, you will not replace him. And so we became a team in transition again. And we are still a team in transition. If you look at our roster now, we sometimes have six or seven first-year players on our roster, and it's tough. But the positive side of this is that these guys are developing. So there is some silver lining to a disappointing first quarter of the season.

Sportsnet: What will you do with the lineup in the short term?

Rutherford: We could make changes, pay a high price (in a trade) and still not make the playoffs. Or we could stay the course, come back healthy and still have a chance to make the playoffs. But we might also miss the playoffs because of this, right? We're having a very good draft year and we have to keep that in mind. Right now, as we speak, I would say that we will continue the course of developing our young players and bringing our injured players back into the lineup. And keep looking for this center. We still don't know what we have because we don't have a full roster.

Sportsnet: So you don't see guys like Willander and Pettersson, Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Braden Coots as trade chips?

Rutherford: This is not part of the plan. People use different words about how a team moves forward. Some people use “rebuild”. Some people use the word “transition”. You can twist it any way you want. “Re-equipment”. But the fact is that we are at a stage where our amateur scouts and development team under Patrick have done a good job of building a good group of young players and it would take something extreme for us to start interfering with that. I'm not saying we wouldn't trade one of these players. But if we did, it would be for someone 25 years old or younger. Even our main older guys are still in their 20s; we are still a relatively young team. We are not an aging team with nowhere to go.

Sportsnet: Quinn Hughes' future will be a subplot throughout the season. Will his decision next summer whether to re-sign with the Canucks or invite him to play with his brothers affect the direction the team will take?

Rutherford: No, I don't think so. I think as long as we stay the course and continue to bring in younger players that we think will play (in the NHL) and contribute to a team that can be a consistent playoff team and a contender, that's what we'll do.

Sportsnet: Quinn told us before the season that he would “deal with the noise” surrounding his situation. But sometimes he looks like he carries the weight of the universe. How do you think he will cope with this?

Rutherford: First of all, he carries this burden on his shoulders even in good times, because he is a true professional, a leader and wants to succeed. He wants the team to succeed, but even more so now. As far as I know – every time I'm around him – it doesn't seem to bother him. I believe he's giving it everything he's got. . . help the team win. I didn't notice any such changes in him.

Sportsnet: Your team is 8-9-1. How do you think the company handled the challenges of the first quarter?

Rutherford: I think our coaches and our players handled it pretty well. We showed in the games how capable we are of playing. It's consistency (that's missing). We probably won games that people thought we were going to lose and we lost games that they thought we were going to win. It could have been due to some inexperience or a lot of changes in our line-up, but we played some games very well for 40 minutes and couldn't get over the hump for the other 20 minutes, which really cost us.

Sportsnet: You're only three points away from a play-off place, but we know how difficult it is to make up for lost time after November. The trauma crisis continues and you have a difficult road ahead. Do you think the next round of games is critical to continuing the playoff race?

Rutherford: They're all critical, but you don't want to fall too far behind. St. Louis did it (finishing last place in winning the Stanley Cup in 2019). One day in Pittsburgh, in 2016, we were in a bad situation, made a bunch of changes and won the Stanley Cup. So I don't think you should panic if you're not where you need to be by the end of November. You don't come out of it automatically. But now everything is critical. He's bringing back injured guys and still trying to strengthen our center ice. That's what I talk about with Patrick: just keep working on things.

Sportsnet: Pardon the pun, but your PC is killing you, last in the NHL. Is it just the staff?

Rutherford: Well, we have two key guys – Derek Forbort and Blueger. So it begins. But at the beginning of last year our penalties weren't good either and it got to the point where we were getting really good. It should get better. Whether we change the way we kill or invite other people into the PC, this must change if we want to win.

Sportsnet: Another guy who started every PK last season, center Pius Suter, left as a free agent for just a two-year deal in St. Louis at $4.125 million per man. Do you regret not leaving him?

Rutherford: I was going to mention it earlier. We thought we were still dealing with this guy when he went to St. Louis. And I know he wanted to come back here. There appears to have been some misunderstanding regarding the term (based on what) it ultimately ended up being. We would have thought about bringing him back (for more than two years), but it didn't work out.

Sportsnet: How does Adam Foote train as a first-time head coach?

Rutherford: I think he did a really good job. I'm really impressed with him, his communication, his preparation. It started in the offseason when he got the job, when he interacted a lot with the players and especially with the core group. Preparation in training is one of those things that I'm sure you've seen. And some subtleties that we haven't done before. . . he had a three-on-three game plan that he worked on as the goalies pulled up. Especially since he works with a lot of new, younger guys and stuff like that, I love his work.

Sportsnet: So what's the best case scenario?

Rutherford: The best case scenario is we get our players back, (stick to) the priority we've had for six months to get another center and then see where we are. Try to reach the playoffs. You never know for sure whether you will make it to the playoffs.

Sportsnet: What if it doesn't work?

Rutherford: The downside to that is we stay the same course, stick to what I just said, and we miss the playoffs. So we win the lottery (draft), get the top five players and continue to build a relatively young team with most of our players in their 20s. Just keep adding good players.

Sportsnet: And not a complete restructuring?

Rutherford: Reconstruction might work. But we must understand that recovery takes a long time. You have to be patient, and the teams that make the biggest leap and ultimately bounce back and win the Cup usually have the No. 1 pick. And you still have to be lucky in this regard. I'm not naming teams, but some tried to rebuild and had a lot of draft picks that didn't pan out. So reconstruction is not what we are going to do. As I said, we are in a period of transition. But we're not trading all these players for draft picks who may or may not play someday.

Sportsnet: Even if you wanted to make repairs, would your owner allow it?

Rutherford: Up until this point, I had complete freedom to do what I wanted. Francesco (Aquilini) was very supportive from day one, from the moment he met me and hired me. He didn't interfere. He left it in my hands.