Having the president of hockey operations appear on live television and answer questions after a comfortable home loss to a bitter rival is probably pretty low on the priority list.
But that’s exactly what Vancouver Canucks president Jim Rutherford did on Saturday night, sitting after get off work The Boston Bruins defeated Ray Ferraro and Scott Oake 5-1.
As expected, questions quickly turned to the team’s most high-profile pending free agent, Brock Boeser, and while Rutherford didn’t give any specific details, he was asked about the player who played last season. The 40-goal scorer has yet to make a clear statement on his future.
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes. Right now, we’re evaluating his situation,” Rutherford said.
Boeser broke into the league as a goal-scoring force in 2017-18, scoring 29 goals in an injury-missed rookie season, a performance that helped him finish second in Calder Trophy voting.
While the talent was always there, Boeser didn’t really break out until the 2023-24 season, when he set career highs with 40 goals and 73 points.
Will that be enough for Rutherford and the front office to initiate a long-term extension, making the Burnsville, Minn., native a Canuck for life?
“It’s about what the contract is, what the terms are. All those things. Like all contracts; the player’s view is different than the team’s view. We’re going to continue to monitor the situation closely.”
Boeser, for his part, said he wants to stay in Vancouver and noted after Thursday’s 500th game how special it feels to do it all with the same club.
“It means a lot,” Boeser told Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy on Thursday. “I’m a very loyal guy, so to be able to do this with the Canucks means a lot to me and hopefully more to come.”
The decisions the Canucks have to make before this season’s trade deadline on March 7 get trickier if they’re in a playoff position. Boeser is playing in just his second postseason game, and he was outstanding for the Canucks in the 2024 playoffs, scoring seven goals (including a game-changing hat trick) and scoring in 12 games. 12 points.
However, unlike this time last year, when the team dominated most nights and sat atop the league standings, this season’s Canucks are just barely hanging on for the playoffs. This has a lot to do with their confusing home record.
The team’s home formation is a confusing 5-7-4 compared to 10-2-1 on the road. As a result, the Canucks finished fourth in the Pacific Division and second in the Western Conference wild-card round.
“We beat ourselves at home at times, I would say probably two or three games this year. We don’t have the same urgency at home,” Rutherford said. “Most teams like to put on more performances at home and I think we try to do that at times.
“We didn’t practice yesterday, we’ve got a couple other home games where we didn’t practice and didn’t play well. So, obviously we need to make some adjustments, but they’re fixable. We’d better fix them as soon as possible because You can’t be a playoff team with the record we have at home.”
Unlike the slow starts of the past few years, this time around, Rutherford reiterated that the coach is not in danger.
“(Rick Tocchet) did a great job,” the president said. “He’s in a different situation this year than he was last year, he’s got a lot more to deal with and I’m sure he’s doing a good job and he’ll figure it out.”
While the Canucks’ performance at Rogers Arena wasn’t great, tarnishing their overall record, there were a few bright spots — the brightest of which was Kevin Lankinen, also a pending free agent players.
The training camp signee missed Saturday’s game due to illness, but he posted a .912 save percentage and 2.52 goals-against average, changing the game in 21 games as a walk-on starter.
Lankinen, who signed a one-year, $825,000 discounted contract that is certain to receive a raise next season, will likely be priced out of Vancouver.
But when Rutherford was asked if it was possible to retain both Lankinen and Thatcher Demko next season, he said bluntly: “Yes.”
“We know what Demko is going to do next year, we don’t know what Lankinen wants, but man … you need to be in goal to win.”
With 53 games left in the Canucks’ season and plenty of decisions to make along the way, Rutherford will continue to be a busy man.
