Insider: Jim Rutherford on Lindholm and Zadorov, How Fast a Trade Can Happen, and More

We decided to split up our conversation with Jim Rutherford into two separate articles.

Check out part one HERE.

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You can learn a lot about how an NHL team operates from a 40-minute chat with the Canucks’ President of Hockey Operations.

We hit on a variety of topics and want to fill you, the fan, in on some insider information from Jim Rutherford.

Something fun in our conversation was looking back on past trade deadlines and what Rutherford has learned from them. He was passionate about not panicking in the weeks ahead of the deadline and how snap decisions can be dangerous.

The Vancouver Canucks went through a bit of a slump in the weeks before the deadline, but Rutherford doesn’t worry about a few losses because nothing has changed in the minds of the management team.

“We haven't learned anything from the slump that we didn't already know going into the deadline,” he said. “We expected some kind of slump at some point in time. I don't care how good you are. With 82 games, you're going to have a slump. And now we see how we come out of it.”

The management team has viewed this season with checkpoints. They saw training camp as one, the start of the season, the run-up to the All-Star game, and now, the trade deadline. This team has hit checkpoints with speed up to this point in the season. They are now one of the leaders in the league and opposing teams are getting up to play the Canucks.

“The games become harder, and you don't get any easy games,” said Rutherford. “Every team brings their A-game every night. And that's where we're at. From my point of view, the biggest takeaway from this slump that we've gone through over the last few weeks is that everything here is fixable. We have the players that can come out of it.”

Rutherford didn’t want to make excuses for the players and coaches but did see the post-All-Star schedule as one that was going to be difficult to get through. At this point in the season, no team has played more games than the Canucks (64) and they have played more road games than any other team in the NHL.

The upcoming nine-game homestand with time for practices and days off is going to be beneficial for a team that is ramping up their level for playoffs.

We’ve seen the Canucks make two significant trades to improve their roster earlier in the season with the additions of Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov. Rutherford wanted to go out and get Lindholm early so that there could be a longer runway for him to develop chemistry in the Canucks’ lineup as well as for the coaches to see where they liked the versatile Lindholm.

“We’re seeing the benefit of it because he's still going through an adjustment period,” said Rutherford of the early acquisition of Lindholm. “We'd like to see more out of him offensively. But in fairness to him, he has been moved around the lineup from centre to right-wing and I think Tocc has got him to a point now where he likes the idea of having those four centres really strong down the middle. Lindholm does a lot of good things that don't show up in the box score, on the defensive side of the puck too. I would say that since we've got him, he's been okay. If we can get a little more on the offensive side of it. I think everybody would be happier.”

On the backend, the Canucks added big defenceman Nikita Zadorov in exchange for a third and fifth-round pick. Zadorov has added a lot in the locker room and is even the team’s DJ for pregame. His physical presence is felt on a nightly basis as well.

“He's a good locker room guy who can loosen things up in the room when it gets a little tense,” said Rutherford. “And just his physical presence alone is impressive. He's got to get to the level of consistency game in and game out. But overall, he's been a good addition for us. Absolutely.”

As we wrapped up our conversation with Rutherford, we spoke about how quickly a trade can happen on deadline day.

“Well, you have to understand that there's a lot of thought put into everything leading up to it,” he said. “Very seldom when an idea comes on deadline day we'd say ‘Oh, we never thought about that. We'll do it'."

“I did have one year in Carolina where we were not going to be in the playoffs. We were trying to clean up some contracts and in the last half-hour leading up to the deadline, we made four or three transactions - ‘bang, bang, bang’ - just like that. Really because all of a sudden it just fell into place and it was contracts that we weren't going to use going forward. And once we moved the one player, then it just found the next player and the next player.” 

“All of that had been thought about though. It's not like suddenly, someone comes up with an idea we haven't thought about. A team called and said ‘Okay, we're in a position now. We want player X’ and then boom. And then once that player went, I called another team once the player went and then another one it just went Boop, Boop, Boop.” 

Deadline day can be hectic but it’s the preparation and synchronicity between the staff that has Rutherford feeling confident about Friday.

Before closing out, we had to ask Rutherford if there are ever any laughs in the management office on deadline day.

“I think most trade deadline days we have some good laughs about things,” he said. “Not in a demeaning way where we'd be making fun of somebody. Just with all the stress and everything, you’ve got to get it out sometimes. Some things will happen on the day and it's just kind of funny.” 

The Canucks are looking at all options to improve the team, and with Rutherford at the helm, his staff is walking tall with confidence because of the work they have put in up to this point. 

Friday’s deadline is noon Pacific time, and the Canucks will be busy on the phones in search of deals to improve this team and make them even more of a Stanley Cup contender for this season and the coming years.