After working his way through the organization, Ryan Johnson was named the 13th General Manager in Vancouver Canucks history on Thursday afternoon.
He sat down with Canucks Insider Podcast Host Chris Faber on Thursday to chat about the journey with the organization that led him to the role of General Manager.
Johnson began the podcast by discussing where the Canucks are in their competitive cycle and what he is focused on as he begins his role as General Manager.
“It’s no secret that we’re trying to rebuild a group, and I think the focus is less on wins and losses and getting down to what I think I do well: building an environment where people thrive, staff and players, they can improve in their game, and feel that they have a safe space to fail, to make mistakes, and that they’re going to have people around them and resources that are going to support them. So that’s where I want to start,” said Johnson.
The new GM also talked about the difference between building a playoff team and the long-term approach to building a championship team.
“You can cut some corners to try to get in, but if we’re going to do it right, we need to be really good at drafting and bringing along players and finding certain pieces that fit to shape the identity that we want. I think if you try to skip the line, you can get a taste of it, but then take a step backwards, and we want to make sure that step by step, we do it the right way, and that we can hopefully be competitive for a long period of time,” he said.
Listen to this and much more as Johnson joins Chris Faber on the latest episode of the Canucks Insider Podcast.
