Canucks plot bold Pierre Dorion move as Ryan Johnson drama builds
The Vancouver Canucks GM search just got more complicated, and Elliotte Friedman put a name on the tension Tuesday morning: Ryan Johnson.
Friedman, in his 32 Thoughts column dated May 1, flagged what he sees as the obvious internal question. If the Canucks don't hire the Abbotsford GM, what does that say about Johnson's future in the organization?
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Days later, Sportsnet's Irfaan Gaffar pushed back on the urgency. Nothing imminent. Pierre Dorion has met with Vancouver multiple times, alongside other candidates, and the interview process is still active.
So the picture this week is messy. A respected internal candidate sitting in Abbotsford. A former Senators GM in the room more than once. And a front office that just watched its team finish 32nd overall.
That last number is the one that hangs over every interview. The Canucks went 25-49-8 with 58 points and a -100 goal differential. Dead last in the league.
Home ice was a disaster at 9-27-5. The road record of 16-22-3 was the only thing keeping this from being historically ugly. Adam Foote inherits all of it next season.
Why the Dorion meetings carry more weight than Vancouver wants to admit
Bringing Dorion in multiple times isn't a courtesy. Teams don't burn that kind of calendar on a candidate they've already eliminated. Whoever lands this chair is walking into a rebuild dressed up as a retool.
And here's the rhetorical pause worth taking. If Johnson is the right answer, why is Dorion still getting return invitations five months after the season cratered?
The Canucks closed the year on a six-goal beating in Edmonton. They went 4-6-0 in their final 10. Whoever takes the job inherits a roster that quit losing close and started losing badly.
There's also the optics piece. Hiring Dorion means importing the executive who oversaw Ottawa's draft-pick forfeiture penalty. Hiring Johnson means promoting from within after a 32nd-place finish. Neither path is clean.
My read? Dragging this out past mid-May only helps the candidates with leverage elsewhere. Vancouver's ownership has to pick a lane before the draft floor in June starts whispering about it.
The team that finishes last in the NHL doesn't usually get to run a leisurely search. Foote is already on the bench. The chair above him is still empty.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 5, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Nathan MacKinnon | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Gabriel Landeskog | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Martin Necas | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Brett Kulak | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kirill Kaprizov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nicolas Roy | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brent Burns | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Colton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan Hartman | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Daemon Hunt | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brock Nelson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Danila Yurov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mats Zuccarello | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Blankenburg | - | - | - | |
| Matthew Boldy | - | - | - | |
| Jack Drury | - | - | - | |
| Brock Faber | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||