Canucks sign GM to multiyear extension

The Canucks have signed general manager Patrik Allvin to a multi-year extension, per a team announcement Wednesday.

Allvin, 49, celebrated his second anniversary in the GM role for Vancouver last Friday. He’d previously worked under Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford with the Penguins, first in scouting roles from 2012 to 2020 before being promoted to an assistant GM role ahead of the 2020-21 campaign.

Pittsburgh named Allvin their interim GM after Rutherford resigned in Jan. 2021, although that lasted for only 12 days until they brought in Ron Hextall for an ill-fated run in the manager’s chair. When Rutherford found a new home as president of hockey operations in Vancouver later that year, he appointed Allvin GM shortly thereafter.

In a short time, Allvin’s work has kicked the Canucks’ decade-long span of middling performances to the curb, seemingly ushering in an era of contention with an Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes-led core. 

The Canucks are 8-0-2 in their last 10 games and would win the Presidents' Trophy if the season ended today, boasting a 33-11-5 record through 49 games at the All-Star break.

His two largest signings, a seven-year, $56M deal for J.T. Miller and a three-year, $19.95M deal for Brock Boeser, have paid off in spades this season. The deals faced a fair bit of criticism when they were signed in the summer of 2022, but Miller is tied for fourth in the NHL with 67 points, and Boeser is tied for sixth with 30 goals.

Allvin’s biggest free-agent splash, a four-year, $19M deal for Ilya Mikheyev in 2022, has been a decent bit of business as well. Now healthy, the 29-year-old is on pace for 18 goals and 42 points this year.

He’s also made 19 trades during his tenure as GM, notably sending captain Bo Horvat to the Islanders in Jan. 2023 for depth winger Anthony Beauvillier, center prospect Aatu Räty and a 2023 first-round pick. 

That first-round selection was later packaged with a second-round pick and sent to the Red Wings for Filip Hronek, who sits fifth on the team in scoring with 36 points in 49 games and has formed arguably the league’s best defense pairing alongside Hughes this season. Beauvillier was later flipped to the Blackhawks for a conditional fifth-round pick in 2024.

Allvin’s signature moment in Vancouver is still ahead of him, though. The 25-year-old Pettersson is still a pending RFA and needs a new deal to return to the Canucks next season. He’ll earn well north of his $8.82M qualifying offer on a longer-term deal.

The team has not confirmed the length of Allvin’s extension, although they recently signed Rutherford to a three-year deal carrying him through the 2026-27 season.