Allvin, Tocchet expecting Canucks to ‘change the narratives’ moving forward

VANCOUVER — Fifteen months into his job as general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, Patrik Allvin has seen three very different versions of his team — none of them in the playoffs.

In answering questions for nearly an hour Monday in his end-of-season press conference alongside coach Rick Tocchet — Allvin’s second coach in Vancouver but the first one he hired — the rookie GM made it clear the Canucks are evolving into “his” team even if there remains a long way to go.

But in noting that the Canucks and their talented core were only “five or six” wins away from making the playoffs, Allvin was inadvertently highlighting not only how close, but how frustratingly far, the team is from being where it needs to be after missing the National Hockey League post-season for the seventh time in eight years.

Those five or six games don’t sound like such a big thing until you actually need to win them.

One hundred-point scorer Elias Pettersson just completed his fifth season. Defenceman Quinn Hughes, who is in the Norris Trophy conversation, finished his fourth. Elite starting goalie Thatcher Demko emerged three years ago, and impactful centre J.T. Miller has been around for four seasons.

Organizationally, the Canucks travelled a light year this season under Allvin, as Tocchet replaced Boudreau and finally started a culture of accountability and structure that players starved for success have apparently embraced like a life raft in the middle of the Pacific. Hockey operations are finally in alignment, visions and standards in harmony from player development to the farm team to the NHL.

But here they were Monday, still talking projections and sustainability and how they might win another half-dozen games, minimum, next season.

“It's not fun to sit here again as early,” Allvin said at the start of his presser at Rogers Arena, a few hours before another Stanley Cup tournament began without the Canucks. “I think it was two parts of the season. I'm real excited how we finished up here. . . just with the mindset of the players and the coaching staff, the communication within the group, the structure, the details we were able to play with, improving your practice habits.

“In the end of the day, for me being here a year now, a year and a half, it's a step forward. I think the players understand how we're going to have the culture and the standard moving forward.”

Despite missing as many as 10 players due to injury, and always 3-6 defencemen, the Canucks went 20-12-4 under Tocchet, dramatically improving their defensive play while finishing one game over .500 (38-37-7) and missing the playoffs by 12 points.

“I'm a process-driven person and I believe if we're going to make steps here, we're going to do the right things every single day,” Allvin said. “Our job is to get better from Game 1 to Game 82. I’m very excited about the core of good players that we have here, and I don't see a reason why we can't push coming into Game 1 next year.”

Allvin and Tocchet acknowledged the Canucks’ top off-season need is a third-line centre — the hole created when captain Bo Horvat, one of the team’s big-three centres, was traded in January to the New York Islanders.

But Allvin had plenty of other things to say in a newsy press conference.

• On the uncertain future of winger Tanner Pearson (hand) and defenceman Tucker Poolman (neurological complications from migraines), Allvin said: “It's unfortunately a little bit too early to see where they are. I do feel for both of those guys. Our hope with our medical staff here and our support staff here is to help those guys get back, first and foremost, to a normal life. And, secondly, support them in the off-season training here.”

• Allvin said the Canucks’ medical staff, overhauled last summer, will be part of an off-season review and “it's on us to make sure we have what the players need around here. That's something we're talking about.”

• On the possibility of a long-term extension this summer for Pettersson, who is eligible for restricted free agency in 2024, Allvin noted the Swede is club-controlled another two years. “I'm excited, but I don't know when we're going to get, you know, the signature on the paper there. It's a process.”

• Allvin said he was happy to hear winger Brock Boeser’s declaration Saturday that he no longer wants a trade and wishes to stay with the Canucks. But the GM also made it clear this doesn’t mean Boeser won’t be traded.

“I was very pleased in all the exit meetings to hear the response from the players and the excitement moving forward and wanting to be here,” Allvin said. “Again, we acknowledge we're sitting here in April, where next year we want to play. We acknowledge we weren't good enough, so there's going to be some changes.”

• After president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford, who did not attend Monday’s press conference, said during the season that management would use all avenues, including contract buyouts, to achieve salary-cap flexibility, Allvin said he doesn’t intend to use that mechanism.

“I just think that this group is just touching the surface of becoming a good team, so I don't want to use buyouts if we don't have to,” he said. “I don't want to use buyouts that (are) going to affect us in a couple of years when this group is actually, hopefully, taking off. The intention is not using buyouts at this point.”

• Without buyouts, defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who missed the final 27 games with an ankle injury after struggling badly this season to regain speed and form, will return with four years remaining on a contract that costs the Canucks $7.26-million annually.

“I do believe that Oliver. . . he's willing to sacrifice (during summer training) to get his game back,” Allvin said. “I think that Oliver has the potential to be still a good NHL player. With the addition of (Filip) Hronek and then the game that Quinn Hughes is playing right now, we need Oliver to support those younger players here.”

• The GM and coach agreed that summer training and an upgrade in player fitness are paramount to the Canucks starting well. Allvin said Miller, Pettersson and Hughes are spearheading a player initiative to get the team back in Vancouver early to train for next season.

This, however, is complicated by the embarrassing fact that the Canucks are one of only two NHL teams without its own practice facility. “It certainly makes it a little bit harder,” Allvin said.

• Allvin is not interested in trading Miller and feels no urgency to explore options before the player’s seven-year, $56-million extension kicks in with a full no-movement clause on July 1.

“Not that many players with that kind of skill set, that hardness, in the league as J.T. Miller,” Allvin said. “I'm very happy to have him here. But hey, Gretzky got traded. I'm not saying I'm not going to trade him, but I'm very pleased to have J.T. Miller on the Vancouver Canucks.”

• Tocchet said he likes the elevation in leadership displayed by Hughes, Pettersson and Miller, but could not say when the team will name a captain or if it will have one next season.

The head coach also understands skepticism about sustainability and whether the success of the last two months will continue at the start of last season. Boudreau was fired in January because of the Canucks’ spectacular inability to replicate the 32-15-10 finish they had the previous season after Boudreau replaced Travis Green as coach.

“We know there's a lot of different narratives painted: Why didn't you tank? And is this just a coach's bump?” Tocchet said. “I love that stuff because that should fuel the players. It fuels me. We can change the narratives.

“We've got a long way to go, and we all know that. And where we take it, it's up to us to change these narratives.”