Canucks reckon with lottery misfortune as Jim Rutherford says he will step down after NHL Draft

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There can be no time for the Canucks to wallow in self-pity or rue the things outside of their control, though. Randomness is part of life and part of hockey, and the best that anyone can ever do is be sharp, disciplined and relentless while working to increase their odds of benefitting from good fortune. On Tuesday, the Canucks were deeply unfortunate on a number of levels. In the final ball draw for the first pick, Vancouver had the highest odds of winning the lottery. The club owned assigned combinations that would’ve been completed if one of three of the 11 balls remaining in the machine had been pulled. None of those three numbers, however, emerged. Instead, it was the Toronto Maple Leafs who won the first pick and the right to select Gavin McKenna at the top of the draft. In the second draw, meanwhile, Vancouver owned assigned combinations that would’ve been completed if one of two of the 11 balls remaining in the machine had been pulled. Neither of those numbers emerged, either. Instead, it was the San Jose Sharks, a division rival already loaded with young talent who finished with 14 more wins than Vancouver did this season, who won the second pick. This time, the Canucks had done it right. They’d maximized their draft lottery odds. They’d tanked with focus, proactively trading Quinn Hughes and permitting the bus to crash. On the final of two draft lottery draws, Vancouver owned five of the 22 balls remaining in the draft lottery machine. And on both occasions, their numbers just didn’t come up. “It was a painful year, as we all know,” said Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford. “But also, if we get more points, we could be picking 5 (instead), so we’re still in a good spot in spite of how tough a year it was. We give ourselves the best odds, that’s what we had hoped for, and we didn’t quite get No. 1.” Vancouver will get an exceptional prospect with the third pick, but there isn’t a huge gap this year between owning the third pick and the eighth, at least in terms of the profiles of the prospects that will still be available on the board. The value the Canucks will net from one of the most disappointing and painful seasons in franchise history is effectively the right to pick their preferred flavour among a set of comparably impressive profiles. Based on what we’ve been hearing about Vancouver’s evaluation process in recent months, the players that Canucks amateur scouts are likely to most hotly debate between now and the draft in late June are a pair of OHL standouts, right-handed defender Chase Reid, and hotshot centre prospect Caleb Malhotra. Reid is an 18-year-old with a late birthday whose production, on a per-game basis, was only good but not great. He’s a dynamic skater, however, and a 6-foot-2 right-handed defender that projects as a power-play quarterback at the NHL level. Malhotra, meanwhile, has risen quickly up draft boards in the latter portion of this season and has hit a rocket ship developmental trajectory going into the OHL playoffs. He’s 6-foot-2, physically assertive, a solidly creative playmaker and a defensively conscientious leader whose character might be his foremost separating skill. It’s possible that an incoming Canucks general manager could alter the club’s thinking on who to select with the third pick, but assuming that Ivar Stenberg doesn’t slip to No. 3 as a result of the defence-needy Sharks reaching slightly for one of the top blueliners in the class, the Canucks are likely looking at selecting one of Reid or Malhotra. “There’s always a premium on right-shot defensemen, but I also think there’s a premium on centres,” Rutherford said while discussing the top of the draft. “When you’re building a team that’s gonna be a championship team … you’ve got the premium at centre ice, and you’ve got the premium on defence.” That is far from a bad outcome for the Canucks. Statistically, they were always most likely to land at No. 3, and that’s precisely what’s come to pass. What was secured by the relentless disappointment of this season wasn’t the first pick; it was those five out of 22 balls that the Canucks owned in the machine when the final ball was picked from during the two draft lottery balls. What was secured was that when the Canucks got unlucky, as they so frequently have been in franchise history, their slide down the draft order kept them in the top three. What was secured was the right to be the team that benefits in the event that either of the two lottery-winning teams on Tuesday surprises the hockey world by selecting a player outside of the prevailing consensus, which has happened repeatedly over the course of NHL history. “Until we get to the draft, it’ll just be speculation how it ends up falling,” said Rutherford. “A defenceman could even go No. 1,” he added. “There’s (defencemen) that are good enough that could go No. 1.” It may be tough to see it through the disappointment of Tuesday evening, but this is still the highest that Vancouver will have selected in the draft since selecting Henrik and Daniel Sedin in 1999. This pick is still the Canucks’ single most important asset. And this is still a clarifying moment about what comes next and about what it’s going to take to return the Canucks to relevance and contention in the years to come. In all probability, this will not be Vancouver’s last trip to the lottery this decade. Maximizing its odds and continuing to pick as high in the draft as they possibly can for the foreseeable future is going to be required to build a contender. In fact, one of the subtle takeaways from lottery night for the Canucks is the Sharks jumping up the draft order to pick second. With Macklin Celebrini, Michael Misa, Will Smith, Collin Graf, Sam Dickinson, William Eklund and Igor Chernyshov all under 25, and most of them under 23, the Sharks will now be picking ahead of Vancouver yet again. How exactly can the Canucks expect to out-accumulate a team stocked with that constellation of talent without acquiring a franchise-level player or two across the next several draft classes? “The Canucks hit rock bottom this year, and now it should be a time that they gradually keep moving forward to getting back to being a playoff team,” said Rutherford. “Does that take two years, three years, four years? I don’t think anyone knows; it wouldn’t be wise for someone to think they know.” For what it’s worth, and though the incoming general manager will influence this timeline, the Canucks understand and are bought into the notion that they’ll need to pick in and around the top five at least a couple of more times before they consider bolstering this team for the purpose of attempting to make the Stanley Cup playoffs. The presumptive plan, however, is that the Canucks intend to lean heavily on younger players next season and in the years to come. The Canucks don’t want it to look and feel like it did this season again; in some games, players didn’t look like they knew where to go on the ice, and it was a disorganized mess that was only permitted for the sake of maximizing the club’s draft lottery odds. However, the expectation is to remain in a rebuilding posture for at least the next couple of seasons, which is an intention the organization has explicitly told finalists for the GM job. All of which brings us to the uncertainty that still surrounds this team, and the news that Rutherford disclosed Tuesday in his post-lottery availability. Rutherford, 77, said that he intends to step down as the president of hockey operations after the draft, after which he’ll continue with the organization in an advisory capacity and as an alternate governor. Rutherford has obviously been considering taking this path for a while and hinted at it during his year-end media availability following the dismissal of Patrik Allvin. The timing of Rutherford’s announcement wasn’t planned for Tuesday, but he’d come to a final decision on his hockey future several weeks ago and simply answered honestly when asked a relevant question in his media availability. Rutherford also revealed that the club may not simply be looking for a GM, but may also be considering hiring someone new for the role of president of hockey operations. A team source told The Athletic on Tuesday night that the timeline by which Rutherford may transition may be even more expedited than he suggested, if the club hires a new GM and a new president of hockey operations before the draft. As Vancouver has worked its way through the hiring process to replace Allvin, it seems that a notion of bringing in a “team” with multiple executives being hired has come into focus. That expanded focus, and at least some measure of confidence that the club will be left in good hands, is a factor that has informed Rutherford’s decision to step away from the day-to-day responsibilities of working as the head of Vancouver’s hockey operations department. On Tuesday night, for the Canucks and for the rest of the NHL, uncertainty morphed into certainty. The top of the draft order is set, Rutherford’s future is now clarified, and the club will intend to move on to announcing the next hockey operations leader, or perhaps leaders, at some point next week. With the No. 3 pick in hand, the Canucks were dealt another reminder that they can’t count on luck in steering this team back to contention and relevance. Going forward, they won’t be counting on Rutherford to lead this rebuilding process, either. The Canucks will need to count instead on the ingenuity of their next hockey operations leader and on the ability of ownership to buy into the sort of patient process that is going to require some more pain, some more losing and probably some more disappointing draft lottery nights in the immediate future. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms