An extended search filled with twists and turns concluded on Thursday when the Vancouver Canucks announced that club legends Henrik and Daniel Sedin will serve as co-presidents and lead the next era of the team’s hockey operations.
Working underneath the twins, Canucks assistant general manager Ryan Johnson has been promoted to general manager.
Henrik and Daniel, 45, are first ballot Hall of Fame players and the most storied and celebrated players in Canucks history. The brothers rank No. 1 and No. 2 on the franchise leaderboard in both games played and points. Henrik is Vancouver’s all-time assist leader, and Daniel is the all-time goals leader.
The twins have been working with the club in various capacities since the spring of 2021; they have spent most of the Jim Rutherford, Patrik Allvin era serving the organization as development coaches. Though the brothers originally hail from the hockey hotbed of Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, they’ve remained in Vancouver after their playing careers.
Johnson, 49, is a former Canucks player and a longtime front-office hand who was originally a Mike Gillis-era hire in 2013. Across a 13-year tenure with the organization, Johnson has moved up the ranks, from development coach to assistant director of player development to director of player development to the general manager of Vancouver’s AHL team and assistant general manager.
Johnson’s Canucks management career has extended through four different regimes. Hired by Gillis, Johnson has earned promotions from Trevor Linden, Jim Benning and Rutherford and Allvin, respectively. It’s a genuinely incredible track record of both loyalty and survival.
Calm and plain spoken, Johnson led the Abbotsford Canucks’ expansion effort in 2021 following the club’s relocation from Utica, N.Y., and was the architect of the 2025 Calder Cup champion team, the first professional championship in the history of the organization.
At the pointy end of this search for Allvin’s replacement, two finalists emerged in Boston Bruins assistant general manager Evan Gold and Johnson. While a vocal segment of the Canucks fanbase would have preferred Gold as an outside choice, and he clearly has impressive credentials, it’s worth noting that Johnson has had far more success at the team and player development level as an AHL general manager in Abbotsford than Gold has had with the Providence Bruins.
Johnson’s track record with Abbotsford is impressive and displays the sort of outside-the-box thinking required in the contemporary NHL. He’s also had significant input on NHL depth-level signings, helping Canucks pro scouting mine a significant haul of useful depth players that ended up contributing in the NHL, including Jalen Chatfield, Sheldon Dries, Kyle Burroughs, Dakota Joshua and Kiefer Sherwood.
The twins, on the other hand, have a shallower record of hockey operations accomplishments. While the Sedins dabbled in hockey operations during their first year working with the franchise, they decided to lean into player development and on-ice coaching after the Canucks fired Benning and brought in Rutherford and Allvin.
Rutherford, who has been president of hockey operations for Vancouver since December 2021, revealed last week that he would step down and become an adviser for the organization.
