Ryan Johnson’s first task as Canucks GM will be to keep or fire Adam Foote

The Vancouver Canucks have a lot of work to do in order to become a contender again. The new man in charge has some big decisions to make.

On Thursday, the Canucks are going to announce the promotion of assistant general manager Ryan Johnson to be the franchise’s new GM. One of the many things he will have to do is make a decision whether to keep Adam Foote as Vancouver’s head coach.

Foote was promoted to bench boss after Rick Tocchet exited the organization after the 2024-25 season. Things did not go well in his first season on the job. The team finished dead last in the NHL, posting the team’s worst record in over a quarter-century. While some think Foote should get another chance, others believe the team should find someone new to turn the ship around.

On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, David Pagnotta joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss whether Johnson should keep Foote around for another season.

David Pagnotta: This is a little bit different in terms of how they evaluate it because Ryan Johnson’s been part of this organization for a long time. The Sedins have as well. So, there’s already some familiarity with respect to Adam Foote and the direction that this club is going in. So, yes, it’s a rebuild. Do you want to make a change right now? Do you feel there’s a little bit of a longer leash for Adam Foote to kind of him and his staff to mold this group moving forward? Or, do you feel somebody else is better suited for this? Again, it’s gonna be a rough few years in Vancouver in terms of just how well this team is gonna perform. This is a rebuilding phase in every sense of it. So, there’s gonna be a crap ton of growing pains. They’re probably gonna finish bottom three in the league next year, and maybe they’ll finally win the lottery. This is gonna take a little bit of time here for them to get on track.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…