The Vancouver Canucks will finish last in the NHL this season, even if they win all seven of their remaining home games, and changes will continue for the organization this off-season. How many of those changes occur off the ice, though, seems to be the question of the week.

Canucks President Jim Rutherford and GM Patrik Allvin began the club’s official rebuild this season when they traded then-captain Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild for a significant package of young assets. The team later dealt the likes of Kiefer Sherwood, Tyler Myers and Conor Garland, and others, such as Jake DeBrusk, Elias Pettersson and Drew O’Connor, are expected to be discussed in further trade talks this summer.

Pending unrestricted free agents Evander Kane and Derek Forbort are not expected back next season, while fellow UFA-to-be Teddy Blueger may be poised to test the free agent market July 1, despite the team having interest in re-signing him.

Speculation started to spread this week that the Canucks may be looking at a GM change, as well, as Rutherford may stick around for one more season.

Irf Gaffar and David Pagnotta discussed the chatter during Wednesday’s episode of DFO Rundown Insider Edition.

“I would assume Jim Rutherford has some sort of succession plan in place or wants to have one in place for when he eventually does retire,” Gaffar said. “But again, like I mentioned about the Toronto Maple Leafs – if the Canucks get the first-overall pick on May 5th at the Draft Lottery, it’s probably one of the most important days in franchise history, if not the most important day in franchise history, if they win that lottery, will be the draft. But who will be at the helm of the General Manager if it is Patrick Allvin or someone else, you have to set yourself up for the next 10 to 15 years again. Whether it’s making moves, trading, drafting and all of that, and I think that there needs to be and probably will be a lot of change this off-season here.”

Added Pagnotta: “There have been some conversations, or whispers I should say, in the last few weeks that Vancouver has seriously been considering a change at the GM post. That goes kind of in line with whatever transitional period Jim Rutherford is going to put into place to retire.”

It is unclear whom the Canucks may consider as a replacement for Allvin if they decided to make a change, though Rutherford remains at the top of the totem pole.

Despite speculation suggesting a coaching change may be in the offing, as well, Gaffar noted the Canucks are not expected to replace Adam Foote as bench boss this off-season, barring extenuating circumstances.

“There needs to be some major changes, not only in the front office when you see the major changes on the ice as well, and the young core that you have needs to grow together, you (also) need to insulate them with veterans, whether that’s on the blueline or up front,” Gaffar said. “You need to have the right people in place. And I think that’s probably the biggest thing heading into this off-season is can you get the right people in place for this organization to grow and flourish? And we’ll see what happens.

“I think the head coach stays. I’m not entirely sure that they’re very keen on making a head coaching change or saying goodbye to all the assistant coaches. I believe they’re all under three-year deals. It just doesn’t make sense to me to get rid of them all and then you pay new set of coaches while you’re still paying the old set of coaches for another two seasons. Economically, that just doesn’t make sense. I’m not entirely sure that’s the right way of doing business.”