The Vancouver Canucks named Ryan Johnson of Thunder Bay, Ontario as their new general manager on Thursday according to Leith Dunick of tbnewswatch.com. Johnson has been with the Canucks the last 14 years, and the fact that Vancouver hired in-house for the role when they struggled mightily this past season is rather interesting. Johnson’s roles included development coach, assistant director of player development, director of player development, special assistant to the general manager, assistant general manager, and the general manager of the Canucks’s American Hockey league affiliates in Utica and Abbotsford.
A centre, Johnson played 13 National Hockey League seasons. He was with the Florida Panthers in three different stints in five seasons from 1997 to 2003, the Tampa Bay Lightning for two seasons from 1999 to 2001, the St. Louis Blues for five seasons from 2003 to 2008, the Vancouver Canucks for two seasons from 2008 to 2010, and the Chicago Blackhawks for one season in 2010-11.
In 701 NHL regular season games, Johnson had 38 goals and 84 assists for 122 points. He was a -87 with 250 penalty minutes, three power-play points, nine shorthanded points, and 512 shots on goal.
During the postseason, Johnson had one goal and four assists for five points. He was a zero plus/minus with 12 penalty minutes and 10 shots on goal. The postseason goal came on April 30, 2009 in game one of the Western Conference semifinals, a 5-3 Canucks win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Johnson closed out the scoring with an empty net goal with 16 seconds left. Alexandre Burrows of Pincourt, Quebec had the lone assist.
