VANCOUVER — It took 28 days from the time Jim Rutherford fired Patrik Allvin just before the Vancouver Canucks’ final game for both executives to be replaced when owner Francesco Aquilini announced on Thursday that Ryan Johnson is the new general manager and will report to co-presidents Henrik and Daniel Sedin.

Four weeks at the start of an extended off-season is little more than a short shift in the history of a National Hockey League franchise. But given the monumental scope of the Canucks’ rebuilding project, it means the new management team must play a little catchup.

Daniel Sedin immediately left to watch the world championships in Switzerland, while Henrik Sedin and Ryan Johnson got to work internally, talking with the staff they’ve inherited. The new leaders of hockey operations have a bunch of key personnel decisions. Undoubtedly, some of them will be difficult.

One of the worst campaigns in Canucks history is being followed by one of the franchise’s most important off-seasons. There is a mountain of work. Here are five issues that should be near the top of the list for Johnson and the Sedins.

Johnson rightly noted during Thursday’s introductory press conference that evaluating Adam Foote off of last season is “pretty unfair” and difficult to do. And yet... here we are, a new regime empowered and responsible for deciding who stays and who goes — starting with the head coach.

Hiring Foote to replace experienced and successful coach Rick Tocchet was one of the biggest home-run cuts outgoing president Rutherford and former GM Allvin made a year ago. They needed continuity, wanted to appeal to defenceman Quinn Hughes and were desperate for a bounce-back season.

But the team bled scoring chances and goals and any continuity was hard to see as the Canucks struggled much of the season to play cohesive, dependable hockey. Hughes was traded, and the team plummeted 32 points in the standings, a nearly 200-point collapse in winning percentage that was easily the worst single-season decline in franchise history. 

In some respects, Foote never had a chance. Management failed to provide the centre depth everyone........

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