Regarding Gillis, I was always puzzled when he hired torts. It just seemed so offside from his mindset. That hire had me wondering who was actually in charge and whether that hire came from ownership in response to some critiques that the team wasn't "tough enough"
Yes Gillis wanted to hire someone boring in the Alain Vigneault mould... might have been John Stevens? But the Italian Aquilini family had dinner with the fiery Italian John Tortorella who momma Aquilini just loved, or something like that, and that was that.
Really though it's not a consistent trend and you can map out Vancouver ownership meddling through the years.
With Dave Nonis it should be pointed out that he was never ownership's guy, he's the guy that they inherited and Aquilini had been talking to and wanting to bring in Mike Gillis. Probably a big reason why the following Toronto Burke/Nonis/media was so hostile towards the Gillis Canucks. But anyways, yes Tampa was trading Brad Richards and with Vancouver on the bubble they demanded Ryan Kesler, Alex Edler, and Corey Schneider. Ownership said do the deal, Nonis said no, and he was fired. But like I said, it was coming anyways.
With Mike Gillis he got a whole lot of free reign right up to 2011. Then with the the expectations set sky high at Cup or bust, following with the team taking a step back over the next two seasons, that's when ownership started meddling. Tortorella was a forced hire, and Gillis had a Kesler to Anaheim for futures deal (the Anaheim GM in the summer said Vancouver wasn't going to get a better offer now) that ownership blocked. I think Gillis was told he'd have to acquire Nick Bonino in the deal and it fell apart.
Jim Benning doesn't really count, a lot of my own speculation from observation but he's pretty much a meddling owners dream GM. Highly incompetent, but more than happy to work with and welcome an unqaulified owners input in management. Probably a big reason why he was allowed to run the team for 8 years, when it was obvious at the end of the first season he was a terrible GM and should have been shot out of a cannon at any point after the end of his second season.
With current Canucks management I'd call it a TBD, but I'd say Rutherford and Allvin have full control... at least for now. I think it was a stipulation when Rutherford was hired. Really what's going on is through the first season and a half it was highly contentious among the Canucks fanbase whether the team should be trying to compete or if they should be selling and acquiring futures. As the only thing that seems to stick in peoples head is the most immediate season, the latter group went quiet during the 2023-24 season but is now out in full force after this past season.
They want the rebuild that should have happened when Benning took over but never did, and seem to conclude the only reason it isn't happening is ownership. But realistically it would be extremely rare for an actual NHL GM to go into rebuild with the Canucks roster of the past few seasons where no thanks to Benning you don't have the deep prospect pool but you do have some young elite talent to build around.
