The Vancouver Canucks have announced that they feel the need to submit some of its staff members to an investigation. Per insider Iain MacIntyre, Canucks president Jim Rutherford confirms the team is now investigating its handling of Tanner Pearson’s injury.
The president explained that he was unaware of any questions about medical care until Quinn Hughes spoke out.
Rutherford wants an all-party summit to discuss what was done and why.
On Wednesday, the Vancouver Canucks announced that Pearson will miss the remainder of this season after undergoing a second surgery on his injured hand. It was also revealed that Pearson required surgery after a setback in his recovery. He was originally expected to miss only 4-6 weeks.
Then, Hughes expressed his frustration towards the club after their 5-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. Hughes believes the Canucks are to blame for what’s happening to Pearson.
“I feel bad for him. I mean, it wasn’t handled properly and you know, it’s not really a good situation he’s got there and hopefully he’s going to be alright,” Hughes said, per The Province.
When he heard about Hughes’ comments on his teammate’s injury, Rutherford called for a meeting with general manager Patrik Allvin and coach Bruce Boudreau, and that both were also unaware there had been any concerns with Pearson’s treatment beyond the setbacks in his recovery.
They then decided to undergo an internal investigation.
“At that point, I just started to gather information and talk to people that are involved and start to do an investigation as to what really happened,” Rutherford said per MacIntyre. “Other than that, I can’t say a whole lot because We’re dealing with the privacy of medical information.
“We take the situation very seriously. We certainly have to look at everything here when something like this happens, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
“We want to talk about what happened, the decisions that were made and why,” Rutherford added. “We want everyone involved to have a say and be able to talk to each other and ask questions. That’s very important.”
Pearson ended up playing just 14 games this season, recording one goal and five points.
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