Bruce Boudreau paints bleak picture of backstabbing culture in Vancouver.

To suggest that the Vancouver Canucks have been a dysfunctional franchise in recent years would be a colossal understatement, with even National Hockey League player agents recently voting the Canucks as the worst run franchise in the entire league. It's one thing however to view it from the outside looking in and speculate on what is happening, and another matter entirely when someone who was on the inside speaks out.

Recently, former Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau was asked about the recent front office changes in Vancouver and it was then that Boudreau unloaded on the Canucks like never before. Boudreau describe a terrible atmosphere of a backstabbing culture, all the while praising the new man in charge in general manager Ryan Johnson.

"It couldn't of happened soon enough to be quite frank," said Boudreau on the Fellowship of the Rink podcast. "I'll say this, Ryan Johnson was the GM of Abbotsford when I was there and he was the only one that was easy to talk to. The only one that would have a conversation where you weren't worried to make sure that it doesn't get back to anybody. He made you comfortable to talk to him."

It's a damning condemnation of the previous regime under president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin, although that will come as no surprise to fans who witnessed how Boudreau himself was treated during his tenure in Vancouver. The Canucks faced significant backlash over the cruel manner in which they fired Boudreau, cruel treatment that led to protest from their own fans during Boudreau's final home game in which he received an emotional send off from the crowd.

Although Johnson was technically a part of that same front office, Boudreau did not get the same impression from Johnson at all.

"I think in that aspect he's going to be really good," said Boudreau.

While it likely isn't hard to improve upon Boudreau's opinion of the last management group, it is clear he believes the Canucks are in much better hands now with Johnson and the Sedin Twins leading the charge. While praising Johnson as well as Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Boudreau also had one last parting shot for the two men who preceded them.

"I think those 3 guys are gonna be so much better than to have Jim there and Patrik Allvin who did whatever Jim wanted anyway so it didn't really matter if Patrik was there or not," said Boudreau firmly throwing the former Canucks front office under the bus.