Prior to making the Tanner Pearson trade, The Athletic caught up with Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin between periods of Vancouver’s Young Stars tournament game against the Winnipeg Jets this past weekend.

After a difficult first season in the general manager’s chair, Allvin sounded excited about the shape of the organization and the depth he’s added to the Canucks roster over the past 12 months. During a wide-ranging interview, Allvin touched on his intention to keep Tyler Myers with the Canucks organization, his relationship with Elias Pettersson and changes to Vancouver’s medical staff this summer.

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This interview is part of a series of one-on-one interviews The Athletic conducted at the Penticton Young Stars tournament with the general managers in attendance. It has been edited for length and readability.

You had a really experienced team in Penticton, four guys with NHL experience and there were only five in the entire tournament, and I’m curious how much that was by design in terms of extending the principle of wanting to develop players in a winning environment in the American League into your rookie tournament roster.

I think it’s more the message from the coaching staff and development staff, which is focused on how we want to play. That’s a continuation from the top to the bottom, regardless of who is here, we want our prospects to understand what matters to the Vancouver Canucks — how we want to play, how we want to utilize our players. Then obviously we want to put every player in a position to succeed.

I think the coaching staff have done a good job giving the younger guys — like having Hunter Brzustewicz playing with Akito Hirose — so you’ve got a younger player but he’s playing with a guy who is a little older, a little more experience.

Young players going into training camp — and Hirose is a perfect example, he played well for your last year and didn’t look out of place. Then you’ve got 14 forwards, 11 defensemen and three goalies that will require waivers. How hard is that going to make it for some of your young hopefuls to make your team out of training camp?

This is a big step for us, having more players, more options and internal competition. I think good teams have that privilege and we’re just building up our young pipeline here.

The growth of the young players in Abbotsford last year, some of our newly added young players too, I’m excited to see the competition. I think the coaching staff, when they’re making up their teams for preseason games, I think there will be excitement from them too to see the younger players. It’s going to be a competitive camp.

Now that you’ve been through a full cycle as Canucks general manager, what do you think the importance of the Young Stars tournament is in terms of your overall approach to development, and what does the future hold for this tournament?

For us, it’s about the working relationship between Rick Tocchet and Jeremy Colliton. We had a coaches meeting up in Whistler, we’re using the same language, the same vocabulary, the same practices, the same systems. This is going to set up the young players coming into next year’s main training camp feeling comfortable, doing the same drills.

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We’re seeing already how they’re playing here, and that’s a credit to Jeremy implementing the system. I’m very happy, we’re aligned, we have the same message top to bottom.

It’s widely reported that Tyler Myers’ bonus was paid last week. Where does your club stand in regards to him, and with your pre-Canadian Thanksgiving cap situation in general?

We’re always looking ahead, and we have ways to be cap compliant. And we will be cap compliant.

Regarding Tyler Myers, we have no intention of moving him. He was good for us, especially after Sergei Gonchar and Adam Foote came in. He had a really strong World Championship and I was happy for him that he won the gold there. I know he’s excited to be back here, and working with Foote and training camp will dictate our opening night roster.

What are you hoping to get from Vasily Podkolzin and Nils Höglander this season and how do you go about supporting them so they can deliver?

It was really important for us last year when we made the decision for them that they were better off long-term going down to the American League, getting back to their strength, playing free hockey, more detailed.

I think they’re ready. They understand how we want to play. Jeremy did a great job with Höglander, and unfortunately for Podkolzin, he got injured. I’m excited to see both of them, their mindset is better. I think they feel the support from the twins (Daniel and Henrik Sedin) being around, the familiarity with Tocchet.

It was fortunate for Höglander to be part of that playoff run down there, too. I thought he was probably their best forward.

Health and human performance consultant Dr. Harry Sese is no longer listed on the club’s website. Are you able to detail whether your club has made changes to the medical staff this summer?

Harry was a consultant for us last year. We promoted Roman Kaszczij from Abbotsford as our new head athletic trainer, and the addition to Alex Trinca from Pittsburgh.

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Is Dr. Sese still consulting?

He’s not with us anymore, he’s with the PGA tour.

Elias Pettersson’s camp has obviously decided to take a wait-and-see approach. What was your reaction to that decision and are you able to shed any light on how conversations with yourself and Pettersson’s camp unfolded this summer?

I wasn’t surprised. My relationship with Pettersson is really good.

We had several conversations and meetings since I got in here, he’s been part of my thought process this summer, communicating with him. Regarding Pat (Brisson), we have a good relationship and talk regularly.

You know I understand that Pettersson wanted to focus on having a good summer, and I see a lot of growth and maturity in him. We’ll see where things stand here, but we’ll continue to talk.

You fleshed out the depth of your lineup over the last 12 months, especially on the back end. You brought in PK guys, signed a lot of NCAA UFAs and really seemed to carefully manage the term you handed out this summer. You also made a big trade involving futures for Filip Hronek and signed J.T. Miller to a seven-year extension before that. Running a thorough line connecting all of those moves, how would you describe your philosophy going into your second full season?

For us, it’s about being aligned with the same message, so the players trust what we want to embrace here. We want people to feel trusted, we want them to know where they stand and know what their role is.

My job is to help the core players, to surround them with better players, more competition, better coaching and help them take their game to the next level. I’m excited about it, I saw a lot of growth in Elias and Quinn Hughes and Andrei Kuzmenko over the course of his first year. There’s more to come, and I feel a lot of excitement with where we’re headed.

(Top photo of Patrik Allvin: Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press via AP)