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Vancouver Canucks Tanking 101: A Coach’s Tale

By David Joun

Feb 19, 2016; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins watches from his bench against the Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary Flames won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 19, 2016; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins watches from his bench against the Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary Flames won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jun 27, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning announces Jake Virtanen (not pictured) as the number six overall pick to the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /

Tanking 101: The Final Verdict

Alright. So if you were following closely the past week, Tanking 101 has gone through everything that I could think of about tanking. Throughout the week, hopefully, I made myself clear that I was not going to take sides in order to give the most objective verdict on “tanking” at the end.

Let us recap before the final verdict.

A true organizational tank would start with selling the pending free agents. Ship out Radim Vrbata, Dan Hamhuis, Matt Bartkowski, Yannick Weber, and Brandon Prust. That gives Vancouver a lot of cap space to go work around names like Milan Lucic, Keith Yandle, Loui Eriksson, and potentially Steven Stamkos. Jim Benning would make himself a tanker if he trades Ryan Miller, Alex Burrows, and Jannik Hansen, adding, even more, space to the offseason cap.

The Edmonton model lacked defense and veteran presence and is taking forever. The Chicago model is a quick turn-around that was lucky. The Florida model was very organic. Veterans, defence — they had it all, and patience was a key to success. Vancouver needs to be patient, take advantage with the luck of Ben Hutton, and start building the core from the backend out.

The true solution to the issue might not be Auston Matthews. It might be Matthew Tkachuk. Luck is great, and tanking doesn’t guarantee anything in the lottery. The odds are just so close to making the Matthews pitch. Just give it luck and time. Hopefully.

Now, Willie Desjardins is the culprit. He is the tanking leader in the organization. Whether he means it or not, I do not know. But he is wasting the winning talent and using a four-line equality that is resulting in a loss of winnable games.

Next: The Top Five Prospects of the 2016 NHL Draft

You know what I say in this Canucklehead Lament? Tanking is for losers. Even if the Canucks had a valid NHL superstar, what will Willie do? Roll four lines, lose more games, and essentially tank. I say no Willie is no tank. And though this season might be almost in the side mirrors, Vancouver, Willie is the root of your problems.

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