Vancouver Canucks: Management promise a rebuild and fail to deliver

Once again, Vancouver Canucks fans will have to stomach another lost season that goes nowhere. This management group was tasked with making this team competitive and restocking the prospect pipeline. They have failed both tasks.

Six years. That is how much time has passed since the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011.

The memory still haunts all Canucks fans. From that point, things only went from bad to worse. In 2012, the President’s Trophy winning Canucks lost 4-1 to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Los Angeles Kings. One year later, the team was swept by the San Jose Sharks.

The Canucks needed to be honest with themselves. That talented roster from 2011 was in decline and something had to change. Former Canucks general manager, Mike Gillis, pleaded ownership to let him hit the reset button and rebuild the team. He was denied and the Canucks had to suffer the infamous John Tortorella season. The result cost Gillis and Torts their jobs, allowing JIm Benning and Trevor Linden to take over.

On first glance, the duo’s first season was a moderate success. The team bounced back and made the playoffs and the Sedins looked rejuvenated with Radim Vrbata. However, the playoff series against the Calgary Flames brought the team back to reality, showing how bad the roster was compared to a team that was rebuilding.

The next chapter

The Next Chapter was how the Canucks were marketing their next core. Bo Horvat, Jake Virtanen, Brock Boeser and the 2016 draft class were supposed to lead the way. Jim Benning even described what the canucks needed to do to build a winning team:

To develop our next core, we are accelerating the development of our young players by surrounding them with the best NHL leadership, character and talent. There are no shortcuts. No one says this will be easy. What it will be, is what you’ve come to expect from Canucks hockey at its best: Exciting. Energetic. Emotional. You’ll see the future of the team emerging in front of you, every night.

Let’s break this passage down. Benning says “we are accelerating development,” but then says “There are no shortcuts.” This a contradiction. You can’t take a quick path to development without taking shortcuts. Benning can’t have it both ways since it is impossible.

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Furthermore, the Canucks made shortcuts including Benning’s trades for reclaimation projects. This includes moving second round picks for Linden Vey and Sven Baertschi.

Moving Gustav Forsling for Adam Clendening and Hunter Shinkaruk for Markus Granlund. Considering these four trades, Jim Benning has a success rate of 50%, which isn’t bad. The argument could be made that it would be better to keep the second round picks, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Other trades that did not work out were the acquisitions of Emerson Etem, Andrey Pedan and Philip Larsen.

We have to wait and see how the Derrick Pouliot trade turns out in the future. “Accelerating development” must have meant forcing Jared McCann and Jake Virtanen into the Canucks lineup when neither were truly ready in the 2015-16 season.

The last part of the statement I want to touch on is the promise of hockey that will be “Exciting. Energetic. Emotional.” Canucks fans have seen none of those things in the last three years. Instead, we see preferential treatment towards veterans that continues into this season. The younger players need to prove a whole lot more while some veterans on the team get a lot of leeway for lazy and uninspired play.

Revisionist history

While the Canucks continue to fail on keeping promises, they have a habit of rewriting history. Specifically, they seem to say things that contradict what they said in the past.

I don’t think Jim Benning is intentionally lying, but he does have a habit of forgetting what has happened. In an interview with Bob McKenzie, Benning assured that room would be made for young players if they earned it, just like Troy Stecher. The GM had seemingly forgotten that Stecher was sent to Utica and only called up because of an injury to Chris Tanev.

Canucks management was reluctant to admit that they were rebuilding. At first, Trevor Linden said a rebuild would not be fair to the Sedins. Personally, that is a terrible excuse. The Sedins deserve respect for all of their years with Vancouver, but they should not be scapegoated because management is too cowardly to do a proper rebuild.

And then we have this:

A team with an eye on the future does not sign Brandon Sutter to such an expensive contract. The ridiculous deal given to Loui Eriksson is a poor move made by a contending team. It is a catastrophic move for a rebuilding one. Eriksson’s contract is bloated and designed to be buyout-proof.

Finally, the negative pressure put on by fans and the media forced Linden to say this:

Thanks, Trevor. But, you are about three years late on what everyone had wanted to hear. He is so condescending, saying “if that’s what will unite fans, then it’s a rebuild.” Linden is trying to shift the blame of the team’s direction onto the fans, which is pathetic.

What this means going forward

Frankly, I can’t trust Jim Benning and Trevor Linden to run this rebuild. They keep making promises they can’t keep. The prospect pool is much better, but that shouldn’t be hard when you pick in the top six of the draft in three of the last four years.

The team is run by an “Old Boys Club” and will not stop spinning their wheels until everyone is gone. The Leafs figured this out by removing everyone from prior regimes. The Canucks may figure this out in the future or they may not. Despite Trevor Linden’s assurances that he has full autonomy, I don’t exactly believe him. Canucks ownership has meddled several times in the past and I believe that will continue as the seats remain empty at Rogers Arena.

The biggest travesty in all of this is the Canucks will be wasting the prime playing years of Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser. These two don’t deserve the mediocre roster around them, but unfortunately, it is the hand they were dealt.

My prediction on this rebuild is that Trevor Linden will tell us the fans didn’t respond well, explaining that as the reason for empty seats. We all know this will be a lie. The fans are sick of the direction the team is taking and are speaking with their wallets.

Jim Benning will make desperate moves. There are currently rumors that the Canucks may be in on Matt Duchene and will offer Olli Juolevi. A move like this is foolish, likely setting back the development of the blue line by another decade if the Canucks don’t pick first in the 2018 draft.

Next: Canucks roundtable: Power play woes, attendance

Like the title says, this management group fails to deliver on promises. I can’t trust this group anymore. A rebuild requires careful planning and patience, both of which this group lacks. There is good news. The team’s ownership is incredibly inpatient and this management group has an expiration date. The only fear will be the damage they do on the way out.