Vancouver Canucks: 3 reasons why fans are getting frustrated

According to reports, the Vancouver Canucks front office is growing frustrated with the negative media coverage and harsh outcries from fans. Here are three reasons why the Canuck faithful are in the right in growing impatient.

The Vancouver Canucks are easily going through their most frustrating stretch in the franchise’s near-50 year history. This team will miss the playoffs for a third-consecutive season, which has only happened twice — and not since 1998-99.

Fans aren’t only rattled because of the fact this team has been among the very worst in the last five years, but also the direction of the team. General manager Jim Benning and president Trevor Linden were hired in 2014 to erase the mess that predecessor Mike Gillis left behind. Amazingly, the mess has gotten messier.

And according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the Canucks front office is not hiring all of the harsh criticism and coverage well:

We can only envision the amount of pressure that Linden, Benning and the rest of the front office are feeling. But at the end of the day, being involved in professional sports comes with being criticized. If you’re not performing at a high level, fans and media will have negative things to say. That’s how it is.

And unfortunately for Benning and Linden, this regime has not performed up to standards. The franchise is five years behind in a rebuild, and their failure at this year’s trade deadline only proves that. For example, why extend Erik Gudbranson to a multi-year deal when you could have dealt him for draft picks?

Tyler Motte and Jussi Jokinen were all you could salvage for Thomas Vanek? Probably better off keeping ‘Tommy Gun’ and look at extending him. For the second time in three years, Benning didn’t secure the “rebuilding” Canucks with enough assets at the deadline.

So with all due respect to Benning and Linden, the criticism hasn’t ended for three key reasons. Let’s take a look at those reasons.

2. Terrible trades and free agent signings

Benning has made his fair share of genius trades – most notably for Sven Baertschi and Markus Granlund in separate trades with the Calgary Flames. Getting prospects Nikolay Goldobin and Jonathan Dahlen for Jannik Hansen and Alex Burrows, respectively, were also excellent additions by the GM.

But other than that, Benning has made a number of very head-scratching moves that fans can only criticize:

• Signing Loui Eriksson to a six-year deal worth $36 million. That’s produced 21 goals and 47 points in just under two seasons with Vancouver thus far.
• Signed Derek Dorsett to a four-year extension worth $10.6 million. That was a lot of money for a tough guy. Dorsett has since retired following a neck injury.
• Signed Luca Sbisa to a three-year extension worth $10.8 million. He never played like he was worth that much, and the Vegas Golden Knights luckily plucked him in the expansion draft.
• Held onto pending UFAs in Dan Hamhuis and Radim Vrbata at the 2016 trade deadline. Both left in free agency. Benning missed out on a prime chance to land multiple draft picks.
• Traded a talented young centre in Jared McCann and two draft picks for Erik Gudbranson. The latter was supposed to be traded at the deadline, but received a rather generous but extension instead.
• Signed Sam Gagner, Anders Nilsson and Michael Del Zotto after Linden pledged a rebuild was coming. None of those three have lived up to their contracts thus far.

Related Story: Canucks mess up the Thomas Vanek trade miserably

And all these moves have led the Canucks to being the second-worst team of the past three years. They have also damaged what could have been an excellent and effective rebuilding process. How are fans supposed to remain calm when Vancouver overpays so many veterans, while also failing to trade away veterans for younger assets?

Again, Benning has made a few good trades and has already put together a much better drafting track record than Gillis. But imagine if he didn’t do half of those questionable moves mentioned above? None of them seemed like a good idea at the time, and the results have been predictable. Canucks fans are in the right to not condone the recent history of very bad transactions.

1. Not rebuilding the right way

When Benning and Linden took over four years ago, they tried to balance the idea of rebuilding while also icing a team that was competitive enough to make the playoffs. Spoiler alert: That has failed miserably.

If the Canucks were serious about a rebuild, they would have gotten creative and got the Sedin twins and/or Alexander Edler to waive their no-movement clauses. Gudbranson Vanek, Hamhuis and Vrbata would have been traded for draft picks.

Look at the New York Rangers. They only decided earlier this month they were going to rebuild, and they already have a leg up on the Canucks. The team wasn’t scared to move out veteran players for young players, prospects and picks. That is how you rebuild.

After refusing to use the word “rebuild,” Linden confessed that the team was going that direction. If that was the case, they wouldn’t have signed so many free agents. Jake Virtanen and Nikolay Goldobin wouldn’t be playing bottom-six minutes all the time. We could go on with this.

Imagine Benning takes over and cleans house immediately. Oh, what they could have gotten for the Sedins, Burrows, Edler, Hamhuis and other veterans. He doesn’t have much to show for it now, and that’s why fans are frustrated.

This team selfishly thought they could be competitive and that they just required tweaks after the failed John Tortorella experiment to be a contender again. The Rangers had the guts to accept their window to win with their core was over, and big changes were needed.

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The Canucks didn’t do that, and they still haven’t realized that they’re far behind in this rebuild. With no light at the end of the tunnel right now, fans are going to remain frustrated. That is, unless the front office wants to start rebuilding the correct way.