The 2025-26 season has not been fun or easy for Canucks fans, from trading away superstar and team captain Quinn Hughes, to watching him secure Olympic gold with his American teammates at Milano Cortina 2026.
Of course the win came over Team Canada and in heartbreaking fashion, all while the Canucks maintained their spot in the basement of the standings. Needless to say the pain and suffering doesn’t dissipate for very long in Canuckslandia, but few seasons in team history have been as particularly painful.
Thankfully for fans, losing leads to winning, and the team seems committed to that plan. To help fans stay optimistic about the future as we approach the end of this dreadful season, let’s take a look at some of the worst years in team history, and how they ultimately led to good things in the long run.
1971-72 & 1972-73
The two worst seasons statistically in Canucks history happened in the team's second and third year. This is not surprising given the expansion rules at that time did not favour the new teams the way they do today, though losing two key draft lotteries to their expansion sibling Sabres did not help.
The Canucks finished dead last in the league in 1971-72 with 48 points, the Kings were just ahead of them finishing with an extra tie over the Canucks. They improved to 53 points and third last the next season, finishing only ahead of the Golden Seals and Islanders, who finished with a laughable 30 points.
The poor results gave the Canucks the third pick in the draft both years. The latter year produced future captain Don Lever, who was a beloved member of the team for eight seasons, and led the team in goals and was a top scorer the first year they earned a playoff spot.
The other pick brought Jocelyn Guevremont to the team, who had three good seasons for the Canucks before he was traded to Buffalo for Gerry Meehan and Mike Robitaille, who played key roles during the team’s first playoff berth.
1998-99
The season most commonly considered by fans as the worst in the team's history, they finished tied for last in the entire league with 58 points. Captained by Mark Messier, the team featured Markus Naslund, Alexander Mogilny, and Matthias Ohlund.
The struggle of this season and frustration by fans eventually paid off when the Canucks drafted the two best players in franchise history in the Sedin brothers. Of course the Canucks, and especially Brian Burke had to work some magic to bring both brothers to the team, but they were already in a position to get one of them based on their poor performance from the previous year.
Henrik and Daniel, as everyone knows, finished their 18-year careers as the best to ever wear the jersey, and captained the team through their greatest era in franchise history.
1987-88
Another poor season in the team’s history that’s important to highlight in 1987-88. Though the win percentage isn’t quite as bad as this year at this point, the team finished with just 59 points, good enough for last in the division and second last in the league.
The team didn’t come into the year with high expectations, though they did finish with a worse record than the previous season. They earned themselves the second overall pick, just the second time in franchise history to be picking that high, and first since losing the draft lottery to Buffalo in their inaugural season.
To this day, second overall is still the highest the Canucks have selected (hopefully that changes this off-season). The team used it to select captain and franchise legend Trevor Linden, whose number 16 hangs in the rafters of Rogers Arena today. Linden captained the team to its first taste of sustained success, making the playoffs for six straight seasons from 1990-91 to 1995-96, and reaching Game 7 of the Final in 1994.
If there's one thing that history tells us, there’s a good chance that a future captain and franchise legend will be drafted by the Canucks with whatever pick they get this off-season. Admittedly, that is definitely the glass-half-full approach.
Canucks had the second pick again in 1990, and passed on second all-time NHL scorer Jaromir Jagr due to uncertainty in when he would be able to join the team. Jagr, Lemieux, and the Penguins won the next two Stanley Cups.
I’m choosing to be optimistic, the team has already tidily built a solid young core in Zeev Buium, Tom Willander, and Braeden Cootes. Whatever player the Canucks pick this off-season, whether that’s the first pick or the third, will only help add to that and continue to build toward the future.