In the span of two years, the Canucks have gone from 50 wins and 6th overall in the NHL, to dead last by 11 points.
The Canucks currently have just 20 wins, and with 16 games remaining in the regular season, it is entirely possible that this current edition of the team, which is last in goal differential by 30 goals, does not even get to half of the win total from the 2023-2024 season.
The list of players lost since that 50 win season, as well as former Head Coach Rick Tocchet, is staggering. This begs the question, what is the problem?
Organizational problems:
A common theme amongst all of the most successful teams in the salary cap era is that they have been able to retain their star players over long periods of time.
The Canucks however, have not been able to do that at all in recent times. Elias Pettersson is the closest the Canucks have come to this foundational reality, and as a result, they have either had short runs of success, or have been circling in mediocrity.
Being able to sustain rosters and a coaching staff are paramount with respect to sustaining success, and the Canucks as an organization are starting to look like a revolving door for the next person up.
In addition to this instability in organizational personnel, the front office has not done a good job at replacing the level of talent they have lost in players they have been losing.
As of now it can be debated that the best player the Canucks have come away with in the trades of Quinn Hughes and J.T. Miller are either Zeev Buium or Marco Rossi, but with plenty of draft choices pending for the Canucks.
Lockeroom culture:
Who is the leader of the Canucks? In terms of team seniority, Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson. But is that not how we got here in the first place?
Internal problems fuelled the demise of what was the most successful Canucks core since the Sedin era, and Elias Pettersson, who was said to be in the middle of much of these controversies, is still wearing a Canucks uniform.
But why? Since Quinn Hughes was traded to the Minnesota Wild, Pettersson’s name has been linked to trade rumours, and while he was ultimately not moved by the Canucks before the Trade Deadline, it is very possible that the Canucks will continue to explore trading Pettersson in the offseason.
Pettersson is the final piece of what is an eroding core, and if the Canucks are truly serious about wiping the slate clean and fostering a new culture, their action on Pettersson will be very telling.
Bad luck:
Bad luck and bad timing are necessary for a drastic change in success in a short period of time. In this case specifically, the timing of the Canucks internal feud, Rick Tocchet’s departure, and Quinn Hughes' impending free agency, all culminated in a short amount of time.
In the 2023-2024 season, if you had told any Canucks fan that the team would be without elite level talent and in the basement of the NHL within two years, the idea would have been unfathomable. But they are, and one has to admire the front office facing the fact that they have to tear it down and their conviction in doing so.