Former Vancouver Canucks Forward Calls Out the Organization to Undergo a Rebuild
Photo credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-Imagn Images
A former Vancouver Canucks forward is calling on the organization to undergo a rebuild after a poor start to the year and three playoff appearances in 12 seasons.
The rebuild topic isn't going away anytime soon as fans are calling for the team to tear it down and start over, with the team's President of Hockey Operations, Jim Rutherford, discussing recently whether or not they'd be willing to do so.
"Rebuilds can work. But you have to understand rebuilds take a long time. There has to be a lot of patience, and for the teams that take the biggest jump and ultimately rebuild and win a Cup, they usually have a first-overall pick. And you still have to get lucky on that. I'm not naming teams, but some have tried a rebuild and had a ton of draft picks that didn't turn out. So a rebuild is not something that we're going to look at doing. Like I said, we're in transition. But we're not trading all these players for draft picks that may or may not end up playing someday." Rutherford said.
If Vancouver's 2025-26 campaign continues goes south and they end up missing out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fifth time in the last six seasons, then a rebuild absolutely needs to be talked internally and it looks like one of their former players even believes it's time to undergo one soon.
Former Vancouver Canucks forward Jannik Hansen calls on organization to rebuild
While making an appearance on Sportsnet 650, former Vancouver Canucks forward Jannik Hansen, who has been very outspoken and honest about his feelings towards the current team, says it's time for them to rebuild.
Hansen says the last three management groups continue to preach that they can retool on the fly and that they're close to contending when in reality, they're not close at all and a full rebuild is needed for them to get back to being a competitive hockey club year in, year out.
"It's the third management team now that's singing the same song. We're going to retool, we're right there, we're almost there! We've seen over the past decade that it's not really almost there." Hansen said.
Despite Hansen's feelings on the topic, which are the same as a good chunk of this fan base, the organization doesn't believe a rebuild is needed, nor can one happen at this time.
General Manager Patrik Allvin was asked for his opinion on a rebuild while making an appearance on After Hours last week and he said it's not a viable option at the moment because of the players they have on their roster right now - Brock Boeser, Quinn Hughes, Thatcher Demko, Elias Pettersson, among others.
"Well I don't think you can do that when you have good players in Quinn Hughes, Demko, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and then the next wave of young players in Willander Pettersson, Mancini, Lekkerimäki. Very excited to have Braeden Cootes playing well in Seattle. I think he had a six point game tonight against the Giants. And we have Medvedev the goalie [with the] London Knights. So I think we're prepared well for it. Obviously you don't want to put young players in a position to fail in the National Hockey League, but I do see a lot of growth. And another guy Aatu Räty here getting big minutes and took a key faceoff in the end [of the game] here. He's another guy who's just going to grow again." Allvin said.
We'll have to wait and see if management's feelings change towards a potential rebuild in the months ahead, but as mentioned, if they fail to make it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, serious discussions will need to be had between Jim Rutherford, Patrik Allvin and Vancouver Canucks ownership about the direction of this team.
Previously on Canucks Daily
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