It’s a word that has escaped this market for years.
It’s a word that Vancouver Canucks fans were long desperate for executives to admit.
Even when they were toiling near the bottom of the standings year after year in the Jim Benning era. Even last year, after they traded J.T. Miller and fell out of playoff contention.
Well, it took until the Canucks traded the best defenceman in franchise history, but Canucks fans finally heard the word “rebuild.”
“With the circumstances surrounding J.T. [Miller] and now Quinn [Hughes], we are fortunate to acquire these very good young players from Minnesota,” president Jim Rutherford said in a press release.
“They will be a key part of the rebuild that we are currently in, giving us a bright future moving forward.”
There you have it, the dreaded “R” word that Canucks executives have avoided like the plague over the last decade-plus.
Heck, even just one month ago, Rutherford flat-out said that the Canucks weren’t rebuilding.
“A rebuild is not something that we’re going to look at doing,” Rutherford told Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre last month.
“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.”
Well, after the trading of Hughes, it seems like Canucks management has finally accepted reality.
However, the return for Hughes did signal that the Canucks don’t want to fully tear things down.
Instead of targeting a return that would see them net multiple first-round picks, the Canucks opted for a package of three young skaters who could play NHL games for them now.
That includes 24-year-old centre Marco Rossi, 22-year-old winger Liam Öhgren, and 20-year-old defenceman Zeev Buium, along with a first-round pick.
The return signifies that, while the Canucks are now admitting to a rebuild, their actions suggest that they don’t see this as a long-term, tear-it-down overhaul.
If they had the appetite for more of a pure rebuild, they could have done something similar to what the New York Islanders did last June when they traded defenceman Noah Dobson in exchange for two first-round picks.
“This doesn’t have to be a full-blown rebuild where it’s going to take five or seven years,” Rutherford said during a post-trade call with reporters. “We keep going the direction we’re going, and we’re going to get a really good player in June.
“This thing can turn for the Canucks certainly within the next couple of years.”
While Canucks fans have nary heard the word “rebuild,” they’ve heard all about how the team will be good in a couple of years.
