TORONTO — How is everyone enjoying the Vancouver Canucks’ organic tank?
The last-place team’s 5-0 defeat Saturday to the Toronto Maple Leafs and six-game losing streak is the level of ineptitude that many fans and reporters have been calling for in Canucks Nation, although that does make some of that constituency’s outrage over recent results somewhat perplexing.
With 38 games to go, the Canucks have plummeted safely into the Gavin McKenna draft-lottery sweepstakes, 11 points out of a playoff spot and at least five points adrift of 30 of the 31 teams above them in the standings.
After being outscored 15-4 through the first half of their current six-game funeral procession — and still looking for their first lead of 2026 — the Canucks face difficult back-to-back games against the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators starting on Monday.
The Canucks’ young players are making mistakes and some of their experienced ones haven’t looked particularly engaged or, at least, sharp. No. 1 goalie Thatcher Demko is hurt again, and the only cavalry coming is winger Conor Garland, whose return from injury is imminent.
So, the odds don’t favour things suddenly getting better for them — or worse, depending on your fan tribe.
But the “hybrid rebuild” may get more combustive.
Canucks president Jim Rutherford said Sunday that although plans for the hybrid haven’t changed, as the organization tries to support and guide its developing prospects by retaining key veterans, everything is on the trade table for the NHL team.
After notifying other teams in November that Vancouver was taking offers on its free-agency-eligible players, Rutherford told Sportsnet that general manager Patrik Allvin has been getting calls of interest on Canucks other than just their impending UFAs.
“I would suggest that we listen to teams when they call — about anybody,” Rutherford said. “But that would be the same whether we’re winning or losing. When someone talks about a hybrid rebuild, it means the team is not shopping every player.
“But prior to this, we already made the decision that we were going to go with younger players. Over the past few years, our staff has done a good job and we have a number of good young players, whether they’re in our lineup now or close to getting in our lineup. And those players are going to get a chance to play. Based on the circumstances with this team, this is the year to do it. The fact of the matter is we’re in a rebuild.”
-
-
32 Thoughts: The Podcast
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
Nine of 12 Canucks older than 25 and on multiple-year contracts have some form of trade protection. According to Rutherford, none has approached management to say they don’t want to endure the pain of the organization’s pivot towards youth, which became more sharply defined with last month’s trade of captain and superstar Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild.
“People will go through their times of struggling with what’s going on, and times they won’t,” Rutherford said when asked about the uneven performance of Canuck veterans. “Nobody wants to be a part of losing, and certainly, losing streaks. But it’s in everybody’s best interest to play within the system, try to play the right way, and win some games. For anybody that totally drops off from that, it’s only going to hurt the individual more so than it will hurt the team.
“We have a number of first-year players in our lineup, which is what we want. It’s the direction we want to go. We have to realize we’re in a process now, OK? We have to learn to play the game the right way and learn when and when not to try to do things. And we’re seeing (those mistakes) very clearly this week that we can make better choices to prevent goals. And that’s what we want to see from this group. We have to learn from our mistakes.”
With the proceeds of the Hughes trade, Rutherford said at the time the Canucks could “turn things around within a couple of seasons.” That belief was predicated on the idea that a full rebuild could be avoided by retaining some key veterans still young enough to be contributing once the new wave of prospects mature as NHL players.
Allvin later termed it a “hybrid rebuild.”
“The process of a rebuild would take two or three times longer if you just go with young players,” Rutherford said Sunday. “You have to have the right veteran players to mentor these up-and-coming players. If you do that, the (rebuilding) process doesn’t have to be nearly as long. And we happen to have some very good veteran players that can and, I believe, are willing to play in a situation like this and be good mentors.”
Shortly after Rutherford’s interview, the Canucks announced that one of their three 21-and-under defencemen, Elias Pettersson, was being sent to the American Hockey League for development, replaced on the NHL roster by 23-year-old call-up Victor Mancini.
Goalie Nikita Tolopilo was also promoted from the Abbotsford Canucks to fill in for Demko, who was placed on injured reserve after sustaining another setback while allowing three goals on six shots in the first period on Saturday.
The Canucks did not practise Sunday in Montreal.
“All options will be open as far as development,” Rutherford said. “Our plan this year, before we added Zeev Buium (from Minnesota), is that our young defencemen would go up and down to the minors and get different reps in the American Hockey League and be able to play not under the same pressure you get at the NHL level. Some of the mistakes I’m seeing are very correctible. But all of those options are open.”
He said the same applies to the trade market.
“Whether you win 10 in a row or lose 10 in a row, those options should always be there,” Rutherford said. “And even more so now with where this team is.”
