Come For The Banter - Stay For The Disappointment
Nucks Fan Rebuild & Retool Center - Come For The Banter - Stay For The Disappointment
Jim Rutherford is staying in place as the Vancouver Canucks President of Hockey Operations. He just won't say for how long, possibly because he doesn't know. Welcome to a New Era of Stability!(tm)
It's unsurprising that the Canucks removed their general manager when the disastrous 2025-26 season concluded. It is something of a surprise that they kept Adam Foote on as coach and Rutherford as the administration's top dog. What's that say about the future?
Nobody does anything that doesn't make sense to them. There is a logic to every person's actions, even if it's incomprehensible to most of us. Rutherford's explanation for Foote's continued employment is that the new general manager will be free to make that decision as they please. On one hand, it shows a willingness to give whoever that is enough responsibility to guide the direction of the team. On the other, it's the strained logic of someone searching for an excuse for their employer's behaviour.
The person with the real power is the owner, Francesco Aquilini, we all know this. But that power is absolutist, something Rutherford made clear when he was first hired: Let me do my thing, or I'm out. It's not decision-making, it's a kill switch. And, by all appearances, the owner is scared to use it.
The Aquilini does NOT want to deal with the public, that's obvious. But he knows it's there. The big decisions do have to go through him, which is the same as any other sports team. Trading Quinn Hughes, for instance, affected the value of the team in multi-dimensional ways. It's not just the money involved, but the infrastructure changed. The owner's going to want to know what's happening and why.
That being said, they took a lot of heat for backing the last guy too long. There's no way he wants to go through that again. If the GM, president, and coach were all fired on the same day, he would be the only one available to face the microphones. So Rutherford stays in place. For now.
One of the more confusing things about this week is that Ryan Johnson hasn't already been named the Canucks' new general manager. He's done a very good job with Abbotsford, bringing the organization their first national championship of any kind. He signed a four-year deal, apparently at very good money, with the understanding he was the heir apparent. His familiarity with the younger players on the team should be obvious.
Initial reports of the Nashville Predators being denied permission to speak to Johnson for their general manager job were dismissed by Rutherford, saying the reporting was a misunderstanding of some kind. That seems an open-and-shut case that the search wouldn't be performative, quickly handing the job to the obvious frontrunner.
Then local reporter Cam Robinson said that he was told the denial was exactly that - a denial of permission. The team does not want to lose Johnson, and will hold him to his contract. Rumours abound that Johnson is Rutherford's pick, but the owners still need to be convinced. To me, it sounds like they are afraid of more anger from the public about not casting a wide enough net in their search.
Right now, any interviews seem like window dressing, but the conversation of who the team might want is interesting.
We know former NHL player Kevyn Adams has been interviewed and can be considered a front-runner. He spent several years trying to piece the Buffalo Sabres together with pipe cleaners and dreams after the COVID-19 pandemic. He managed a few major deals, had a good enough draft record, and was lousy at being the public face of the team.
It was also his first real job as a white-collar in the NHL, and on Day One he fired pretty much everyone he came into eye contact with. So he has a history of doing unpleasant work as needed, and presumably he's also learned from that first job. For a team looking to do a rebuild, bringing someone in without any ties might be a top priority.
Then again, a smart employer might add someone else to stand between him and anyone in the public eye. Or on the ice, for that matter. A team getting a "new coach bump" is a common enough occurrence that is has a name. The "new GM bump" is unique to Adams' dismissal.
Tom Fitzgerald has a history with Rutherford, working in Pittsburgh as an assistant general manager. His time in the top job with the New Jersey Devils has been relatively successful, but he wedged himself and the team into a corner with high-priced signings. Vancouver fans are familiar with the hazards of a skilled but thin team, and the results show in both cities this season.
Ron Francis was recently let go from the Seattle Kraken. Seattle is feeling a lot more pressure to perform than the Canucks are, especially with the NBA planning their return. Francis guided the expansion club through years of slow, steady growth, but they seem to have hit their ceiling under him. They couldn't take advantage of a weak division this season, and an inability to get real top-end talent to join the club counts against his tenure.
There is an odd bump when he came into conflict with Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon. The new majority owner named Francis President of Hockey Operations on March 7, 2018, then terminated his contract less than two months later. Anyone interested in a general manager who can "manage upwards" might want to skip him.
There are more than a few interesting "first-timer" names out there, including Johnson's.
Want a numbers guy? Sam Ventura is a numbers guy. A major part of one the earliest public stats-driven NHL fan sites, WAR-on-Ice, he was hired by the Pittsburgh Penguins for exactly that specialty. He went from consulting with them to a vice-president role with Buffalo, and was a big reason why they have finally broken their playoff-less string. Breaking down analytical data is a vital component for proper talent evaluation, so why not have that skill at the very top?
Like Johnson, Jason Spezza is both an assistant general manager at the NHL level and the general manager of an AHL farm club. While he's only done that job for a few years, he's also been tapped as an assistant with Canada's 2026 World Championship team. He is highly thought of as a future talent, but it's hard to know if that's because of his location or not. His previous job was in Toronto, after all.
Does Spezza bring more than Johnson? The AHL Penguins have been relatively successful in their regular seasons under him. But Johnson has been guiding Abbotsford for longer and has a championship to his name. That's tough to beat.
There are a few interesting names that have cropped up, but it's hard to judge how seriously to take them. Roberto Luongo would absolutely catch some eyes, given his history in Vancouver. It wouldn't entirely be a stunt hire, either, with Luongo working closely with Bill Zito in Florida. Another former player, Shane Doan, is interested in the white collar side of the league, and is currently in Toronto as a special advisor.
Ryan Bowness was the general manager of the Belleville Senators when he was with Ottawa, but last season joined the New York Islanders full time as their director of player personnel. He's only 42, but hardly a newcomer, joining the Atlanta Thrashers as a "team manager" (I don't know, either) in 2009-10. He stayed with the team when they moved to Winnipeg, moving to their pro scouting department. Bowness later became the director of pro scouting with Pittsburgh, then assistant general manager with Ottawa. He's definitely more than Rick Bowness' son.
The most likely hire is still Ryan Johnson, I think. He knows the team, the fans, the media, and the owner, with all the hiccups and foibles that entails. Not moving him into place now would be a massive insult, and it's hard to picture him staying on once his current contract ends. Maybe the team is looking for a fall guy, knowing they have a few hard years ahead. Something to go with another season of Adam Foote, saving the hires they want to make until the worst has passed.
Yes, that's a cynical take. But given the history of this team, with this ownership, it's not something to put past them.
The end of the 2025-26 season has arrived at long, long last. Exit media and player interviews have been had, an evaluation of - Sorry, what's this?
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/canucks-fire-general-manager-patrik-allvin-after-five-seasons/
Well, then. Suppose we should hold off until the President of Hockey Operations gets his notes together and -
Ah. Yes. That. Jim Rutherford's bit starts two hours and four minutes in, and I guess that's where we'll start.
So far, just the general manager has been fired. The reason, Rutherford says, is because the next general manager should decide how the team will react to a disastrous season. That means Coach Adam Foote is still most likely fired, but hasn't been yet.
That's good news. No, really! Rutherford is making a clear demarcation of responsibilities with that decision. Whether he will continue that self-imposed limit, well, that remains to be seen. In theory, the PoHO (there's gotta be a better acronym out there...) chooses the direction of the team, and the general manager executes that vision. But we all know Rutherford stepped in at a few vital points, possibly at the behest of ownership, to take power away from Allvin.
That can complicate any new search. The favourite is Ryan Johnson, who has run the Abbotsford Canucks to an AHL championship and signed a lucrative contract with the understanding he would get promotion to the big club before its term ended. Whether that's to general manager or an assistant GM position is unknown to us.
Rutherford has talked about expanding the search as widely as possible, but whoever comes here will want assurances. How much power will they actually have, what timeline is the team looking at, and what about the Sword of Damocles working an hour down the road? Not many qualified, veteran people would be thrilled with those working conditions.
This is a pretty good question, too. According to Rutherford, he had been thinking about the firing for several weeks, but didn't reach a decision until last night. That it was leaked by a Swedish magazine moved up the announcement, but was otherwise coincidental. Not sure I entirely believe that bit, but it doesn't change much in the big picture.
The first problem is that it delaying the hiring means other decisions will have to wait. That includes signing on scouting staff (or not), finding a new coaching staff (or not), and the amateur draft coming up. Given that Allvin came from the scouting world, that last was entirely in his hands, and he has the Air Miles to prove it.
Other coaches and general managers have been hired already, so another reason my be because the team really does want to have as many options as possible. The longer they wait, the more names are made unavailable. Or it may just be for show before they bring Johnson in and he calls up Manny Malhotra.
Rutherford reiterated that the team is undergoing a rebuild, and any new general manager will need to agree with that. Not a bad thing, but if anyone said differently that would be reason to end the interview early.
The Canucks need to have a rebuild, obviously. Step One is getting over the fear of saying that out loud. The fans in Vancouver aren't idiots. But they're also not made of money. The number of people willing to piss it away on the hobbled creature that appeared early in the season is diminishing. Losing isn't necessarily the thing that turns off fans: losing expensively can.
Whoever's hired as the next general manager is going to have to gain the trust of the fans. That includes having a plan that lasts longer than a few months. Hearing word of a ten-year plan is a bit silly, given the duration of most sports careers. But having a three-year plan to reach one point, then another from there, and another from there, can work for me.
As the team discovered just this season, times change, and so should goals. Vancouver wanted to be competing for a playoff spot as an eventual step to the Stanley Cup. That plan ended in December, and the stated goals soon followed.
Vern's talked about what they want to see from the team ASAP. The team got one thing off the list so far. The rest could take a bit longer.
The draft lottery is coming up in May. Until then? Smile, smile, smile!
At long last, this torturous experiment, which has felt like near decades, is over. Oh, and it's the last game of this utterly cursed Canucks season, too!
Vancouver Canucks (25-48-8) vs. Edmonton Oilers (40-30-11)
Rogers Place, Edmonton, AB
6:00 pm PST; 9:00 pm EST
TV: Sportsnet
Radio: Sportsnet 650
This has been exhausting.
It's dragged on and on, and despite claims along the way that things were going to get better, it didn't. So finally, we can be put out of our misery for a couple weeks at least, and say good riddance to the 2025-26 Vancouver Canucks. In a season that started with a simple statement: A lot of things would have to go right for this team to make the playoffs, ended because quite simply, nothing went right at all.
It's going to take some time to perform the post mortem on this team, and go over everything that led to what is going to end up as quite likely the worst season in franchise history, given that they didn't have the expansion excuse from the team's early days. This was a frustrating, embarrassing, and unacceptable year, and you should expect massive, sweeping changes in the days ahead. You should also not get your expectations up for this, as I would be surprised if there were any changes that would impact the team in a positive way. Yeah, that's the level of confidence I have in this organization at the moment.
I do think it's a safe bet that the coaching staff is done here, and rightfully so. Adam Foote was a disastrous choice by the organization, clearly not ready to be an NHL coach, and if he ever could be, definitely not the right fit for this squad. There are a lot of things that need to happen to fix this god-awful mess, but this is absolutely Step One.
A house cleaning is what is needed here. New faces with new ideas and perspectives, because there just doesn't seem to be a plan right now at all, and the damage that has been development-wise up and down the lineup has been devastating. But most of all, it's time for new ownership.
The Aqualini family shouldn't be allowed within a thousand kilometers of a hockey franchise. Since the heartbreak of losing Game Seven in 2011, Francesco has been chasing that high, heavily involved in so many operational decisions, and they've all ended up in various incarnations of the flaming hubris we see before us. I realize it's too much to hope for another ownership group like the Canucks had in the Griffiths Family, but change has to come, and it cannot fully be realized under this ownership.
And so, with nothing left but a few possible moral victories tonight, the Canucks head into their final game of the season, and a chance to one last funny thing before they go. The outcome of this game can absolutely affect who the Edmonton Oilers play in round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and while it's nowhere near anything that makes this season worth it, it's the least they can do for this fan base, who have suffered so much.
The Oilers could end up playing the Anaheim Ducks, or... with a loss, and a Kings win, face off against Los Angeles again in the first round, which is really a win/win/win, because there's two losers of three in whatever scenario happens here. And if things really go sideways for the Oilers, they'll drop to the WildCard Two slot, which means a date with the Colorado Avalanche. I would so love to see that, because the Avs will absolutely feast on the Oilers defense/goaltending. The Canucks need to do their part, and set the ball rolling for some post-season disappointment in Edmonton.
LINEUPS
From the nhl dot com dealy... here's what to expect tonight:
Canucks projected lineup
Drew O'Connor -- Marco Rossi -- Linus Karlsson
Liam Ohgren -- Teddy Blueger -- Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Nils Hoglander
Curtis Douglas -- Ty Mueller -- Aatu Raty
Zeev Buium -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Elias Nils Pettersson -- Kirill Kudryavtsev
Kevin Lankinen
Nikita Tolopilo
Scratched: Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Victor Mancini, Max Sasson
Injured: Filip Chytil (facial fracture), Thatcher Demko (hip surgery), Derek Forbort (undisclosed), Evander Kane (upper body)
Oilers projected lineup
Matthew Savoie -- Connor McDavid -- Zach Hyman
Vasily Podkolzin -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Jack Roslovic
Colton Dach -- Josh Samanski -- Trent Frederic
Curtis Lazar -- Adam Henrique -- Kasperi Kapanen
Mattias Ekholm -- Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse -- Connor Murphy
Jake Walman -- Ty Emberson
Connor Ingram
Tristan Jarry
Scratched: Owen Michaels, Spencer Stastney
Injured: Jason Dickinson (lower body), Leon Draisaitl (lower body), Mattias Janmark (shoulder), Max Jones (lower body)
Looks like no changes for the Canucks tonight, and I wouldn't read too much into Draisaitl being out, but it's telling that the Oilers are gonna be desperate for a win tonight with the lineup they're icing.
GAME DAY CHATTER
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Much to Westy's delight, this will be the last battle hymn that isn't John Tesh adjacent. From their 2020 album 'A Silent Soul Screams Loud', this is PYOGENESIS, with 'Will I Ever Be The Same?'.
Well, this is the end of the road, for both the Canucks, and yours truly.
My journey with Nucks Misconduct is coming to a close, as of this last game preview. When I had first stumbled across the site back in early 2009 I think it was (or maybe 2008) I was doing a podcast called 'We Are All Canuckleheads', and was encouraged to post it in the Fanposts section. Zan and Yankee encouraged me to do a few writeups for the section, and a short time later, invited me to come aboard as a contributor. I had just finished a couple decades of music journalism (A music video show in Kamloops, a number of zines, and later, a radio show at CFBX Radio in Kamloops), so writing about hockey was new-ish for me. I had been around the old CDC boards back in the day, but still, after getting burnt out on music writing, this was a fresh challenge. What I hadn't counted on, was how things would take off the way they did. If you had told me that not long after I started, I would get mentioned in the Province (RIP Botch), get name dropped by Ron MacLean on HNIC, and be in the media scrums at the 2011 Finals, I would have laughed at you.
We've been through a lot, both as Canucks fans, and as the crew keeping this site going. While none of it has ended the way I had hoped, I will be eternally grateful for the chance to express my love and passion for this team, and the game of hockey, and for the incredible support we've received over the years.
I wanna thank Sean and Mike, for seeing something in me I didn't know existed. You took a gamble on me, and I hope it paid off for you. Thanks to Travis Hughes, and Steph Driver for all the amazing support and help as I went from occasional contributor to Editor, and back again.
To all of the folks who have had a cup of coffee and more with us, thank you. We've been an incredible stepping stone to some of the mainstays of coverage for fans in this market, and for that I will always be proud as hell.
I want to thank Trevor, who was amazing in the short time we had him, and who I was proud to share the leadership with. You'll always be a big part of this site's heritage, and we know what happened is not gonna stop you. You're way too talented for that.
Thursday, I feel like I didn't get to know you well enough, but I feel so good knowing that in my absence, there's someone like you putting together the kind of articles we built this site on. All the best, buddy!
And I couldn't wrap things up without thanking my wife Laurie, whose support, critical eye, occasional photoshop and editing advice helped make my contributions better. Love you, baby.
Finally, Jimmi and Westy. I feel like I am letting you guys down, but I suppose trying to keep going with nothing left in the tank could be viewed the same way. It has been an honour getting to know you guys, and I am proud of the way you both became such massive pieces of what makes NM like no other. I know the last few years have been rough, but the way you refused to let this site die, you should be proud as hell. Cheers, my friends. We'll have that beer one day, for sure.
And to all of you, from the beginning, to the end of my chapter. Thank you. It has been an honour to have you take time to hear what I had to say. I have some health challenges that leave me not able to keep doing this, but it's possible there might be an occasion or two where I pop in for a lil rant (if the guys will have me, that is).
Go Canucks Go.
We are finally here at the end of a gawdawful season. As we naturally look back at what went wrong (what didn't?) and, also, naturally look forward with the question “how the blazes does this team improve next year,” there are some obvious things that must be done. Well, obvious the average shmuck who watches this team, whether they are paying … how the frig much? That much? Holy jumpin …. Large sums of money to watch this disaster live or watching from home, and obvious to folks like yours truly, who was once paid to watch hockey games.
I’m staggered at the number of people who still support the guy. Game after game, he has been outcoached in the dynamic adjust-on-the-fly manner, as well as systems. In fact, it’s abundantly clear that Foote and systems go together roughly as well as me and my ex. Marcus Pettersson’s season has been horrible, because Pettersson – a systems guy has no clue where to be, entirely due to bad coaching. How bad a coach do you have to be to turn a perennial plus player into a defensive disaster? Adam Foote bad. I've seen more than a few BCHL teams with better systems than whatever the heck is going on in Vancouver this year. Even if someone can make a convincing argument that Foote was stuck in a bad position this year (You’d best buy me several adult beverages to make that argument stick), there are too many examples where Foote gave too much rope to veterans and failed to provide training and teaching to the youth. Perhaps I'm biased as a retired ink-stained wretch, but Foote is a very poor communicator to media, and in my experience, good coaches are good communicators. Foote is neither.
Examples of poor coaching include
After firing Foote, the next thing is
You can’t have a 32nd place effort without bad coaching on all fronts. This includes all the assistants, including goaltending coach Marko Torenius, who is an example of someone who has been promoted past their level of competence. As local goalie guru Kevin Woodley has aptly pointed out on dozens of occasions, the big club teaches completely different goaltending approaches than the AHL affiliate. That’s just plain stupid, and didn't happen when Ian Clark was on the clock. While we’re giving cardboard boxes to folks who are provided expanded opportunities to seek employment anywhere the frig else, the human performance staff need to be canned, en masse. The string of injuries this year was so significant that several major media outlets chronicled the issues. The team didn’t have as many injuries when Tony Twist made players sweat: correlation isn't causation, but still .... And, one more very important cardboard box:
Whether he’s directly in control, or the puppet at the end of Jim Rutherford’s strings, it makes no sense to keep the man as the team’s General Manager. He has screwed up almost every major decision since coming into control, starting with the bungled “we want to keep J. T. Miller instead of Bo Horvat” mess, and pretty much continuing down the line from there. The last thing we want is this dude picking Viggo Björck with the third pick this year (oh, come, if you don’t know the Canucks will be bounced to third with the draft lottery, you’ve not been a fan long enough) just because of the umlaut in the last name. There’s a long list of other things for the new GM to do, starting with:
The new coach must have the capacity to teach and train the youth. It will be important, as the roster of existing young talent, as well as a year-older Braeden Cootes and top-three draft pick will need guidance and support - something Adam Foote has utterly failed to provide. For the love of Pete (and every other player not named Pete) the guy or gal (let’s be open minded about this) must, must, must be a systems coach. Most of the problems this year result from Foote’s “system” such as it is being such a flustercluck. Get back to basics, teach the kids, and rebuild something. Anything. The key task for the new coach will be to build some culture, some identity. The GM can assist this by:
DeBrusk has been a massive disappointment, and this year, has only been able to score on the powerplay. Trading deBrusk clears the way for a younger player. Jonathan Lekkerimaki needs the chance to show whether he’s a top-six forward or a bottom-six bust. Speaking of busts,
Another of Allvin's bonehead decisions, was a predictable mess from the get-go.
Spending $13 million/year on he and the ever-injured Thatcher Demko makes no sense for a rebuilding team. No sane manager is going to touch Demko, but Lankinen is a competent backup and will fetch something from someone – maybe Edmonton, who always need a goaltender. (Might be able to fetch a decent forward in return and hey, that Podkolzin kid would look good in Canuck col….oh, right.) The primary reason to trade Lankinen is that Nikita Tolopilo, despite being jerked around by a coach who had every reason to play the kid and didn’t, might be very good if you have a competent goalie coach (see #2 above). To test whether that's the reality, the kid is going to need some playing time. Simply put, It takes time to grow netminders, and by the time Vancouver is legitimately looking at playoff contention, Demko will be either done because of injuries or done because of age, or both. Plan for the future, which may include Alexi Medvedev.
At this moment, it’s obvious EP40 is a bust, and everyone is abundantly aware that $11.6 million annually for a second-line centre who can’t score when it matters is going to be the albatross around the team’s neck for a long time. Nobody is going to want to trade for the guy, so the only option is to deal with it. The best way to do that is to take the kid gloves off, and give Pettersson some ultimatums: do the work to get into better shape, spend the summer learning how to skate, and build some kind of central core strength so that bitchy fans like me don’t end up having a collection of screengrabs showing one of the highest-played players in the NHL sprawled on the ice every. damned. game.
Nobody (including Rick Tocchet) has actually held the ever-moody forward to any degree of accountability, and for $11.6 million a year, that has to change. It might well be worth stripping EP40 of his alternate captaincy, because he's not got a drop of leadership in his veins, and benching Pettersson when necessary.
Two more games left. Last home game. If by some miracle, the Canucks (snicker) win (chortle) tonight, they will escape the dubious distinction of having the worst home-ice record in the expansion era.
As if.
So here's tonight's TANKO, the bingo-like chronicling of the Canucks' ineptitude.
Two more games. Then hopefully some people lose their jobs, and we can get on with losing the draft lottery, m'kay?
| T | A | N | K | O |
| Less than 20 shots on goal | Rookie makes mistake, minutes reduced | Video review goes against the Canucks | Opposition has a player out-scoring EP40 at less cost | Jake DeBrusk fails to score |
| Player/coach mentions “system,” whatever that means | EP40 <50% in faceoff circle | Video review goes against the Canucks | Atu Raty barely given ice time. | PO Joseph out of position on a goal |
| Blundered line change. | Opponent scores hat-trick | Thatcher Demko injured | Brock Boeser held goal-less | Outscored in second period |
| Radio/TV mentions Gavin McKenna | Canucks penalized in the last three minutes of the game | Canucks Shut Out | Coach says “resilient/resilience” at game-day skate/pregame | Opposition player bumps scoring slump |
| Opposition scores 5 or more goals | Opposition scores empty-net goal | Penalty kill surrenders goal | Power play fails to score | EP 40 fails to get a shot on goal. Again. |
If you win, slap the result into bluesky with a #canucks #tanko hashtag. And remember, just like the kid that finishes last at the elementary school track meet three-legged race, you're winner for participating.
Someone's gotta go.
After this sheer disaster of a season the fans want - and deserve - to see heads roll. Whose is a question, as is how big the axe getting swung will be and whether they'll sell general admission tickets. There have been a pile of rumours and reporting from different sources, primarily Rick Dhaliwal, about how the offseason action will play out.
I'm personally inclined to the firing of President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford for his attempted "If you think about it, we've been rebuilding for a couple years" gambit. No you weren't, not you aren't, and do shut up. That was a ludicrous spin on a disastrous season.
In a modern org chart, the overall direction of the team is what the PHO* should be responsible for. They should be on the Big Picture, while the general manager tries to make that happen - or explains why it can't. But telling the person who can fire you why their vision won't work is tough.
I don't think General Manager Patrik Allvin disagreed with Rutherford's assessment. They both had to know they were walking a tightrope this year, as the Canucks have been doing for the past decade. The paper assessment wasn't off - decent talent, weak division, perceived troublemakers gone - but the real-world version was a huge risk.
There was one centre coming off a miserable season, another who was perpetually injured, and a third that left. Add a disgruntled star defenceman and incredibly fragile goaltender and that paper should have more annotations than Finnigan's Wake.
As for that real-world version? It's really, really tough to tightrope walk in skates. The worst possible start led to strange attempts at repair led, eventually, to trading away one of the most talented players the team has ever seen. So that didn't go great.
The rest of the year has followed suit, with what is guaranteed to be a bottom-three finish in Vancouver Canucks history, right back into the early '70s. Coach Adam Foote, promoted in large part because of Quinn Hughes' approval, hasn't been able to stem the tide. In the half-season since the team changed direction of their stated goals, they managed 27 points in 46 games. That's 11 wins, with four coming immediately after the Hughes trade.
Part of the reason Hughes liked Foote's hiring is because he wanted to change tactics. Out was Rick Tocchet's slow, careful, low-risk strategy in favour of a high-pursuit, attacking-defenceman style. More pressure, more energy, more scoring chances. A few moves were made to accommodate, and it immediately produced indifferent results, exiting October with a 6-6-0 record.
Injuries piled up, more consistent losses followed, and Foote couldn't adjust his plans to his talent level. There is some question whether he's managed to communicate his plans to the players effectively. Given the regular chaos in the Canucks' zone on any given night, it's a valid question.
There are reasons why firing each of those three would be the right decision. But that's probably not going to happen.
Rutherford has a lot of clout in the hockey world, and even the most obtuse owners have to acknowledge that. He is also something of a shied for them, as most fans understand that he only took the job with the understanding that he was driving the bus. That was reinforced when he took over the trading of Hughes from Allvin. He undoubtedly talked with ownership about the deal, but only in the sense that "this is happening" was how the conversation started.
Rutherford isn't going to take the reins as general manager, I don't think. He is 77 years old, after all, and is not all that interested in the day-to-day that the position demands. A glance at Allvin's itinerary makes me tired, even if he is getting paid for it. Rutherford is very much the least likely to go.
That doesn't mean Allvin is safe. By all publicly available accounts, he is highly regarded as a talent evaluator. And, again, looking at the team on paper at the beginning of the season, there is no one in the league who believed the Canucks were the worst in the league. Nobody called for a sub-60 point year. But the risk level was sky-high, and that's what they decided to do.
Whether Allvin was to blame for that risk or didn't do enough to hedge against it is a fair question. It was easy to see how thin the top-end talent was, and whether winning now was the right course. Yes, the idea was "Win for Quinn" but there could have been more than one way to do that. Convincing the captain that he'll be the veteran leader of a team ready to challenge in four years is hard when he's already 26, but did they even try?
That would have been the more assured, and frankly smarter, route. And if Hughes wasn't up for it, well, there probably would have been more bidders for his services in the offseason than in December.
Most vulnerable of the three is obviously the rookie coach. That he has a three-year deal is irrelevant at this point, or it should be. Right now, the only concern is protecting the reputational asset known as the Vancouver Canucks.
The team is going to skew young. They don't really have a choice, given the moves made. The assessment of Foote's overall job has got to be a failing grade. But does that mean he alone takes the fall? Or that he does at all?
Rookie players aren't expected to succeed immediately, and they shouldn't be. If your team suddenly has a Matthew Schaefer, that's a huge bonus, not an expectation. Whatever the plan was in September, it didn't happen like it was supposed to. Some of that is absolutely on Foote, as it should be. But some is going to be on the players not executing that plan as well.
The stated goal of the team spun 180 degrees mid-season. The players he had to work with changed dramatically. It's fair to say that he didn't know who was on the bench for a large part of the season. It's difficult to change "Hughes controls the puck at the point" to anything else when you don't have Hughes anymore.
There were games when Foote not only had four rookie defencemen, but also a handful of forwards with fewer than 100 games NHL experience and a rookie goaltender. Some of those players weren't just NHL rookies, but from different systems entirely. Those are tough working conditions.
But they also had the Olympic break to work together. They had nearly two weeks without games, extensive home stands without travel, and time to work on systems. The break was essentially a second training camp, if they wanted to approach it that way.
Perhaps the best argument for keeping Foote is the math: the team has had four coaches in four years. Maybe give this one a chance to work it out, huh?
Or not. It's hard to picture a more difficult public relations move than bringing everyone back again. This is doubly true if they lose coach-in-waiting Manny Malhotra and GM of the future Ryan Johnson.
It could be that the team keeps everyone in place and shifts out half a dozen players. Trading a few away, sending the kids down for seasoning in the minors, letting others walk as free agents. That could happen, though whether it would be well-received by fans is another question. It would be a legitimate changing of the talent on the team.
What I don't want to hear is that they are trying to make the playoffs in 2026-27. The goal should be to reach the Stanley Cup, and I want to know there is a plan for that which doesn't involve keeping everyone in place. It didn't work this year, it won't work next. Heck, I don't even want to see any 2026 draft picks in the lineup next year.
We don't know what going to happen in the offseason, but it will be interesting.
*not the soup
Hang in there. We're almost done. Almost through this blunderfest. Let's make the last few games slightly less dreary, by playing a little game we call Tanko.
It's the bingo-style game based on Canuck ineptitude, of which there is a whole lot. We sprinkled some new failures and foulups into tonight's edition. So turn on the TV or the radio, be prepared to be "right there," and just "trust the process" as we "focus on the details" and ...
Aw friggit.
| T | A | N | K | O |
| Less than 20 shots on goal | Rookie makes mistake, minutes reduced | Video review goes against the Canucks | Opposition has a player out-scoring EP40 at less cost | Jake DeBrusk fails to score |
| Player/coach mentions “system,” whatever that means | EP40 <50% in faceoff circle | Video review goes against the Canucks | Atu Raty barely given ice time. | PO Joseph out of position on a goal |
| Blundered line change. | Opponent scores hat-trick | Thatcher Demko injured | Brock Boeser held goal-less | Outscored in second period |
| Radio/TV mentions Gavin McKenna | Canucks penalized in the last three minutes of the game | Canucks Shut Out | Marcus Petterson out of position on a goal. | Foote says “we can’t make those mistakes” about a mistake that’s happened all freaking season long. |
| Opposition scores 5 or more goals | Opposition scores empty-net goal | Penalty kill surrenders goal | Power play fails to score | EP 40 fails to get a shot on goal. Again. |
Online writing is an interesting thing. The writing remains the same, while the medium - or at least the format - continually changes. Some of us have gone from Notepad cut and paste through Write or Die freeform gibberish over the decades. I have writing that ended up lost and gone forever because I don't have a program that can read it. No great loss, frankly, but it does make comparisons difficult.
If you look to the future, some version of it will be there, sitting in front of you to examine at your leisure. But it won't be an accurate version. Yes, this is about the Vancouver Canucks.
Needless to say, this season has not gone without a hitch. Lots of prognostications had Vancouver making the playoffs, and for good reason. Yes, Quinn Hughes was still on the team - and that helped - but mostly it was all about how weak the Pacific Division was. That part of the predictions still holds true, since in no sane world is Anaheim challenging for first. The playoffs, sure, but first place? Nah.
On paper, the team was easily comparable to others in the Pacific. But there is an important feature inherent with predictions: you can't predict injuries. The Canucks are a paper-thin team, talent-wise, but if they stayed reasonably healthy, they would likely be challenging for a spot right now. But that didn't happen. Hoo, doggies, that didn't happen.
They tumbled, plans changed. And no, nobody believes the team has "been in a rebuild for a couple of years already," Jim. No one. On the other hand, a certain amount of resignation coming from the management team is an oddly refreshing change. It's nice when they acknowledge reality along with the rest of us.
Instead, everyone sees that the team isn't going to hit ten wins at home. We all know the remaining games are going to be filled with mistakes and unequal events. We get it, we really do. Some will complain you're doing it wrong, whatever "it" is, but that's going to happen. This is a city of two million general managers, after all. No one here has a wingsuit they're going to magically pull from their backpack. This team is going downhill and is going to take their lumps doing it.
Then it's time to get up and plan the next route up the mountain.
Funny story: the Canucks' power play has been extremely productive since the team returned from the Olympic break. As in "around 30%" good. The penalty kill, on the other hand, remains bad. Not "worst in the league" bad, but a 75% success rate, which isn't great.
The overall goals stat isn't following the same plan. Just 51 for in 19 games is in the bottom third of the league territory, but not as bad as it could be. Scoring is probably the most forgiving stat for a young team, a place where mistakes aren't as visible as they might be otherwise. Young players are encouraged to "go try stuff" when standings aren't on the line. They were drafted for a reason, now go show it.
Their goals against, on the other hand, is brutal. The 85 given up in those same 19 games doesn't really have an equivalent. Even the Maple Leafs gave up seven fewer, and they have played one more game in that time. Not gonna lie, that one hurts. Now, the Canucks have allowed a team-record 24 empty netters this season, but you have to be behind before that's a risk. And they've been behind a LOT.
The Canucks have missed Derek Forbort as much as any other player this year. As much as we appreciate Pierre-Olivier Joseph, he was supposed to be the seventh man, not an option to keep Tom Willander company. There were games when Vancouver had four defencemen with fewer than 100 NHL games in the lineup. Yes, Kevin Lankinen and Nikita Tolopilo could have been better, but come on. There are plenty of games where opponents scored five or more and the goaltending wasn't the problem.
That makes next year's plan all the more interesting.
The newly-signed Victor Mancini is waiver-eligible next season. He hasn't been great, but he's been good enough that losing him is not only a real possibility, but would do damage. At just $1 million, there is plenty of reason to be patient. The team wants him to use his 6'3", 225 lbs frame more than he has, but that's never really been his game. But his offence hasn't been his NHL ticket, either, and he's going to be on a team with not much size. If he wants to stick, spending Summer taking an MMA course wouldn't hurt.
It's the other three that have the questions. Zeev Buium has the highest upside, but is also the youngest, almost a year younger than Tom Willander. Elias Pettersson the Defenceman has the least pressure to produce points, and is the most physically developed of the three. But his inexperience shows when he's trying to sort out his timing, especially in his end of the ice.
And never mind having a defenceman from this season's draft joining the team next year. Just no. Don't do that. Personally, I don't want to see any player from the 2026 draft on the team in the regular season. Let them avoid the pain of a full 84 games of one-win-in-four level hockey. We don't need them to be good next year in Vancouver. Let them be good right where they are.
Which brings us back to the Three Musketeers. There is, I think, a decent argument to be had for playing them in the AHL next year. Maybe one, maybe two, maybe all three. Next season is going to be hard on everyone, and there are going to be plenty of games where the Canucks are simply outmatched. The available free agents aren't great next year, but they will be veterans who can handle the workload physically and mentally.
On paper, this is a more talented team than the standings indicate. Odds are very good that they will improve considerably on this year's result. But in an ideal world, they will stay in that bottom-five position while individual players gain experience and improve their skills.
We don't know what the future looks like, but we can make educated guesses and act on those. Maybe if I had learned how to save things in different formats sooner, I'd have more of my work available. Maybe if the Canucks had anticipated Hughes leaving, they could have chosen not to rely on injury-prone players. But we are here now, and can always make plans for our future tense then.
The kids are going to play out the year, of course. It's a little unfair to Tolopilo and Lankinen, but them's the breaks. What will be more interesting is seeing what happens next.
Source: National Hockey League @ Elite Prospects
| T | A | N | K | O |
| Veteran makes bonehead play, minutes not reduced | Rookie makes mistake, minutes reduced | Opposition scores 5 or more goals | Opposition has a player out-scoring EP40 at less cost | Jake DeBrusk fails to score |
| Player/coach mentions “system,” whatever that means | EP40 <50% in faceoff circle | Video review goes against the Canucks | Atu Raty barely given ice time. | PO Joseph out of position on a goal |
| Blundered line change. | Opponent scores hat-trick | Thatcher Demko injured | Brock Boeser held goal-less | Opposition player bumps scoring slump |
| Evander Kane takes a dumb penalty | Canucks penalized in the last three minutes of the game | Canucks Shut Out | Marcus Petterson out of position on a goal. | Coach says “resilient/resilience” at game-day skate/pregame |
| EP 40 falls down/is knocked down | Opposition scores empty-net goal | Penalty kill surrenders goal | Power play fails to score | EP 40 fails to get a shot on goal. Again. |
We didn't invest much energy in this, largely due to the large scale system shock suffered at the (checks notes) 8-6 ww...wii .... win.... (hoof, outta practice on that word) from last night.
Is it wrong to hope that Elias Pettersson (the one that doesn't fall down all the time) or someone else flattens Quinn "Quitter" Hughes? I hope it's not wrong.
| T | A | N | K | O |
| Veteran makes bonehead play, minutes not reduced | Rookie makes mistake, minutes reduced | Opposition scores 5 or more goals | Opposition has a player out-scoring EP40 at less cost | Jake DeBrusk fails to score |
| Player/coach mentions “system,” whatever that means | EP40 <50% in faceoff circle | Video review goes against the Canucks | Atu Raty barely given ice time. | PO Joseph out of position on a goal |
| Blundered line change. | Opponent scores hat-trick | Thatcher Demko injured | Brock Boeser held goal-less | Opposition player bumps scoring slump |
| Evander Kane takes a dumb penalty | Canucks penalized in the last three minutes of the game | Canucks Shut Out | Marcus Petterson out of position on a goal. | Coach says “resilient/resilience” at game-day skate/pregame |
| EP 40 falls down/is knocked down | Opposition scores empty-net goal | Penalty kill surrenders goal | Power play fails to score | EP 40 fails to get a shot on goal. Again. |
