Working for a retail store that opens a huge new location and closes just a few years later sucks. Especially if you're there long enough to see the collapse happen in real time.

Everyone knows it's sinking, and that's a rough haul. No one wants to be there, but that's who's paying you so off to work you go. Fewer customers, then fewer people working your department, then shorter hours, then you're working two departments...

On the positive side, you probably won't have to do interviews every two days to explain why the store isn't working.

One Week

We know what the team needs. The unrestricted free agents need to get a return, and at least one other contracted player has to go. It almost doesn't matter which one, though we went with Garland because his move would be the least complicated. It seems that Tyler Myers is contemplating his future, which is quite a surprise.*

That there's a demand isn't the surprise, but that the team asked him to consider the move is. Of all the players on the team, he is the least likely to want this. And yet, he's the first one we know of since Kiefer Sherwood was sent to San Jose. Myers has close ties to his community, family reasons to stay, and has a full no-move clause. He lives in the province year-round. He obviously doesn't want to go.

It's hard to say Myers counts as a long-term contract. He only has a single year remaining, and it's for a perfectly reasonable $3 million. No, we need to see one of the big boys leaving by March 6. One of those "not expiring until the '30s" deals. Then we'll be convinced.

Until then, the three UFAs will have to do.

But What?

It's entirely possible that David Kampf doesn't move along. He's more valuable than Lukas Reichel, but still going to be an extra, in-case-of-emergency player. Not a terrible loss, there. But if this management group can't get some kind of return for Evander Kane and Teddy Blueger, it will be catastrophic.

Not because the team really REALLY needs an extra third-round pick, though that's a good thing to have. It will signal disaster because of how it will show that they can't do what is Step One of a standard NHL season, never mind a rebuild.

They have been very good at keeping potential moves quiet until they happen, but these are simply too obvious to be secrets. The Myers offer needed to be made public because of him not playing games, but his circumstance is the exception here, not the rule. So management can still surprise us all.

Skip To The Yule

Unfortunately, they likely missed their best opportunity back in December. The league was much tighter then, and odds were that at least 20 of them believed they had some shot at making the playoffs. Another half-dozen weren't just locks, but Stanley Cup competitors. That's a huge market with not many buyers.

Before the holiday break and after Quinn Hughes was moved would have been an excellent time to sell. The team was shaken up, anyone could go, make us an offer. Or even better, here's an offer we're making. Have the Ghost of Christmas Future visit a few general managers and remind them that only one can win each year, so they'd better act now!

Alas, here we are in March and the limitations of far more teams are apparent. The Blues are sellers, as are Calgary and Manhattan. Toronto should be selling, though lord knows with that town. And not only are fewer teams buying, the ones who are close a little scared to make a major change for fear of disrupting team chemistry.

Waddya Want?

It's also possible that none of the long-term players get moved out by the end of the week. That's more acceptable than not being able to move one of the UFAs, but that's almost beside the point. What moving one of those players would do is signal that the team was taking the rebuild seriously.

The Vancouver Canucks aren't going to be a good team next season. Everyone, from the owner to the casual fan, should know this. And that's fine. We can accept that. In a city of 2 million general managers, very few of them are unaware of how a rebuild can happen and what that will mean.

But.

That means the team needs to build trust. We - the ticket-buying public - need to trust that these are the people who can guide the team over the rough stretches. Bad teams we've seen, and plenty of them. Uncoordinated teams, ramshackle teams, desperation teams, all of these have asked us to watch them. And for the most part, we do. Because sports is fun. This ain't life and death, here, and we know it.

But don't frikkin' bore us. Don't trot out a lazy team. Don't saddle us with dead-eyed vets playing out the string of their careers. Yes, a couple painful deals can come back, but have them attached to interesting players, at least. Bring in people interested in being mentors. A Cup ring or two. Players trying to get their stats up for one more deal.

Next Year

In an ideal world, we won't see whoever the team drafts this year until the second half of 2027. Let the losing build character and cohesion and scrappiness. We LOVE that stuff! This is the team of Trevor Linden and Stan Smyl and Harold Snepsts. Curt Fraser and Gino Odjick and Alexandre Burrows are jerseys you can still see at the arena.

Don't get us wrong: we love Pavel Bure and Markus Naslund and Jyrki Lumme, too. But we know when they aren't here. There's no need to pretend they are. You can trust us.

Now it's your turn.

*As a quick aside, may I say I have absolutely hated the way this management team has treated their players and coaches? Strong-arming Elias Pettersson into signing a deal before he wanted, waving off captain Bo Horvat in his contract year, berating Brock Boeser after his best season ever, publicly hanging Bruce Boudreau out to dry like a duck in a Pender Street window. Unnecessary garbage. Very mild rant over.