Rutherford reveals how long he thinks Vancouver Canucks rebuild will last
Vancouver Canucks fans have been waiting a long time to hear the word “rebuild.”
They heard it, and then management backtracked.
But now, the fact that they’re in a rebuild is undeniable.
Both general manager Patrik Allvin and president Jim Rutherford have used the word rebuild in the past few days when discussing the current state of the Canucks.
It took until Vancouver firmly entrenched itself at the bottom of the NHL standings, but here we are.
So, how long could this Canucks rebuild take?
“I would like to think based on the number of young players that we have, that we’ve been able to pick up over the last few years, with high ceiling, that this rebuild can take two or three years, not six to 10,” Rutherford told Patrick Johnston of The Province.
If that’s going to be the case, the Canucks will need to have pinpoint accuracy, both with their upcoming trades and at the NHL Draft.
Rebuilds can work, but they often take time.
Most NHL clubs go through longer periods of pain and losing before they finally turn the corner.
While everyone wants to look at the Montreal Canadiens right now as a model rebuild franchise, they already had Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield in the organization, even after they made their surprising run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals.
They also struck gold with the selections of Caufield and Lane Huston at the draft and successfully dealt players like Tyler Toffoli, Ben Chiarot and Alexander Romanov for first-round picks. Not to mention, they got two first-round picks for Sean Monahan.
Even the Colorado Avalanche missed the playoffs in six of seven seasons before they turned their franchise around, drafting cornerstones Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar in the process.
And while the San Jose Sharks have finally started to climb the standings, they haven’t made the playoffs since 2019.
The Sharks are an interesting case study for Canucks fans because one of the main hindrances of their rebuild was the fact that they had to navigate around players with no movement clauses, including Tomas Hertl and Erik Karlsson.
That’s important to remember for a Canucks team where eight players have no movement clauses, including Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk, Filip Hronek and Marcus Pettersson.
Two others, Conor Garland and Thatcher Demko, have no movement clauses that kick in next season.
Navigating a trade for any of those players could be tricky, which is why Rutherford is wise to suggest that the Canucks leave no stone unturned in their quest to accelerate this rebuild.
“It’s our duty to take calls on everyone,” Rutherford told Johnston.
“We may end up saying no to offers, certainly, but we’re not going to say no to having conversations about any player. This is about improving this team without taking shortcuts.”
One of those players the Canucks are taking calls on reportedly includes Elias Pettersson, who is in the second season of an eight-year contract. If the Canucks are serious about a rebuild, trading him would certainly signify that.
No team wants to be bad for five plus years. However, as history suggests, typically rebuilds do take longer than 2-3 years. That’s especially true with no Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, or Macklin Celebrini-like saviour at the top of this year’s draft.