"This could be the year": Canucks owner Aquilini is talking Stanley Cup again
The narrative has changed with the Vancouver Canucks.
That’s true with both fans and media, as well as within the organization.
Speaking at a press conference called to announce that Jim Rutherford has signed a three-year contract extension, the Canucks president of hockey operations and team owner Francesco Aquilini were freely talking about the Stanley Cup.
That’s quite a change from training camp, when Rutherford said if everything went right, they could be merely a playoff team.
The Canucks are at the top of the NHL standings, with a 30-11-4 record, which gives them 64 points in 45 games. They’re now on pace to hit 117 points, which would match the franchise-best season in 2010-11.
Aquilini, needless to say, is pleased with the results so far.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. It’s starting to get exciting again. I mean, as owners, you want to be the owner that brings the Cup to the city,” Aquilini told reporters.
It’s been a long time since anyone in the organization could credibly talk like this. The Canucks were a playoff team in 2015 and 2020, but nobody gave them a chance to go all the way.
But now? Well, the feeling within the organization appears to be “why not us?”
“That pursuit of the Stanley Cup, that’s what it’s all about,” Aquilini added. “As a family, we’re committed to it and we’re going to do whatever we have to do, spend to the salary cap and provide all the support. My job is to support Jim wherever he needs. It’s exciting. You can see it with the fans in the building. The players are excited.
“This could be the year, who knows?”
The comments from today’s press conference would have been unfathomable one year ago.
Sunday will mark the first anniversary of Bruce Boudreau’s last game as Canucks head coach, when the team was at rock bottom.
Other than swapping Bo Horvat for Filip Hronek, the changes made to the roster since then involved complementary players. The core of Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, and Thatcher Demko didn’t go anywhere and are the biggest reason for the team’s success.
So, what changed?
“I felt that we didn’t have a team,” Rutherford explained. “We had a lot of good players, but we didn’t have a team. And now we have a team. The players and the coaches have bought into the team concept.”
Given the revamped expectations, it will be interesting to see what moves the Canucks make before the March 8 trade deadline. What are they willing to give up to improve the club for a playoff run?
There’s obviously a risk in spending future assets in an attempt to load up, but Rutherford also noted that there’s a risk in not doing enough at the deadline.
“You can make the right changes and it could still not work. So there’s a risk in it. But there’s also a risk in not trying to improve the team… This group of players and coaches deserve the best opportunity to compete going forward. And that’s what we talk about every day and we have to make a decision.”
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