[Oilers Now] Pierre LeBrun: “The original bump after the Hughe’s deal, the Canucks actually did OK on that road trip, and I think there was a sense maybe from ownership on down that maybe they could do more of a hybrid rebuild and this could be quicker, but I think reality has set in now more.”

31 comments

  2. It terrifies me that a single road trip rather than even a cursory assessment of this very deficient lineup carried the day for a few weeks in terms of the franchise’s direction.

  3. Good thing we tanked the hybrid rebuild bs away. A good chunk of the fanbase were getting delusional because of that road trip as well.

  4. just how short sighted can ownership be… literal goldfish brain aqualini here

  5. Don’t worry guys. This totally doesn’t mean if we start 6-3-1 next season, they won’t consider flipping and declaring the rebuild finished.

  6. This is the brain rot we are going have to deal with during this rebuild next season and beyond

    ((Rebuilding team goes on a 4 game win streak next year))

    Aquilini: “should we trade our first to make a push for a wild card?”

    GM: “we’re still rebuilding and too low in the standings, so no”

    Aquilini: “yeah but we won 4 in a row?”

  7. It’s crazy to me that these guys do this for a living and make a ton of money to seemingly know how to build a team. How could they not see how bad we are? We are still the absolute worst team in the league

  9. Sounds absolutely stupid but its probably that shared delusion with management from that part of the fanbase who actually thought we were a better team without Quinn.

  10. I mean.. that’s fair, really.

    They did get off to a great start post-hughes, so its hard to blame them for maybe leaning that way. Fortunately all the games since then has made it abundantly clear that it was indeed just a bump, and we actually, clearly, suck major ass

  11. Does LeBrun has any insight on the Canucks Org or is this just a national reporter speculating. If it was a local guy it would be more substantial.

  13. Wow. We know that our ownership (and to a degree, management) is shortsighted and doesn’t plan for the long term, but this just takes the cake.

    It’s always about “win now.” But we can’t do that with a fading roster. The rebuild should’ve happened in 2014, but yeah. The prevailing mentality of not ever doing a rebuild happened and look at us some 12 years later. Team is at its lowest and the Canucks feel irrelevant in hockey and in Metro Vancouver.

  14. It’s been over a decade of “we need a center and a number one defenseman”. Recently we had center depth and a number one D and lost them. It’s like we are starting over from 2015.

  16. “We are going to go for the cup to put butts in seats, beers are now $30” ~ probs aqualini

  18. Am I the only one seeing that Pierre is clearly speculating here, and he’s not trying to hide that fact? He never says he has any sources on this, never even says the infamous “I get the sense” that would imply that he’s at least talked to people about it. This is pretty clearly him speculating on why the wording might have changed from ‘hybrid retool’ to full-on rebuild.

  19. Management does have to be cheerleaders for team morale and fan engagement. I could see it beneficial for management to lean into short term hype, especially around the holiday season.

    Fans buying things and chatting about the team during their break. Also don’t want the players to lose all hope and stop trying this early onto the season.

    Hopefully management was cautiously optimistic and was still planning for the future. Although with this management group/ownership it is definitely possible they were being too excited.

  20. On paper this team should not be a bottom team, but the reality of players being injured, players vastly underperforming and what seems like a coaching system that does not work has led us to this.

    It is insane that we are cap ceiling team too, so many bad moves by management teams that were head scratchers at the time. I dont even know how you address this fuckin team

  23. Everyone kind of felt that way for 15 minutes. They let them settle to see what happens…

    Well the dust is settling and 20 year old decent defenseman isn’t as good as your best d man in team history and an underperforming 20 year old winger didnt make your team significantly better in the current moment.

    It was a brief moment and you can hope all you want. I did. But thats not reality. I highly doubt they honestly in their hearts thought that this was the move that was is going to turn it around in any form.

  25. I saw the same pattern here tbh. Suddenly started hearing about how we were only six points back with a game in hand, and that’s really not too hard to climb out of, and doesn’t Zeev basically look like Hughes anyway? If you squint? I think Aqua is a fan of the team. I hate that for us.

  26. Everyone focused on this year but not really any clarity about next year or the one after. Brough on 650 has been bringing this up

  27. It just makes me irrationally mad that “hybrid rebuild” was even in consideration at any point this year.

  29. Pathetic and unsurprising. So don’t be shocked if the narrative changes after we win a few. We have a spoiled child in charge and our favourite team is his toy.

  30. The plan is still 2-3 years keep in mind. I think ownership was hoping that it was done now and they could get in this year (I was also hoping that)

  31. All this summarizes is how bad our pro scouting and how bad our office is.

    They thought this roster could be competitive?

    Are they f****** stupid?

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