Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes (43) has rebounded from injury this season to become the NHL’s second-highest scoring defenceman.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
After the tumult of last season, fans of the Vancouver Canucks were looking for a little less drama off the ice this year and a little more excitement on it.
So far you can say there’s certainly been a lot less theatre. Their playoff prospects, however, currently remain as bleak as ever.
For those who don’t follow the goings-on with the team on a regular basis, last year became a lost season when tensions between their two top forwards, J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson reached a breaking point. One of them had to go, and with Pettersson’s play having fallen off a cliff, there wasn’t much of a market for him and the nearly US$93-million, eight-year contract he signed in 2024.
So, the Canucks found a deal with the New York Rangers that sent Miller there and, among other pieces, centre Filip Chytil to Vancouver.
At this point, it’s difficult to say either side won the transaction.
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Regardless, the Canucks missed the playoffs and entered this season with a new coach, Adam Foote, who replaced the popular Rick Tocchet, who decided he’d rather be a bench boss in Philadelphia.
And so here we are, with the Canucks treading water at 9-10-2 in the Western conference, losing games you think they should win, and winning games you think they should lose. Just the sort of season that drives a fan crazy and ultimately leaves the team in the middle of the league pack, picking prospects in the middle of the draft.
Hovering ominously over this season, however, is the future of superstar defenceman Quinn Hughes. He has one year left on his contract. He has mused publicly about one day playing on the same team as his brothers, Jack and Luke, who currently suit up for the New Jersey Devils. So, there’s that.
Hughes is also captain of the Canucks, a responsibility he sometimes wears like a crown of thorns. Who can blame the guy? I would get a little ornery too if I had to answer questions from the media following another listless performance by his team.
Vancouver Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford, seen here speaking on the team’s media day in September, recently shot down the idea of his team rebuilding.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
Being team spokesman, in this market, can be a lot. Every utterance is scrutinized and then scrutinized again. Being the incredibly insecure fanbase that it is, many believe Hughes is likely gone. This has had the sports talk shows auditioning a not-so-foreign concept around these parts: a complete tear down and rebuild.
To start the season, the R-word was all anyone seemed to be talking about. This, after a particularly rough, uninspiring start. This talk has died down in recent days, thanks to some inspired play from the team itself, but also comments from Canucks president Jim Rutherford to Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre about the issue.
Rutherford ruled a rebuild out. And what else would you expect him to say? He’s not going to talk about burning things to the ground as long as Hughes is in uniform. That would all but guarantee he’s gone. Rutherford still believes in this team, still thinks he can make it better, still hopes to extend Hughes. In other words, he has no interest in beginning the process of selling off assets for draft picks and young players.
Which is smart.
The team had a horrible start to the year on the injury front.
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The aforementioned Chytil, who has a history of concussion problems, is out with a concussion. Their oft-injured star goalie, Thatcher Demko, is injured, again. So is versatile centre Teddy Blueger, which is partly why the team’s penalty kill has mostly been dreadful.
The team has made some moves to shore up their manpower deficiencies, grabbing Leafs castoff David Kampf and before him, former 2020 first-rounder, Lukas Reichel from Chicago. Neither were the type of move that fires up a skeptical fanbase.
That said, the Canucks have started to get players back, which explains, in part, their more inspired play of late.
Hughes, who got off to a slow start and missed games due to injury, seems to be back to his old self. He’s racking up points at a shocking rate, going from 18th in scoring among defencemen to second – over a span of three games. This is what Vancouver has come to expect from its captain.
Vancouver Canucks centre Elias Pettersson (40) is rediscovering his game this season, after a drama-filled campaign the year before that saw the team trade J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers.Rebecca Blackwell/The Associated Press
But the real surprise has been Pettersson. His play of late is the first sign in some time of a return of the player who existed more than a year ago – the one who earned the lucrative contract.
He’s been one of the strongest centres in the league in the faceoff circle. He’s first among forwards in blocked shots. He’s had several multi-point games. The confidence that so mysteriously disappeared seems to be returning. If the team had a legitimate No. 2 centre behind him, there might be an entirely different conversation around the Canucks than there currently is.
Still, the future remains murky, at best. After 21 games, the team is 9-10-2. At Christmas last year, the Canucks were 17-10-7 – and they still went on to miss the playoffs.
If it appears at some point this is shaping up to be another lost season, then management is going to need to know what the prospects of keeping Hughes are. If they’re not great, then the sooner they deal him the better. Perhaps then they can get on with the rebuild for which their fanbase appears so eager.