Jason Botchford was right.

And yet, the Vancouver Canucks never listened.

One of the most influential local sports journalists of all-time, Botchford was often right about his musings, but one moment has stood the test of time.

“You need an army,” Botchford once said on Vancouver sports radio back in 2018. “That should be the slogan for the Canucks. We need an army! Let’s go. We need picks. We need players, we need prospects. We need an army.”

Seven years later, fans are still waiting for the Canucks to take Botchford’s advice.

Instead, the Canucks are busy spitting out frustrating phrases like “hybrid retool,” as opposed to taking the type of patient rebuilding approach that most Stanley Cup winners undergo.

If only the Canucks listened to Botchford in the first place.

“We need an army” stemmed from the idea that the Canucks needed to look long and hard at trading veterans from the roster to amass picks and prospects to build the next great Canucks team.

Instead, the organization took shortcuts under Jim Benning, trading back-to-back picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts in a desperate attempt to make the postseason.

While there was promise early in the Jim Rutherford/Patrik Allvin era, the Canucks management team has amplified their own mistakes by trading valuable draft commodity for win-now players like Marcus Pettersson.

They’ve continued to make Benning-like mistakes, such as letting Pius Suter walk as a free agent, and trading draft capital for a 34-year-old Evander Kane.

I wonder what Botchford would say about that?

Back in 2018, Botchford wrote a column talking about how the Boston Bruins ruthlessly traded away players, like Dougie Hamilton, Johnny Boychuk, and Milan Lucic, to amass draft picks.

Then, one month after Botchford’s tragic passing in 2019, the Bruins came within a game of winning the Stanley Cup.

Meanwhile, the Canucks are destined to missing the playoffs for the ninth time in 11 years.

When Botchford wrote that article in February of 2018, he posed this question when discussing how players should be viewed by the Canucks organization.

“Is he going to help the team win a Stanley Cup? If the answer is no, the team has to explore the possibility of moving him.”

That needs to be the lens through which the Canucks make decisions moving forward.

The player he was discussing there, by the way, was Sven Baertschi. The Canucks decided not to trade him, and he would eventually walk for nothing after concussions derailed his career.

Botchford also talked about the possibility of trading Chris Tanev for a haul in 2018. The Canucks, of course, did not do that, and Tanev walked as a free agent in 2020.

Imagine if the Canucks traded Tanev for premium assets back in 2018. That theoretically would have given the Canucks more ammunition to compete while Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, and J.T. Miller were all in their primes.

The Canucks could avoid these mistakes by asking themselves, which players currently on the team will help Vancouver win a Stanley Cup?

Can Elias Pettersson be the centrepiece of a Cup-winning team? How about the Canucks’ highest-paid wingers, Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk?

If the answer is no, can the Canucks convince them to waive their no-trade clauses, so that you can meaningfully start building that army?

There’s also Conor Garland, who doesn’t have any trade protection until next summer. He’s also set to turn 30 years old in March. Exploring the possibility of moving him, and pending UFA Kiefer Sherwood, seem like astute ways to make sure the Canucks avoid more Tanev-like mistakes.

Botchford’s army-building approach is what the Canucks need after years of ineptitude. Otherwise, this franchise is doomed to continue spinning its tires.

The Canucks fan base deserves better. They deserve better than a “hybrid retool.” They deserve better than cheering on one of the most mediocre teams in the NHL over the last 15 years.