Don't worry about the "plan" until marketing directs their media to start talking about "moral victories in losses", the prospects that aren't playing in the NHL and blaming the same things that affect all teams, injuries, without the context of why the impact here is so much greater than other teams, the lack of depth. All their chips are in one hand, win or bust.
I think I hear "resignation" in post game talks, a lack of emotion, professional.
Some people think firing Tocchet, they don't need to do that just yet, just don't re-sign him. Maybe he doesn't want to be in the hothouse of a Canadian city. His Adams trophy will get him another job somewhere so he is comfortable in his future.
Calgary was a team that jettisoned a bunch of highly regarded vets, the fans thought they were done, selling off long term vets did what? Got them lots of future picks and some pretty decent young players.
IMO selling more of the future to put bandaids on the same gaping wound of a lack of skill and depth, the same issues of the past 7 years is just panicking.
In hockey trades, trades for the future those can be made all year. It is easier for some team that have cap space but the Canucks can use their cap space for other teams via using retention.
Say Boeser to Minnesota, although I don't know what they have to offer that is enough for the Canucks to retain 50% of the remaining cap hit. That is something fans don't realize, the team isn't absorbing the entire cap hit at this point of the season, so as an example how much added value does Boeser have if only costing a 3 mil cap hit to the other team? Revisited this idea, they can't because they used up that tool.
Now EP and Miller are different they have too much term but there are others like Soucy, Demko, Deharnais where it is a one year hit but this management group had no issues with OEL's 7 more years, Mikheyev's 2 years buyouts/retention. Revisited this statement as well. Maybe the summer for one retention
The media is trying so hard to sell that a rebuild or retooling is so much worse than the current death by a thousand cuts. Cheerleaders for the most part, lots of they lost BUT ....
It is never too soon to make hockey decisions or is there some unwritten rule about not doing anything to distract fans from the WJC or the big stadium game? Hockey trades can happen all year anytime although it does appear that most teams take two months off in summer.
Another of Rutherford's statements when hired was he didn't need years to figure out what the team was as he had been watching it and there was lots of tapes of the previous games. Another statement that Allvin and the other 3 GM's apparently never viewed or just decided didn't matter.
A retool might not be pleasant, it will diminish the false hope of being a great team ready to win the cup but might just end up winning a cup. AND it might not be that bad.
The Canucks have not had this asset value in a decade, there are players coming off career seasons that added value so the returns will also be enhanced.
There is nothing that says the team can't get a brighter future and still sign FA's or get good players in return with the cap space they recover.
Winning a trade and perceptions, at the time the OEL trade he was thought to be the big ticket, a Canucks win add in part time NHLer RFA Garland at league minimum salary and a win of sorts. Now a few years later and that deal is a disaster for the Nucks, Garland proved out to be fairly decent but for years was over paid by millions and even now he does make an impact it just isn't enough for the cap hit pointwise. But he does have value. So the longer term returns need to be endured. Two Necas's getting 60 to 70 points for 8 years and being only 27 yrs old vs one, in 8 yrs, 32 yr old Pettersson getting 120 points. One injury to EP and a big hit, one injury to one of two and the hit is halved.
Both EP and Miller would get a great return, Boeser not as much but still good.
This year this genius management group has shot themselves in the foot again, they used up the retention spots and will have only one spot for next year. MAN, this looks almost on purpose they are comprimising the team's cap so badly eliminating most cap options, that OEL buyout hits in two ways, the cap hit and use of a retention spot add in Mikheyev's next year as well.
4 GM's and Rutherford, someone had to think of this. Pretty much negates using the cap to build the future and right now. Why else keep 500K of Poolman's LTIR cap hit? It didn't matter for Colorado as they are deep into the LTIR use already. On the Colorado side it looks like they were making sure the Canucks had one less tool to use for improvement.
While the season isn't done and there are players that will come back and this team does have a history of playing great for a 30 game stretch each year the question is are these guys who have been together for 6 to 8 years, the core, good enough or are they just fan favorites now.
Calgary, at the end of last season after selling off even more veteran assets and making a few trades were not given a chance this year, the Canucks were going to easily finish ahead of them but last post game Lomberg made a interesting statement about that group being a brotherhood and that team has live camera's in the dressing room.
In contrast to a "Brotherhood" the Canuck mantra is "They don't have to like each other". This reminds me of Burke's comments about the NJD, "they aren't a team, they are a cult".
Two conflicting statements, one of togetherness and the other of having to endure in the room struggling to just keep together. All for one and one for all. In Calgary but not the Canucks.
This team is very flawed and the window closed in the summer, now capped out essentially, not enough skilled depth, no real difference makers on the farm and one defence prospect that might be good enough to be a NHL dman, but not a top pairing guy for years yet if ever.
Can this flawed team be re-created in this year, sure but not without greater sacrifice of the future. The players they get HAVE to fit under the cap and be better than most they have already otherwise managment is just playing out the string of the next two years with lots of "moral victories" and selling players that aren't playing on the team as future hope. Hope is easy to sell when hope doesn't have to prove itself. Juloevi was hope for 4 years, Virtanen for 3 years, Hughes for a year before he even got here. Losing teams sell hope and moral victories their media select mostly only good plays and cheer possiblities rather than harder facts.
Time to rip the bandaids off and operate on the serious problems and then heal.
Take a "time out to reset"
Honesty might be welcomed b fans, that is something they seem to avoid at all costs, treating them like mushrooms, "keep them in the dark" dont' reveal anything keep everything vague, "and cover them in shat", just keep their media giving out wild speculations and riddiculing any suggestions of anything they want censored. "Oh there is no issues in the room" many posters knwo differently but are laughed at, "then again there aren't problems" after the top two players almost duke it out at practice,"thats nothing" until finally the Captain and Coach reveal the ongoing drama in the room. "cover them in shat"
A total lack of respect for the fanbase. This isn't a US city with lots of other top sports, this isn't Sweden where national interests rank higher than the NHL, this is a city like others in Canada where the life blood of the team pulses in the veins of fans.
