The truth is that the window for this team is now.
Miller is having what is almost certainly his peak season.
Hughes is young but he could be having one of the best seasons of his entire career.
Boeser's going to easily surpass his career high in goals.
There's no guarantee Pettersson stays, and while he's played terribly the past 10-12 games, when he's healthy he's a game-breaking talent.
I have absolutely zero issues with any of our prospects, and any of our picks / future picks being up for grabs in order to improve the team's defence so that we can make a run this season.
This is an important point.
Our window is now. We really need to go for it if we are actually wanting to be a playoff contender.
Our current cap structure is all screwed because of Benning and his ludicrously dumb decisions, but we do legitmately have the pieces for a very good core (#1 centre, #1 defenseman, franchise tender).
Just f***ing send it
The mechanics of the OEL buyout, Petey still being under contract, and getting incredible value out of Miller, Hughes, and Hronek right now do indicate that this season really should be their big push.
...
As a cautious old man, I feel like pumping the brakes a little.
I agree with those that say there is a window now that is wider than it is likely to be for some time after. The reasons people are raising for the window being wider open now than is likely the next few seasons seem valid.
How wide is our current window? What are our chances for:
-playoffs?
-win two playoff rounds?
-win a Stanley Cup?
Next, now much is each of those worth in future pain? We already are at a stage where our future is weaker than it might have been because we've been dealing future assets for current success. The management team has now turned around the old ways of dealing future assets for nothing worthwhile, but we still have less in the way of future assets than we might have had. I'm not saying that to complain, just to point out that we are short of young players we might have had for the future already, picks traded to acquire, for example, Miller and Hronek, to get us to where we are today.
How much more of the future is it worth to get a bit better?
My own impression is that the Canucks' chances of making the playoffs are very good, to win a playoff round reasonable, that winning two playoff rounds would be against the odds and their chances of winning a Stanley Cup this season are small.
What is it worth in futures traded away to increase the chances of making the playoffs? To my mind very, very little. The chances are already good and increasing the already very good chances is not a goal that is worth harming the future for.
What is it worth in futures to make the semi-finals? Certainly having a good enough team to battle for a conference title is something that would make losing more palatable for a couple of years. It is worth something, but I really don't want to spend another several years in the wilderness we've just exited with the Canucks losing most of the time in order to win an extra round of the playoffs this year.
What about a Cup? Ahhh. Right now I suspect most Canuck fans would happily spend 6 years losing if it was partly a consequence of moves made to put the Canucks over the top to win a Cup?
What are the chances that this team can be improved enough to actually have a very good chance to win the 2024 Stanlely Cup?
I think the chances of that happening are very poor. To me, we wouldn't get enough from trading Willander, Silovs and our 2024 1st round pick to make winning the Cup very likely-and for anything less than that level of success, that would be too big a price to pay imo.
I can understand the thought and emotion behind taking a team that is in the top three or four in the league and boosting their chances of winning the Cup to make it as likely as not. When your team is approximately 8th best in the league (right now the Canucks' points percentage is 9th in the league after Boston, Florida, Detroit, NYR, Colorado, Dallas, Vegas and LA) I don't think it worth several years of mediocrity or worse to get to about 6th best.
But then, I'm one who feels more despair from losing than joy from winning. Those for whom that is reversed will feel differently.