I'm not sure if the Canucks....
- Have a plan, but don't know how to execute it.
- Don't have a plan, and are just winging it.
...But their moves are all over the place and they seem to lose every single trade. Bottom line...There's been a lot of talent on the roster over the past few years and they've had 2 playoff appearances in the past decade. I'm sitting way out in the cheap seats on the east coast, but even from here I can see no Canuck fan should have confidence in their management.
They have a pretty obvious plan... stay competitive enough to convince Hughes to sign long term, otherwise he walks as a UFA in 2 years.
In the last 24 hours the Canucks:
Got rid of a locker room cancer that has been publicly feuding with multiple other stars throughout his entire tenure
Acquired a replacement middle 6C
Acquired the best rental D on the market, arguably a top pairing LD filling their biggest hole (2LD)
Cleared roughly 4 million in cap space for this season (will end up being about 11 million at the deadline)
Cleared 4.25 in AHLers that were signed for next season, so they will have roughly 28 million in deadline space next year
Got considerably faster
Improved the bottom 6 while reducing some of the log jam
Without using any of their own picks or major prospects
If the team is still garbage and Hughes wants to leave anyways, sell him to the highest bidder at a future deadline.
Additionally, with Dallas having been rumoured to be involved with both Miller and Markus Pettersson at times, it's likely that the cost on the Pettersson trade was impacted by other teams bidding. There's a reason they picked up both a C and a D immediately after the Canucks' deals went through.