WHAT’S NEXT?
GM Jim Benning suggests a Canucks shakeup is not needed unless the Sedins retire
Forget the trade deadline, what happens next for the Vancouver Canucks will be much more challenging.
The franchise that yearns to be competitive is on pace for 71 points. That means the Canucks will have to play decent hockey down the stretch to avoid finishing below last year’s 69-point sinkhole.
A year ago, that felt like rock bottom. If they’ve moved things off the ocean’s floor, it hasn’t been by much.
And that’s with a star-like, Calder Trophy-worthy turn from Brock Boeser.
Unless you love losing — and many who see the draft as salvation do — it’s difficult to mark this season down as the dawn of better days.
For now, the Canucks are committed to a core group that’s seen them accumulate the second fewest points in the last three seasons combined.
When pressed Monday on whether his team needs a significant shakeup, Vancouver general manager Jim Benning suggested it would if the Sedins retire.
Say this for the Canucks front office: they are loyal to their group.
Benning is not wrong, especially if the team isn’t motivated to move on from valuable players like Chris Tanev and Sven Baertschi.
If they don’t, what will change? The Canucks have nearly $25 million in cap space but about $10 million of it would be needed to get the band back together, re-signing Troy Stecher, Derrick Pouliot, Jake Virtanen, Markus Granlund and Baertschi.
If you factor in one-year extensions for the Sedins and include top prospect Elias Pettersson, there may be some room left for free agents, but likely not a ton.
Enough probably to add one impact player, but you have to get the right one. Even then, it may not be enough to move the needle.
It leaves many in the city asking: Why is next year going to be any different?
For the patient ones, it doesn’t matter.
Right or wrong, a large slice of Vancouver believes the Canucks are years away from legitimate playoff contention. They are the ones who have been imploring the team to acquire draft picks in preparation for the 2021-23 era.
It will be officially announced Wednesday Vancouver is the host city for the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. The patient fans couldn’t be happier the Canucks may be in line for a better-than-most shot at drafting first overall.
Some of them will even spend a year dreaming about the next trade deadline, thinking about possible first-round draft pick returns for both Tanev and Alex Edler. Like I said, they’re dreaming. Of course, the Canucks are hoping better days on the ice are around the corner.
It’s hoped the team will be healthier next season, and it should be, but that’s been said for three years running.
The second year of the Travis Green program should be better than the first.
It’s hoped the progress Virtanen has made under the head coach is setting him up for a leap forward.
It’s hoped Bo Horvat will be better, and he’s proven capable of this at every checkpoint in his career.
It’s hoped some prospects can make a difference, especially players like Adam Gaudette and Pettersson, who has the potential to be special.
But expecting them to have the same kind of dashing rookie season Boeser is pulling off is a tad unfair.
The Canucks are definitely going to need better goaltending if Green’s squad is going to get a second-year bump.
At the same time, they need to be working Thatcher Demko into NHL life, which will assuredly be accompanied by some growing pains.
The most positive fans in the city think next year will be a stepping-stone season and in two seasons the Canucks will again be back in the thick of a playoff race.
Their outlook is so sunny there’s been a radical suggestion the Canucks should consider trading their first overall pick for a proven, puck-moving defenceman.
I understand how you end up thinking such a thought. The Canucks spend more time looking for power-play defencemen than people spend picking their spouses.
How the Sedins have an impact on all of it remains anyone’s guess. There’s an argument to be made that if they retire, the Canucks can spend the money on younger, faster free agents.
But the list of players the team has chosen in free agency isn’t overly impressive.
Some wins, including Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek, are juxtaposed with a long list of underwhelming performers, including Michael Del Zotto, Sam Gagner, Loui Eriksson and Anders Nilsson.
Can the Canucks get it right this summer?
They sure hope so. If they don’t, next year’s post-trade deadline hangover will feel a lot like this one.