The Vancouver Canucks have shown in their bad starts who they really are: not the team that somehow beat the Oilers. Change is needed.
Rather, we should be focusing on the broader reality: Tuesday’s collapse against the Buffalo Sabres was, sadly, closer to the truth of this team.
For all the tantalizing talent and the occasional moments of brilliance, this is a team that has been very, very poor this season.
The core of this team just isn’t vibrant enough. There’s talent, but you need more than talent to succeed. You need desire. You need a touch of arrogance, but also a touch of humility. You need to know that how good you are today isn’t going to be good enough tomorrow.
Hughes, by the way, has two years left on his current contract, then he will be a free agent. At this point, why would he re-sign here?
That’s the window Canucks management is looking at. That is why they can’t dither anymore about the state of the team, especially the core. They need to assume that Hughes isn’t going to stick around, that he has a New Jersey Devils sweater in his future.
For the sake of the current playoff chase, as well as the dream of building a contending team next season, a shake-up is necessary. That’s the brutal truth.
The other brutal truth is the paucity of prospects coming down the pipe. There’s Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who has shown flashes of what he could be in his 11 games so far this season. And there’s Tom Willander who had a strong world juniors and who looks likely to be a solid second-pairing defenceman in the near future.
That’s not exactly a bright future. Even if you believe Hughes is sticking around beyond the 2026-27 season, those two aren’t just a vanguard of prospective reinforcements, they are the totality of the internal reinforcements.
That is also a reason to get moving on the current situation. This team needs to be closer to winning now. There’s just no choice. And that means getting on with trading out the rot that’s on the roster.