The time that every fan dreads. The time that every fan knows will eventually come. The time where your teams chance at the championship comes to an end. That time has come for Vancouver. The time I am talking about is that dreaded “Window”. All sports franchises have them, how long they stay open is always up in the air, possibly the air that flows in through that window maybe. For the Vancouver Canucks however, that window has seemed to slam shut with the latest exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs this year.
People in Vancouver were excited this season. After a brutal season the year before where a team that people locked into the playoffs missed. That year screamed of desperation. A year where management tried to save a sinking ship bailing water as fast as possible. You can try that as much as you want, that ship will go down eventually. It did, the Canucks missed the playoffs for the first time in 5 seasons in 2014 and people begged for change once again. Change came in big ways. The GM Mike Gillis was fired along with Head coach of one season John Tortorella. Jim Benning was announced new GM and he changed this team in some big ways for new head coach Willie Desjardins. Trading away one of the teams most popular plays as well as a team leader Ryan Kesler in return getting Nick Bonino and Luca Sbisa along with a draft pick, Trading away key defenceman Jason Garrison to Tampa Bay and Signing veteran goaltender Ryan Miller and forward Radim Vrbata.
This team was not viewed as a playoff team by a lot of people, myself included. For me that offseason reaked of two things, desperation and transition. The desperation came from still having a core of the Sedins, Burrows, Bieksa and then signing an aging goalie on the decline. Why would a team trying to start a new plan with older players. The Transition sense came from obviously a new management trying to figure out what they wanted to do long term. This team wasn’t supposed to be that good.
Instead what this team did was play fairly consistent hockey for the next six months, bank 101 points, clinch 2nd place in the pacific division and while doing so clinch home ice for the first round of the playoffs. You had the Sedins continue to work their magic each cracking the top ten in points, New signee’s Miller and Vrbata chipped in and proved to be good additions, and young guys like Tanev and Horvat showed they belonged at the NHL level. Things seemed good for Vancouver, a home ice match up with pacific division rivalry in the first round of the playoffs, a lot of people said the Canucks can now win this series.
Things went the other way. After watching this whole series it showed that the youthful Flames had more fight than the veteran Canucks. The pressure Calgary put on the Canucks defense showed by Vancouver not being able to get out of their own zone cleanly and when they did still had trouble getting through the neutral zone. With pucks going back into the Canucks zone and then getting hit and hit hard by Flames forecheckers, Calgary found ways to win. With a 3-0 lead in the first period things again looking good for Vancouver, unfortunately for them about two hours later they would be sitting in the locker room wondering how they had just been eliminated.
I’m sure sitting in that room there was more than one player silently saying to himself, “What now?”. A valid question. After this season unfolded this did seemed like one last hoorah. Lets put players around the Sedins, Bieksa and Edler one last time and see if we can’t get lucky. A Great season ends in pure disappointment. Now players all over that locker room have to wonder where they will be playing hockey next season.
This teams core has aged to a point where teams start looking to move on. The Main building blocks that are the Sedin’s aren’t getting any younger, before next season starts they will be 35 years old. At the most you think they have only 5 more season left and by time they do in fact get to 40 where will their talent level be? Common wing man for the Sedin’s is Alex Burrows who at the end of next season will also be 35 and he has already dealt with some injury issues in the past few seasons. Leading goal scorer Radim Vrbata isnt young either, by time next season rolls around he’ll be 34. This age problem doesn’t just affect the forward group, key Dman Kevin Bieksa will be 34 this summer and Dan Hamhuis will be 33 mid next season. If you want Vancouver to go into a rebuild, Alex Edler is 29, and if you go into full rebuild mode do you want to keep someone like him at his age who can get you some value in a trade? And finally in goal you have a guy who will be 35 before next season in Ryan Miller. This issue doesn’t seem as crucial, if the Canucks think that Lack is their future, at 27 he is at a good age.
Other than the players I mentioned there isn’t a whole lot going on for the Canucks on their current roster. You hope that younger guys like Horvat, and prospect Hunter Shinkaruk can lead this team into the future and build around those guys for years to come. Hopefully players like Kassian and Baertschi both guys under 25 learn how to play big parts and if they do you already have a good young nucleus. For Vancouver, the future doesn’t look to bleak, but a team that has been in win now mode for the last decade needs to look ahead and become a future team.
What should they do? Who knows, I’m not here to discuss that right now, let me know and we’ll discuss this again after the playoffs and in the offseason. Let me know what you want the team to do and how you think this season went, Comment and find me on Twitter @CJSportsrambler.
