The Sedins aren’t talking about a scorched-earth teardown, and that’s exactly why some Canucks fans perked up when they heard it.
On Thursday, Daniel Sedin laid out the thinking behind Vancouver’s rebuild in a way that sounded familiar to anyone who’s been around this team for a while: “We can’t only rely on our prospects to turn this around. We have to surround them with the right players, too,”
That kind of line can hit a nerve in Vancouver. It brought back memories of the old Jim Benning era, when the message often seemed to live in two places at once - trying to chase enough wins to satisfy ownership while also admitting the roster needed a new wave of talent.
I asked the twins how the organization avoids becoming the next version of a rebuild that goes too far, and how it avoids becoming the next Chicago.
The Blackhawks tore it down over the past half-decade and came away with Connor Bedard. That gives them a star to build around, but the results since then have not gone smoothly.
And even before that full reset, Chicago had drafted plenty of players who reached the NHL; over its past nine drafts, the Blackhawks brought 27 players into the league. Not all of them became regulars, but a good number logged meaningful minutes.
That’s the backdrop for Vancouver’s current thinking, and it explains why the Sedins’ comments landed the way they did. Fans have every reason to be wary of a rebuild that sounds like the last one, especially after Benning’s teams spent years stuck between goals - not good enough to be a real playoff threat, and not stocked well enough with young talent to push the franchise forward in a serious way. Even then, some of those draft choices missed.
The difference now, at least in what the Canucks are said to be pursuing, is that they are not looking at draft picks alone. Sources say the team wants more than that in any deal involving the veterans still on the roster. Vancouver is looking for first-round picks and young players, not just one or the other.
That approach says a lot about where the club sees itself: needing prospects, needing picks, and needing players who can help right away. In other words, more of everything.
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One name that fits that kind of thinking is Alexander Nikishin, a promising Carolina Hurricanes defenseman who has drawn attention for his potential to become a fixture on a contenders back end. If Vancouver is going to keep digging into ways to reshape its defense, a move of that type would speak to a bigger reset than just patching holes during a bad stretch. [Read more 🡒]