Canucks president shuts down rebuild in candid interview

The Vancouver Canucks are currently 8-9-1, but it seems like things are on the verge of getting worse before they can get better. They have seven players on their injured list, and the next three games on the road will not be easy, as they face the Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Florida Panthers.

With all of these things happening at the same time, there have been talks about whether the Canucks would want to start a rebuild, but president Jim Rutherford is not heading in that direction, as he noted in an interview with Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet.

“That is not in the plan,” Rutherford said. “People use different words as to how a team goes forward. Some people use ‘rebuild.’ Some use the word ‘transition.’ You can spin it whatever way you like. ‘Retool.’ But the fact of the matter is, we’re at a point where our amateur scouts and development staff under Patrik have done a good job in building up a good group of young players, and it would take something extreme for us to start cutting into that.

“Now, I’m not saying we wouldn’t trade one of these players. But if we did, it would be for somebody that’s 25 years or younger. Even our core, older guys are still in their 20s; we’re still a relatively young team. It’s not like we’re an aging team that’s got nowhere to go.”

The Canucks still have a team that can compete, but they’re just dealing with a lot of injuries at the moment. Once they can get some of them back, the hope is that they can weather the storm.

“We expected (injuries), but we didn’t expect it to this extent. A lot of teams have injuries. Maybe not as many as we do, but you deal with it,” Rutherford said.

If the Canucks can get a win in these next three games, it could be a confidence booster they need.