What went wrong for the Vancouver Canucks?

The Vancouver Canucks are having a nightmarish season, and it has forced them to fully commit to a long-term rebuilding plan.

With Quinn Hughes traded to the Minnesota Wild for an impressive package of futures built around Marco Rossi and Zeev Buium, the Canucks are sorely lacking in top-end talent, and the results make that clear.

Vancouver is 32nd in the NHL by a wide margin, 15 points behind the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks for the next-worst records in the league.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Jonny Lazarus and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed where it all went wrong for a Canucks team that looked like a strong playoff contender less than two calendar years ago.

Jonny Lazarus: So transitioning into a different team in Canada, Hutts, we’ve got to talk about the Vancouver Canucks, eliminated from playoff contention. We pretty much knew this was the case since December, but starting with number one, like what do you think was the initial thing that went wrong this year for the Vancouver Canucks?

Carter Hutton: Well, I think not being healthy, and Elias Pettersson, right, he is your guy that is making big money, hasn’t been confident. You look at the way the things went last year with the JT Miller situation. It felt like this season was doomed from the beginning, and I think for Elias Pettersson, when you’re making that kind of money and you need to make a difference, you need to be able to do that and answer the bell on a continuous night… And that’s the inconvenient truth of the life we chose to play as professional hockey players. And Thatcher Demko hasn’t been able to be healthy. He’s still buzzing at league average goal tending. He’s got an under .500 record, and it’s just been, I think that has been where the demise has been. His health and the fact that they signed him to that contract, and he hasn’t been able to back it up.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…