2Fingers wrote: ↑Wed Feb 25, 2026 7:27 am
So what will get everyone interested in the team again?
New Management?
Drafting McKeNna?
EP gone?
What if Cootes plays next season and gets 50 points?
All the above?
This team will not be winning games for 3 - 4 more seasons, are you all just going to tune out until then?
The amount of games I've missed over the last decades, I can count on my fingers - don't see that changing. Love the sweater/cheer for the crest.
That being said, games certainly aren't that interesting - drafting McKenna (or 2nd/3rd) will be fun if they make the team next year. Whatever EP brings back should be a nice boost for a game or ten too.
Really, Buium hitting his stride, Lekkermaki turning a corner (and staying healthy) and perhaps a Cootes sighting next year in addition to that high draft pick will be fun to watch. Unless it doesn't happen.
There's still a few players to keep an eye on - mostly Buium, Rossi, and Ohgren - which of those will help make the Hughes trade palatable?
Any of the young players, really - who might be around in 3-4 years.
The ongoing soap opera of 11.6
And watching just for the general entertainment of hockey - the best sport in the world. We'll likely lose (a lot) more than win, but there will be some good games left in the season.
donlever wrote: ↑Wed Feb 25, 2026 8:30 am
I was under the impression that the Hughes trade was already palatable as Canuck fans had skewered him as a human being and labeled him a quitter?
Hughes trade was a ‘good trade’ iMO. If the Canucks got another 1st or a 2nd back with the package the did get, I would say it was a great trade.
Can this current management keep this momentum up with future trades, who know?
We've been here before. Anyone remember the Messier years? Remember how much of a hoot the 90's were after the '94 run? Let's not even get into the Laforge era.
At this point it's an exercise of watching games to see where this team will be in a couple years. No point in caring about the Garlands, Hroneks, Peteys and Boesers on the team - they won't be around when this team matters again. They only have value in helping the next core find their feet, or getting traded for pieces that will become the next core. This team's vets are already pretty much dead to me.
I'm looking for which among the youngsters will amount to anything worth keeping when the new core comes into its own. No stars on the horizon unless Cootes turns a corner in his development, but I can see some depth pieces in the Hughes return in Buium and Ohgren. Rossi's too old to be anything more than a placeholder like Petey. Willander looks like a plausible option in the top-4 moving forward. The rest of the youngsters? May as well get a Lotto-Max ticket for better odds but worth watching to see if any beat the stacked odds.
Just looking for them to heroically lose close games where the youngsters shine over the vets. Considering our vets, that's a bar you can trip over.
Sundays loss was a huge bummer. But I was happy for Miller and especially Quinn, who IMO was USA’s most valuable player throughout the tourney. They both were a part of something special that was being built here, until it all fell apart.
donlever wrote: ↑Wed Feb 25, 2026 12:12 pm
Two of those players took less than market value to sign here long term, live here, be a Canuck, raise a family in our City and try to win.
A different time - even if not so long ago. We're in a different world than when they signed those deals.
