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With the Helly thing (following on Hughes, Tkachuk, Larkin, Werenski (sort of)) and all the blame on the Team USA group chat, Americans not wanting to play in Canada, that sort of thing, I wanted to take a step back and put out some points for discussion. Now I've been having trouble posting this (apparently UWS length pieces are "forbidden," so I am going to try and break it into smaller pieces and see if that works...

Oh well, didn't work....Some other time.

What’s the issue UW?

Sorry for the board troubles - hopefully they're resolved soon.

And yes - the number of stars essentially 'walking out on their teams' (and teammates) is starting to be a new trend. Not sure if it's a result of a climbing cap, less tolerance for playing for a losing team, or what - but it's not good for the league imo.

Setting your money on fire by paying the 20% tax on a home probably factors in if you aren't Canadian.

B of G's and Bettman have structured a big ass business here.

To some degree they used the heads and shoulders of the players to get to where we are now (i.e. escrow).....

....to offset this the players (unions) made good use of negotiations and cultivated themselves some opportunistic rights.

Every decision is now a big business decision.

The players were told (ad nauseum) it is a "business" and that they have to accept the ramifications therein.

This was accepted and they built themselves a little foundation of power and opportunity.

Millionaire choices when dealing with Billionaires.

Looking out for me not thee bro.

Sam Pollock doesn't live here anymore.

Welcome to big business.

I think we may be seeing the NHL have their version of the NBA’s “LeBron Decision” era where stars colluded to set up a dream team in Miami. Easier to do in the NBA’s soft-cap CBA, it would explain the Tkachuks in Florida.

Could also be a factor of these folks looking at the likes of McDavid and Matthews being among the best players on earth and no Cup to show for it. Nobody wants to gut out a retool or rebuild - careers are too short for them, perhaps - trusting that management will give them the team they want in order to stay.

rats19 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2026 9:45 am What’s the issue UW?

Probably related to trade wars.


(No, probably just the post-bot attack controls identify my well-reasoned posts to be impossible for humans to duplicate).

It's also eroding the allure to us fans that are starting to tune out the whole thing due to not wanting to watch spoiled brats cultivate their "brands" whatever the fuck that shit is.

Where are all the Phil Esposito's

There were write ups back at the Olympics about team USA players sort of getting together and talking about wanting to play in the US. I suspect that is what we are seeing right now, some form of patriotic bullshit. There are of course a handful of players that want other things, like Hughes. We all know he wants to play with his brothers in a US city. So he has a decision to make. Be UFA next July 1 and try to sign with Jersey or stay in Minnesota for 3 years when Jack is UFA. So far he hasn't reached a decision and the Wild are saying even as they try to get a deal done he has other priorities he he is considering.

But other than the USA players we don't se a lot of players doing this. The occasional player yes but that is more about wanting out of where they are rather than where they want to go to. I speak of Larkin. Hellybuck wants out of Winnipeg but as far as I know he has not demanded a trade to a USA city.

So I think the problem is overstated. Teams now a days need to be more mindful of RFAs signing offer sheets, as Anaheim found out. I think that may be a bigger threat over the next several years.

Longer than that Wids.

Tkachuk and Gaudreau were pre Olympcs.

Not only Americans either.

Rantanen forcing his way out of Carolina.

Marner dictating his own path out of Hog Town.

UWSaint wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2026 2:08 pm

rats19 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2026 9:45 am What’s the issue UW?

Probably related to trade wars.


(No, probably just the post-bot attack controls identify my well-reasoned posts to be impossible for humans to duplicate).

UW, blame climate change. It covers everything.

Hockey Widow wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2026 7:20 pm There were write ups back at the Olympics about team USA players sort of getting together and talking about wanting to play in the US. I suspect that is what we are seeing right now, some form of patriotic bullshit. There are of course a handful of players that want other things, like Hughes. We all know he wants to play with his brothers in a US city. So he has a decision to make. Be UFA next July 1 and try to sign with Jersey or stay in Minnesota for 3 years when Jack is UFA. So far he hasn't reached a decision and the Wild are saying even as they try to get a deal done he has other priorities he he is considering.

But other than the USA players we don't se a lot of players doing this. The occasional player yes but that is more about wanting out of where they are rather than where they want to go to. I speak of Larkin. Hellybuck wants out of Winnipeg but as far as I know he has not demanded a trade to a USA city.

So I think the problem is overstated. Teams now a days need to be more mindful of RFAs signing offer sheets, as Anaheim found out. I think that may be a bigger threat over the next several years.

This is what happens when media gets a hold of anything these days....

I wonder if part of this is that we're looking at loyalty from the wrong direction.

Personally, I have very little interest in working for someone I have zero respect for. I'm not going to mention anyone specifically, but I think most Canucks fans can read between the lines. And I don't think this is exclusively a Canucks problem. The same question applies to a team owned by some enormous corporation or investment group.

If the organization doesn't really care about the individual beyond what he can produce for it, why would we expect the individual to give two shits about the organization beyond what it can provide for him?

For decades we talked about players being loyal to a sweater, a city and an organization. But NHL teams have spent decades becoming increasingly sophisticated businesses. Players understand that. They'll be traded, bought out, buried, replaced or moved the moment management believes it improves the organization. I'm not even saying that's wrong — it's professional sports. But you can't make the relationship increasingly transactional from one direction and then be surprised when the employee starts treating it as transactional from the other.

I think Vancouver has another problem on top of that: what is the cachet of the Canucks brand to somebody who didn't grow up a Canucks fan?

We have enormous emotional attachment to this team because it's our team. But take that away. What exactly is the historical appeal you're selling to a player with options?

We're not Montreal. We're not the Rangers. We're not Detroit. We're not an organization associated with championships or some long-established culture of winning. The most nationally recognizable moments in Canucks history aren't necessarily the ones we'd put on the brochure.

That doesn't mean nobody wants to play here. Vancouver is a beautiful city, it's a huge hockey market, the fans care enormously, and obviously money and opportunity matter. Some players genuinely love it here. But I don't know that the Canucks name itself carries much weight with a player who has no previous connection to Vancouver.

So when we ask, “Why would Player X want to leave?”, maybe the better question is “Why would we expect him to want to stay?”

If two organizations are offering roughly the same money and opportunity, what has this organization done to make being a Vancouver Canuck intrinsically valuable?

Maybe that's what has been lost across the NHL generally. Teams want players to behave as though they're members of an institution while increasingly treating them like assets of a corporation. You probably don't get to have it both ways.

And if somebody does choose Vancouver despite all of that, either the money was right or they've contracted the same incurable disease the rest of us Canucks fans have.