Ed Willes: Canucks' Linden revamp left in the dust by Leafs' Shana-plan

[CanadianRugby]

Spoiler

 

One of the joys of expressing any opinion related to the Vancouver Canucks in a public forum is half your audience believes you’re a craven apologist for the organization and the other half believes you’re a know-nothing troll exercising a personal agenda against their team.

There are even those rare and wonderful moments when you are both within the space of two paragraphs. This is the sportswriter’s harmonic convergence.

But, against all odds, one of this space’s many admirers raised an interesting point during a recent back-and-forth, and given the events of last weekend, it’s also timely.

Trevor Linden was hired as the Vancouver Canucks’ president on April 9, 2014. Brendan Shanahan was hired as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ president two days later.

As you may be aware, the Canucks and Leafs have taken divergent paths since both men took over their respective franchises. The Leafs are coming off a 105-point season, have just signed John Tavares and appear to be positioned for a long run as an elite NHL team.

The Canucks are coming off 26th-, 28th- and 29th-place finishes and while they’ve assembled some good young pieces, they appear to be two seasons away from competing for a playoff spot … and that’s being generous.

So where did the Leafs go right and where did the Canucks go wrong? How have the Leafs reinvigorated their franchise while the Canucks failed in their stated goal of remaining competitive while rebuilding their core? Obviously, the answers to those questions would fill a book, but we’ve been given 1,000 words to enlighten the masses. With that in mind, here are some thoughts. Excuse us if we paint with broad strokes.

There are a couple of things that stand out about the teams Linden and Shanahan inherited and their early moves. For starters, both the Canucks and Leafs were coming off disappointing seasons: 84 points and 12th in the East for the Leafs in 2013-14; 83 points and 12th in the West for the Canucks. Both teams also featured largely veteran cores. And both teams had experienced head coaches: John Tortorella and Randy Carlyle.

Linden, of course, came in and immediately cleaned house. GM Mike Gillis had been fired the day before Linden took over and Tortorella went soon after. After one season, assistant GMs Lorne Henning and Laurence Gilman were also let go along with director of player development Eric Crawford.

Linden’s new hockey department would include GM Jim Benning and assistant GM John Weisbrod. Willie Desjardins was hired to replace Tortorella. That first summer, the Canucks signed Ryan Miller and Radim Vrbata to fairly significant free-agent deals and traded for Derek Dorsett and Linden Vey. Nick Bonino, Luca Sbisa and a first-rounder were added in a forced trade with Anaheim for Ryan Kesler.

The Canucks would rip off 101 points that season and make the playoffs, largely because Daniel and Henrik Sedin finished in the top-10 in NHL in scoring.

The plan seemed to be working. Then it didn’t.

Shanahan, meanwhile, waited a year to restructure his hockey department. Carlyle was fired during the 2014-15 season and Dave Nonis, the GM Shanahan inherited, was let go after the season. The Leafs then hired Mike Babcock as their head coach and Lou Lamoriello as their GM. Wunderkind Kyle Dubas and Mark Hunter were already in place as assistant GMs.

This was the start of Shanahan’s vision for the Leafs — the much ballyhooed Shana-plan — and it began with the hockey department. Babcock was the best head coach available and signed a groundbreaking eight-year deal. Lamoriello is a Hall-of-Famer in waiting. Dubas is one of the game’s bright young minds. Hunter could have been the GM of his own team.

The new front office was also aware of the plan and executed it with discipline and precision. The bloated contracts of Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf were dealt away. Joffrey Lupul and Stephane Robidas were disappeared.

Resisting the urge to sign other big-name free agents, the Leafs would record 68- and 69-point seasons, respectively, in Shanahan’s first two years. That yielded the fourth and first overall picks, which turned into Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, and the Leafs were on their way.

Now Matthews was a product of blind luck, but the moves that took place in and around the 2016 draft were not. Kessel didn’t fetch much but he did produce a first-rounder which, along with a second-rounder, turned into Freddie Andersen. The Leafs made their splash in free agency — Patrick Marleau last year, Tavares this year — after their young core had been assembled.

While this was going on, they built a powerhouse with their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, who featured Leafs-in-waiting Travis Dermott, Carl Grundstrom, Andreas Johnsson, Garrett Sparks and Miro Aaltonen during this spring’s run to the Calder Cup. The Marlies’ head coach, Sheldon Keefe, is also one of the rising stars in his profession.

You have to admit. They’ve ticked a lot of items off their to-do list in the space of four seasons.

Then there’s the Canucks.

The encouraging news is they’re in the process of assembling their young core and better days may be ahead. The more sobering news is, if everything breaks their way, they might be in the place the Leafs were two seasons ago.

As for the larger questions about the direction and administration of the franchise, they remain largely unanswered.

After four years, Linden has put together an organization — head coach Travis Green, assistants Manny Malhotra and Nolan Baumgartner, director of amateur scouting Judd Brackett and Comets GM Ryan Johnson — that should grow with the team. They’ll be entrusted with developing the organization’s good young players into a competitive NHL team.

It’s just unclear how long that will take.

Looking back, it’s now apparent the Canucks erred in a couple of areas. The Sedins’ big season in 2014-15 created the illusion the competitive life of that team could be extended. They didn’t exactly mortgage the future but several of their big moves — signing Loui Eriksson, trading for Erik Gudbranson and Brandon Sutter, other free-agent signings — were made to keep the Canucks relevant in the standings while they rebuilt their nucleus.

It just didn’t work out that way.

On his way out the door, Tortorella warned that the Canucks’ core was stale, and you just wonder where they’d be right now if they took the organization down to the studs four years ago. You also wonder if a more experienced executive would have encouraged that direction.

By the end of Linden’s second season, it was apparent the Canucks’ plan wasn’t working and, although that plan has since been revised, they’re still signing veteran free agents to augment their young core. In all likelihood they’re still looking at another season at or near the bottom of the standings. That will be four seasons in a row if you’re scoring at home.

When he signed his mega-deal, Babcock promised there would be pain coming before the Leafs turned things around. Turned out that pain lasted two seasons. Yes, they got lucky with Matthews, but the young centre is hardly the only difference between the Leafs and the Canucks.

In Vancouver, the pain continues. Relief may be coming, but right now it’s a distant speck on another horizon.

 

 

https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/ed-willes-canucks-linden-revamp-left-in-the-dust-by-leafs-shana-plan?video_autoplay=true#comments

 

A whole bunch of people didn't like that Toronto's rebuild was said to be better than us two years ago.  

Shanahan & Linden were hired two days apart so comparisons were inevitable.

What are CDC's thoughts on the comparisons now?  

[Nuxfanabroad]

Hate to see apples/mangoes compared. Willes likely serving up divisive, summer tripe.

 

Also, league WANTed TO rebuilt asap..it's a cash cow, rising tide(terms of cap), to lift all boats.

 

"Conspiracy theorist!" some will surely squeal at me. With all of the fake news & diabolical biz & gov't corruption, it's SOOO naive to think all teams(entire NHL) is run with integrity. It's so easy to have a few extra teams lob softball trades(for expiring UFA's) in the direction of Hogtown, for one thing.

 

No, I haven't trusted how this league is run, dating back to the 90's. Shame really..cos' I love the game of hockey.

[Solinar]

  A little lotto luck going the other way for both teams, and where would we be?  Add to that, Toronto started their shanaplan after years of not being really competitive, draft picks and all.  Benning kind of walked into a tirefire from a prospect pool perspective.  

[ReggieBush]

Only ignorant people compare them. Different expectations, different phases of the competitive cycle, different core of players. Apples to Oranges really

[Darius]

I suspect Toronto's regime had a bit of a head start by inheriting accumulated assets from missing the playoffs for the vast majority of the 10 prior years.  They also had a lotto win where they drafted an elite franchise player (contrast that with losing draft position almost every year)  It would also be interesting to examine their roster from 2013 to see if they had the same number of challenging contracts the Canucks had to move too (No trades, Kesler handcuffing management with a 2 team trade list).

 

In the end I dont think they started with the same cupboard - so its hard  (and probably unfair) to compare.

[Solinar]

  Look, Benning has done some questionable things, but we don't really know what's going on in the Boardroom.  If there hadn't been interference, it would probably been Gillis managing this rebuild, and he wanted to cut bait with the core, and ended up fired.  When the boss wants something, sometimes you have to try.  You advise the pros, the cons, and try to carry out the gameplan.  Its by earning respect with hard work, a little ingenuity, and time, that you get the freedom to do what you feel is right.  I think the year before marked that for Benning, and that we're going to see some of the fruits of his labour the next few seasons.  Is it as bold as Shanahan, no.  But they haven't won anything yet....lets hope they eat crow with Tavares.

[Gaudette Celly]

And with that, Willes makes his official entrance into the company of mainstream media muppetry and irrelevance.  Equating the two teams in 2014 is the absolute height of myopic simple-minded ignorance.  Not one mention of the previous years of high Leaf picks and young core already in place. 

 

Is there anyone left with an iota of grey matter than can put together an actual insightful, contextual, and rational article?

[JM_]

I'll just post my usual response to our local media:

 

[King Heffy]

The only smart thing Toronto has done was win the Matthews lottery.  Toronto still has precisely zero defensemen capable of playing defense at even an AHL standard. 

[Alflives]

3 minutes ago, Darius said:

I suspect Toronto's regime had a bit of a head start by inheriting accumulated assets from missing the playoffs for the vast majority of the 10 prior years.  They also had a lotto win where they drafted an elite franchise player (contrast that with losing draft position almost every year)  It would also be interesting to examine their roster from 2013 to see if they had the same number of challenging contracts the Canucks had to move too (No trades, Kesler handcuffing management with a 2 team trade list).

 

In the end I dont think they started with the same cupboard - so its hard  (and probably unfair) to compare.

Great post!  Thanks for the chart too.  It’s obvious the Leafs are a facade, and it’s only their propaganda machine that props them up.  

[Solinar]

  Hey, who wants to be us or who wants to be Ottawa?  How about Montreal?  Oo, Thank god Edmonton has McJesus?  I'll just sit back as we build up to be the powerhouse in the west eventually

[48MPHSlapShot]

10 minutes ago, Darius said:

I suspect Toronto's regime had a bit of a head start by inheriting accumulated assets from missing the playoffs for the vast majority of the 10 prior years.  They also had a lotto win where they drafted an elite franchise player (contrast that with losing draft position almost every year)  It would also be interesting to examine their roster from 2013 to see if they had the same number of challenging contracts the Canucks had to move too (No trades, Kesler handcuffing management with a 2 team trade list).

 

In the end I dont think they started with the same cupboard - so its hard  (and probably unfair) to compare.

This, coupled with the lottery win that got them Matthews had a little something to do with it.

 

If anybody, including the OP, even tries to dispute that they're not being intellectually honest in the slightest.

 

Troll thread is troll thread.

[Nuxfanabroad]

9 minutes ago, Jimmy McGill said:

I'll just post my usual response to our local media:

 

Thank you sir..did you say double-double and a fritter?

[Nucker 67]

Just the Vancouver media trying to get a rise out of Canucks fans. They are well aware that a lot of Canucks fans despise the Leafs. It's idiotic to compare Linden and Shanahan, as they both came into different places in the rebuild cycle. TOR was already adding prospects when Shanahan joined, and Linden walked into a bare cupboard. Plus the Leafs got a #1 OA, and that can fast-track any rebuild. The Leafs D was abysmal in the playoffs, and I would rather have our D prospects than theirs. Willes is a moron, like the rest of them. 

[JM_]

38 minutes ago, CanadianRugby said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

One of the joys of expressing any opinion related to the Vancouver Canucks in a public forum is half your audience believes you’re a craven apologist for the organization and the other half believes you’re a know-nothing troll exercising a personal agenda against their team.

There are even those rare and wonderful moments when you are both within the space of two paragraphs. This is the sportswriter’s harmonic convergence.

But, against all odds, one of this space’s many admirers raised an interesting point during a recent back-and-forth, and given the events of last weekend, it’s also timely.

Trevor Linden was hired as the Vancouver Canucks’ president on April 9, 2014. Brendan Shanahan was hired as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ president two days later.

As you may be aware, the Canucks and Leafs have taken divergent paths since both men took over their respective franchises. The Leafs are coming off a 105-point season, have just signed John Tavares and appear to be positioned for a long run as an elite NHL team.

The Canucks are coming off 26th-, 28th- and 29th-place finishes and while they’ve assembled some good young pieces, they appear to be two seasons away from competing for a playoff spot … and that’s being generous.

So where did the Leafs go right and where did the Canucks go wrong? How have the Leafs reinvigorated their franchise while the Canucks failed in their stated goal of remaining competitive while rebuilding their core? Obviously, the answers to those questions would fill a book, but we’ve been given 1,000 words to enlighten the masses. With that in mind, here are some thoughts. Excuse us if we paint with broad strokes.

There are a couple of things that stand out about the teams Linden and Shanahan inherited and their early moves. For starters, both the Canucks and Leafs were coming off disappointing seasons: 84 points and 12th in the East for the Leafs in 2013-14; 83 points and 12th in the West for the Canucks. Both teams also featured largely veteran cores. And both teams had experienced head coaches: John Tortorella and Randy Carlyle.

Linden, of course, came in and immediately cleaned house. GM Mike Gillis had been fired the day before Linden took over and Tortorella went soon after. After one season, assistant GMs Lorne Henning and Laurence Gilman were also let go along with director of player development Eric Crawford.

Linden’s new hockey department would include GM Jim Benning and assistant GM John Weisbrod. Willie Desjardins was hired to replace Tortorella. That first summer, the Canucks signed Ryan Miller and Radim Vrbata to fairly significant free-agent deals and traded for Derek Dorsett and Linden Vey. Nick Bonino, Luca Sbisa and a first-rounder were added in a forced trade with Anaheim for Ryan Kesler.

The Canucks would rip off 101 points that season and make the playoffs, largely because Daniel and Henrik Sedin finished in the top-10 in NHL in scoring.

The plan seemed to be working. Then it didn’t.

Shanahan, meanwhile, waited a year to restructure his hockey department. Carlyle was fired during the 2014-15 season and Dave Nonis, the GM Shanahan inherited, was let go after the season. The Leafs then hired Mike Babcock as their head coach and Lou Lamoriello as their GM. Wunderkind Kyle Dubas and Mark Hunter were already in place as assistant GMs.

This was the start of Shanahan’s vision for the Leafs — the much ballyhooed Shana-plan — and it began with the hockey department. Babcock was the best head coach available and signed a groundbreaking eight-year deal. Lamoriello is a Hall-of-Famer in waiting. Dubas is one of the game’s bright young minds. Hunter could have been the GM of his own team.

The new front office was also aware of the plan and executed it with discipline and precision. The bloated contracts of Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf were dealt away. Joffrey Lupul and Stephane Robidas were disappeared.

Resisting the urge to sign other big-name free agents, the Leafs would record 68- and 69-point seasons, respectively, in Shanahan’s first two years. That yielded the fourth and first overall picks, which turned into Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, and the Leafs were on their way.

Now Matthews was a product of blind luck, but the moves that took place in and around the 2016 draft were not. Kessel didn’t fetch much but he did produce a first-rounder which, along with a second-rounder, turned into Freddie Andersen. The Leafs made their splash in free agency — Patrick Marleau last year, Tavares this year — after their young core had been assembled.

While this was going on, they built a powerhouse with their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, who featured Leafs-in-waiting Travis Dermott, Carl Grundstrom, Andreas Johnsson, Garrett Sparks and Miro Aaltonen during this spring’s run to the Calder Cup. The Marlies’ head coach, Sheldon Keefe, is also one of the rising stars in his profession.

You have to admit. They’ve ticked a lot of items off their to-do list in the space of four seasons.

Then there’s the Canucks.

The encouraging news is they’re in the process of assembling their young core and better days may be ahead. The more sobering news is, if everything breaks their way, they might be in the place the Leafs were two seasons ago.

As for the larger questions about the direction and administration of the franchise, they remain largely unanswered.

After four years, Linden has put together an organization — head coach Travis Green, assistants Manny Malhotra and Nolan Baumgartner, director of amateur scouting Judd Brackett and Comets GM Ryan Johnson — that should grow with the team. They’ll be entrusted with developing the organization’s good young players into a competitive NHL team.

It’s just unclear how long that will take.

Looking back, it’s now apparent the Canucks erred in a couple of areas. The Sedins’ big season in 2014-15 created the illusion the competitive life of that team could be extended. They didn’t exactly mortgage the future but several of their big moves — signing Loui Eriksson, trading for Erik Gudbranson and Brandon Sutter, other free-agent signings — were made to keep the Canucks relevant in the standings while they rebuilt their nucleus.

It just didn’t work out that way.

On his way out the door, Tortorella warned that the Canucks’ core was stale, and you just wonder where they’d be right now if they took the organization down to the studs four years ago. You also wonder if a more experienced executive would have encouraged that direction.

By the end of Linden’s second season, it was apparent the Canucks’ plan wasn’t working and, although that plan has since been revised, they’re still signing veteran free agents to augment their young core. In all likelihood they’re still looking at another season at or near the bottom of the standings. That will be four seasons in a row if you’re scoring at home.

When he signed his mega-deal, Babcock promised there would be pain coming before the Leafs turned things around. Turned out that pain lasted two seasons. Yes, they got lucky with Matthews, but the young centre is hardly the only difference between the Leafs and the Canucks.

In Vancouver, the pain continues. Relief may be coming, but right now it’s a distant speck on another horizon.

 

 

 

What are CDC's thoughts on the comparisons now?  

The #1 factor is TO had lotto luck and we didn't. The #2 factor is we had the Sedin's and Linden thought they were still capable of carrying us to the playoffs. 

 

Other than that, in the last 3 years I'd argue Jim has built a far better prospect base than TO, and we have a lot to look forward to. 

[King Heffy]

Just wait until that analytics weenie Shannahan put in charge runs them into the ground.  Arizona and Florida are great franchises to emulate.

[canuck73_3]

My “resume” would look good too if I fluked my way to Auston Matthews. 

[Gaudette Celly]

23 minutes ago, Solinar said:

  Hey, who wants to be us or who wants to be Ottawa?  How about Montreal?  Oo, Thank god Edmonton has McJesus?  I'll just sit back as we build up to be the powerhouse in the west eventually

What may be interesting in a few years is a comparison of Ottawa and Montreal, considering the rapidly deteriorating states of their franchises.

 

15 minutes ago, 48MPHSlapShot said:

Troll thread is troll thread.

The OP of it should have been a dead giveaway.  Saw the paper at work and knew it was going to be him or that Ardash/Botch guy.

[Rush17]

33 minutes ago, Solinar said:

  A little lotto luck going the other way for both teams, and where would we be?  Add to that, Toronto started their shanaplan after years of not being really competitive, draft picks and all.  Benning kind of walked into a tirefire from a prospect pool perspective.  

Yeah. Vancouver also has managed to maintain its culture and have surrounded the kids with veterans. Toronto's route reminds me of Calgary's rebuild.

 

Vancouver's reminds me of Columbus'. If Tavares didn't fall into their lap they might of withered away like Calgary after some success. I far like Columbus' path over that of Calgary's.

 

Columbus kept middle age and veterans players around to surround the kids.  Anyone else see the comparison I'm trying to make? Does it make sense to any of you? It sure makes sense to me.

[Rob_Zepp]

1 hour ago, CanadianRugby said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

One of the joys of expressing any opinion related to the Vancouver Canucks in a public forum is half your audience believes you’re a craven apologist for the organization and the other half believes you’re a know-nothing troll exercising a personal agenda against their team.

There are even those rare and wonderful moments when you are both within the space of two paragraphs. This is the sportswriter’s harmonic convergence.

But, against all odds, one of this space’s many admirers raised an interesting point during a recent back-and-forth, and given the events of last weekend, it’s also timely.

Trevor Linden was hired as the Vancouver Canucks’ president on April 9, 2014. Brendan Shanahan was hired as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ president two days later.

As you may be aware, the Canucks and Leafs have taken divergent paths since both men took over their respective franchises. The Leafs are coming off a 105-point season, have just signed John Tavares and appear to be positioned for a long run as an elite NHL team.

The Canucks are coming off 26th-, 28th- and 29th-place finishes and while they’ve assembled some good young pieces, they appear to be two seasons away from competing for a playoff spot … and that’s being generous.

So where did the Leafs go right and where did the Canucks go wrong? How have the Leafs reinvigorated their franchise while the Canucks failed in their stated goal of remaining competitive while rebuilding their core? Obviously, the answers to those questions would fill a book, but we’ve been given 1,000 words to enlighten the masses. With that in mind, here are some thoughts. Excuse us if we paint with broad strokes.

There are a couple of things that stand out about the teams Linden and Shanahan inherited and their early moves. For starters, both the Canucks and Leafs were coming off disappointing seasons: 84 points and 12th in the East for the Leafs in 2013-14; 83 points and 12th in the West for the Canucks. Both teams also featured largely veteran cores. And both teams had experienced head coaches: John Tortorella and Randy Carlyle.

Linden, of course, came in and immediately cleaned house. GM Mike Gillis had been fired the day before Linden took over and Tortorella went soon after. After one season, assistant GMs Lorne Henning and Laurence Gilman were also let go along with director of player development Eric Crawford.

Linden’s new hockey department would include GM Jim Benning and assistant GM John Weisbrod. Willie Desjardins was hired to replace Tortorella. That first summer, the Canucks signed Ryan Miller and Radim Vrbata to fairly significant free-agent deals and traded for Derek Dorsett and Linden Vey. Nick Bonino, Luca Sbisa and a first-rounder were added in a forced trade with Anaheim for Ryan Kesler.

The Canucks would rip off 101 points that season and make the playoffs, largely because Daniel and Henrik Sedin finished in the top-10 in NHL in scoring.

The plan seemed to be working. Then it didn’t.

Shanahan, meanwhile, waited a year to restructure his hockey department. Carlyle was fired during the 2014-15 season and Dave Nonis, the GM Shanahan inherited, was let go after the season. The Leafs then hired Mike Babcock as their head coach and Lou Lamoriello as their GM. Wunderkind Kyle Dubas and Mark Hunter were already in place as assistant GMs.

This was the start of Shanahan’s vision for the Leafs — the much ballyhooed Shana-plan — and it began with the hockey department. Babcock was the best head coach available and signed a groundbreaking eight-year deal. Lamoriello is a Hall-of-Famer in waiting. Dubas is one of the game’s bright young minds. Hunter could have been the GM of his own team.

The new front office was also aware of the plan and executed it with discipline and precision. The bloated contracts of Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf were dealt away. Joffrey Lupul and Stephane Robidas were disappeared.

Resisting the urge to sign other big-name free agents, the Leafs would record 68- and 69-point seasons, respectively, in Shanahan’s first two years. That yielded the fourth and first overall picks, which turned into Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, and the Leafs were on their way.

Now Matthews was a product of blind luck, but the moves that took place in and around the 2016 draft were not. Kessel didn’t fetch much but he did produce a first-rounder which, along with a second-rounder, turned into Freddie Andersen. The Leafs made their splash in free agency — Patrick Marleau last year, Tavares this year — after their young core had been assembled.

While this was going on, they built a powerhouse with their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, who featured Leafs-in-waiting Travis Dermott, Carl Grundstrom, Andreas Johnsson, Garrett Sparks and Miro Aaltonen during this spring’s run to the Calder Cup. The Marlies’ head coach, Sheldon Keefe, is also one of the rising stars in his profession.

You have to admit. They’ve ticked a lot of items off their to-do list in the space of four seasons.

Then there’s the Canucks.

The encouraging news is they’re in the process of assembling their young core and better days may be ahead. The more sobering news is, if everything breaks their way, they might be in the place the Leafs were two seasons ago.

As for the larger questions about the direction and administration of the franchise, they remain largely unanswered.

After four years, Linden has put together an organization — head coach Travis Green, assistants Manny Malhotra and Nolan Baumgartner, director of amateur scouting Judd Brackett and Comets GM Ryan Johnson — that should grow with the team. They’ll be entrusted with developing the organization’s good young players into a competitive NHL team.

It’s just unclear how long that will take.

Looking back, it’s now apparent the Canucks erred in a couple of areas. The Sedins’ big season in 2014-15 created the illusion the competitive life of that team could be extended. They didn’t exactly mortgage the future but several of their big moves — signing Loui Eriksson, trading for Erik Gudbranson and Brandon Sutter, other free-agent signings — were made to keep the Canucks relevant in the standings while they rebuilt their nucleus.

It just didn’t work out that way.

On his way out the door, Tortorella warned that the Canucks’ core was stale, and you just wonder where they’d be right now if they took the organization down to the studs four years ago. You also wonder if a more experienced executive would have encouraged that direction.

By the end of Linden’s second season, it was apparent the Canucks’ plan wasn’t working and, although that plan has since been revised, they’re still signing veteran free agents to augment their young core. In all likelihood they’re still looking at another season at or near the bottom of the standings. That will be four seasons in a row if you’re scoring at home.

When he signed his mega-deal, Babcock promised there would be pain coming before the Leafs turned things around. Turned out that pain lasted two seasons. Yes, they got lucky with Matthews, but the young centre is hardly the only difference between the Leafs and the Canucks.

In Vancouver, the pain continues. Relief may be coming, but right now it’s a distant speck on another horizon.

 

 

 

https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/ed-willes-canucks-linden-revamp-left-in-the-dust-by-leafs-shana-plan?video_autoplay=true#comments

 

A whole bunch of people didn't like that Toronto's rebuild was said to be better than us two years ago.  

Shanahan & Linden were hired two days apart so comparisons were inevitable.

What are CDC's thoughts on the comparisons now?  

If the Canucks had won the lottery on a generational talent, would be an interesting compare.   Canucks will not take as long as the Leafs took but I say let's see how the Leafs handle their CAP hell coming (I think Dubas is fooling himself saying he can make current situation work).   I think the Leafs will not be as good as many claim and I don't think the Canucks will be as bad.

Good July topic for people wanting to bash the team (I see it was another one of your "media" who clearly are supportive of  your team) but let's see if this isn't a better topic in April 2019 or April 2020 when people are like "hey, wasn't Toronto supposed to be where Vancouver is right now?....how did the Canucks do all that?"