Imagine you’re a Vancouver Canucks fan at the end of the 2023-24 season. 

Your favorite team finished first in the Pacific Division – the first time the Canucks won their division since 2013 – and came within one victory of advancing to the Western Conference final. Star defenseman Quinn Hughes won the Norris Trophy, and coach Rick Tocchet won the Jack Adams Award. The Canucks look in good shape, all things considered.

Now, imagine someone told you then that in the 2024-25 campaign, the Canucks would not only miss the playoffs altogether, but they’d trade star center J.T. Miller for pennies on the dollar and fail to trade looming UFA right winger Brock Boeser, setting him up to leave for nothing in return. 

Imagine someone also saying that hockey operations president Jim Rutherford would say money doesn’t matter as much for Hughes as playing with his two brothers when discussing his contract expiring in 2027 – and that Tocchet would leave the team just one season after being named the NHL’s top coach. That doesn’t even include center Elias Pettersson having a down season, causing doubts about whether he’ll reach his potential, and goaltender Thatcher Demko continuing to have injury issues.

That would have to qualify as a worst-case-scenario season, wouldn’t it? That would be a nightmare development, right? 

Well, that’s exactly what has happened, with Tocchet announcing his departure on Tuesday. And it all adds up to a complete disappointment for a franchise that ought to be rewarding its fans for sticking with the team through all the lean years.

Coach Rick Tocchet Explains Why He's Leaving The Vancouver Canucks Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet decided not to return to the team for next season.

Now, the Canucks will have a bit of salary cap space this summer to try to improve. Vancouver will have about $16.7 million in cap space, according to PuckPedia. But let’s be real here – what player wants to jump on a ship that’s leaking all kinds of water? What difference-making player will want to throw himself into this situation? There would have to be some other very convincing factors to get someone to sign here right now.

Unfortunately for Canucks fans, the team is on a downward trend, and perhaps it could have been different.

The team reportedly tried everything to manage the feud between Miller and Pettersson before deciding somebody had to go, but there must have been some way to settle this before it became a prolonged distraction. There should’ve been a way to acquire at least a few assets in return for Boeser before the trade deadline arrived. There should’ve been a way to lock up Tocchet for the long haul.

Instead, in a season that should’ve felt like Christmas Day, Canucks fans got a freight-train delivery of coal. And there’s really no turning back from the tough days that almost certainly are ahead. Vancouver is fortunate to be in a relatively weak Pacific Division, but even then, the Canucks weren’t able to edge out opponents for a wild-card berth this season. 

Ultimately, the Canucks could’ve and should’ve been so much better than they turned out to be this year. That 2023-24 season now feels a million years away. And the truly brutal part for Canucks fans is that it’s likely to be just as bad, if not worse for them next season.

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