To rebuild, or not to rebuild, that is the question on the minds of many Vancouver Canucks fans. After an 8-9-1 start, conversations about a rebuild are starting to dominate the conversation, not just among fans, but in the media. Unfortunately, those hoping for a rebuild appear to be out of luck, as President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford has no immediate plans to initiate one. 

On Friday, Sportsnet's Ian MacIntyre released an article in which he spoke with Rutherford on several topics. Before getting into the rebuild conversations, MacIntyre asked what the "best-case scenario" would be for this season. While Rutherford didn't outright say the Canucks were a post-season team, he pointed out that they have the pieces to make a run to the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

"The best-case scenario is we get our players back," Rutherford said in MacIntyre's piece. "We (stick with) the priority we’ve had for six months to get another centre, and then see where we're at. Take a run at making the playoffs. And if you get in the playoffs, you just never know."

MacIntyre then asked what would happen if Vancouver missed the post-season again. Since 2016, the Canucks have only qualified for the post-season twice, including the 2024 run to the second round. Rutherford acknowledged that missing the playoffs was a possibility and provided some insight into the plan if it were to happen. 

"Then the downside of it is stay the course, stick with what I just said, and we miss the playoffs. So we win the (draft) lottery and get a top-five pick and keep building a team that is relatively young, where most of our players are in their 20s. Just keep adding good players."

After discussing the current season, MacIntyre shifted his focus to the conversation about rebuilding. As mentioned, many fans in the market believe a rebuild is necessary to ensure long-term success in the future. Unfortunately for those fans, a rebuild does not seem like an option based on Rutherford's answer.

"Rebuilds can work. But you have to understand rebuilds take a long time. There has to be a lot of patience, and for the teams that take the biggest jump and ultimately rebuild and win a Cup, they usually have a first-overall pick. And you still have to get lucky on that. I’m not naming teams, but some have tried a rebuild and had a ton of draft picks that didn't turn out. So a rebuild is not something that we're going to look at doing. Like I said, we’re in transition. But we’re not trading all these players for draft picks that may or may not end up playing someday."

To Rutherford's point, based on how Vancouver has constructed their roster, it would be challenging to do a full teardown at this moment. Six players are signed until 2029-30, with all having some form of no-trade clause. That being said, players with full no-movement clauses have been traded before, with one recent example being J.T. Miller, who the Canucks traded last season.

Vancouver is currently in a very complicated situation. Injuries and a poor penalty kill have plagued the team early in the 2025-26 season, contributing to the Canucks' 8-9-1 record through 19 games. Ultimately, unless something changes quickly, this rebuild talk from the fan base is only going to get louder as the season progresses. 

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