Canucks Need A Facelift, Refreshing, Renewing

By Andrew Phillip Chernoff | CanucksBanter

December 03, 2025

The Vancouver Canucks must recognize that the 2025-26 season is effectively lost in terms of championship contention. The 10-14-3 record indicates that the current team is dealing with ongoing injuries. Inconsistency on the ice also contributes to this issue.

What to do?

A strategic facelift, refreshing, renewel is needed for the roster. The roster baggage has to be replace with a new start. It should include youth and NHL-proven leadership in the change room and on the ice.

It must be an NHL roster that puts team first. There is no “I” in team. It should be obvious on the ice that there is a team bond, a cohesiveness, and a selflessness to their game with the changing of the team.

The Canucks need to let the other NHL teams know they are open for business right now, starting with the New Jersey Devils, Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks and the Utah Mammoth.

Privately engage New Jersey regarding the Hughes-for-Nemec framework. Signal to the league that “veterans” (Boeser, Myers, Garland) are available for draft capital. Showcase Elias Pettersson’s recent point streak to maximize leverage with Carolina.

Vancouver also has to accumulate 2026 draft picks, especially in the higher rounds, especially the first round, as the draft class is led by Matthew Schaefer, Mchael Misa, and Anton Frondell.

The Canucks need to execute trades to clear long-term cap commitments, to clear roster spots for proven NHL youth.

If Quinn Hughes is not committed to an extension, execute a trade. But let that trade be the organization choice, not his. It should be for what is best for the Canucks organization, and not his selfish desires.

If Elias Pettersson and others do not fit the “future new Canucks roster”, trade them to the suggested trade partners I have highlighted earlier, or others that may be interested.

The $104M Era (July 2026) is coming, and between now and then a properly executed strategic plan could transform the Canucks from an aging, expensive bubble team “mushy” team into a young, fast, cap-flexible juggernaut built for years to come.

In Conclusion:

The Canucks are ‘in’ crisis mode as a result of half-measures:

• The operational failures regarding Lukas Reichel and the handling of Quinn Hughes require a decisive pivot. 
• The benchmarks set by the Karlsson, Jones, and Eichel trades prove that bold action—even involving franchise icons—yields better long-term results than stagnation. 
• By targeting the specific cap situations of New Jersey, Carolina, and Chicago, and leveraging the aggression of Utah, Vancouver can transform a disaster into a dynasty. 
• The $104 million cap era will reward teams with clean books and young cores. Vancouver currently has neither. 
• The roadmap outlined above provides the only viable path to obtaining both.

I have said it, and I echo it again, here and now:

• The Vancouver Canucks must recognize that the 2025-26 season is effectively lost in terms of championship contention. The 10-14-3 record is a signal that the current mix is volatile and operationally flawed.
• To do nothing, is not open for discussion. To act as a knee jerk reaction is not sound. To take a thoughtful pause, weigh all the options, the downside and upside is prudent. In the end of it all, change is inevitable and must be accepted.

How much change? Exactly when to “pull the trigger”? Whose to go? As the old saying goes, timing is everything.

But it’s time.

Until then, hockey fans