By: Brayden Fengler / April 24, 2026 With the first full week of NHL playoffs almost behind us, it’s likely nice for everyone, fans and players alike, that this Canucks season can finally be put to bed. I know I’m not the only one who felt as though the last 20 games took twice as long to get through as the first 62 did.
But now with the season in the rearview and still the very early days of a proper rebuild ahead of the Canucks, what’s next? An actual course has not yet been charted for this club as they head into the off-season.
We did get the firing of GM Patrik Allvin, but without his successor in place, the ship is rudderless.
Just before the end of the season, I asked 25 Canucks fans on Bluesky what their biggest hopes and worries were about this team going into the next 1-2 years of this rebuild. Overall, there was a lot of consensus both in terms of what fans are worried about and what they hold the most hope in.
This article breaks down the responses I got from fans. The hopes and the worries.
An Overview of Fan Responses
As I said, I asked fans for their biggest worries, as well as their biggest hopes about this team. I didn’t give any other parameters than that.
Yet, when going over the various responses, naturally, many fans touched on things that fall under the same umbrella. For some categories, I also got virtually just as many fans with worries as there were fans who were hopeful.
The top left of this graphic shows the topics that fans had the most to say about, worries or hopes, and the bottom right shows the topics that came up less from the fans I spoke with.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, really, but what is clear in the graphic is that what fans have the most hope in overlaps with the areas that other fans are most nervous about.
Fans hope that ownership and management will make the right moves, but if they don’t, that’s a big worry. Fans are dreading falling in the draft or making the wrong picks, but there is a lot of hope placed in things breaking the right way for the team in that department.
The Hopes of Canucks Fans
The top items that fans were hopeful about were picks/prospects, ownership/management, and coaching. Now this is not to say that fans are placing their hope in the current management and coaching staff, but rather that fans are hopeful that things will work out positively in these areas.
Fans had the least to say about any hopes being placed around future trades. Interestingly however a combination of worries around future signings/trades did rank high on the worried side of the spectrum.
Hopes for Picks/Prospects
Fans are putting the most hope around the teams ability to draft and develop over the years ahead. Many fans are hopeful that the team will land Gavin KcKenna specifically.
However I also got a large contingency of responses from people simply hopefully that for this year’s first round pick and for all others, that they will simply make the best possible picks. Fans don’t want management to go too far off the path of who the consensus best players are.
A big thing for fans as well is that there is a quantity aspect to the Canucks picks. Fans want the stock pile of picks that the Canucks have recently assembled to actually be used by the Canucks in the draft.
Fans are also hopeful that this team will finish in a good position for the next few drafts. While that has a little to do with how well they do next season, those results can also be a little bit out of managements hands.
What is very much in their hands, however, is the proper development of players. That was a big point stressed in responses as well. It’s not just that fans want the best picks, fans are hopeful that this team will properly prepare these players to have impact on the team.
Many fans also want this impact to be immediate, which is something that previous Canucks management has seemingly wanted as well. Unfortunately in many cases immediate impact and proper development can often be two sides of a flipped coin, which can only land one way.
Hopes for Ownership/Management
Fans are hopeful that this team will commit to a proper rebuild. As will be explored in the next section of this article, there is substantial worry that this rebuild will be rushed. But there are still fans who think this team will commit to it this time around.
Another item that fans hope can be a simple victory is significant progress on a practice facility within the next few years. Jim Rutherford recently said “everything is in place” for a facility, speaking to the new discussions around a facility where the Britannia Community Centre currently is.
With things like this, it’s not fully up to the Canucks, but fans are hopeful that management will continue to move it forward.
There were also hopes expressed around a new GM and president of Hockey operations entering the picture, which is now halfway to being realized.
Hopes for Coaching and Standings/Compete
Two lesser discussed topics but ones that still came up a good amount were items around coaching, as well as where the team will finish in the standings after this year.
Virtually all fans I connected with want this team to stay in the basement next year. There is no confusion around the fact that it is a necessary evil. But a lot of fans still want to see a return to hockey that is fun to watch.
Fans want this team’s compete level to be elevated; they want players to try, to care. This can be a hard ask of players in a rebuild.
A rebuild is a big picture thing that not all players will get to see the other side of. It’s understandable why night in, night out motivation may not always be there for some players, especially in the dog days of a losing season.
But the attitude around what it’s like to play during a rebuild is also a big culture thing, and that is something the team can and should be focused on improving.
On the topic of coaching, fans are essentially hopeful that Adam Foote will get fired; they believe this will and should happen. Jim Rutherford did recently say that that will be the next GM’s call, but it seems reasonable that a future GM should come to that conclusion sooner or later.
Fans want the next coach to be someone who can handle a room better than Foote. They also hope the coaching staff overall will be a group that can better handle younger players.
Hopes for Player Performance, Forwards and Defence
It’s very telling that the current Canucks player personnel do not crack the top five in terms of categories of things that fans are hopeful about.
It’s clear fans view a fresh change to coaching and management as the most important changes to come. However, there are still players that Canucks fans have hope can be invested in this rebuild.
Mainly, fans are hopeful that a core will be established over the next two seasons, and there are still many who think Elias Pettersson can be a part of this if he has a bounce-back season next year. There are admittedly not a lot of fans with eggs in that basket, but EP40’s potential to be an impactful part of this team is not lost on all.
There is a lot of hope from fans placed in the team’s defence taking a big step forward next season. Namely, Wilander, Buium and D-Petey arriving as bona fide NHLers. A lot of fans also have similar hopes with select forwards such as Marco Rossi settling in as a reliable centre, and even Braeden Cootes entering the mix as a possible 3C, making an immediate impact next season.
Hopes for Goaltending, Captaincy and Trades
The positive thoughts around goaltending go two different directions. While some fans are hopeful that Demko and Lankinen can finally be a reliable pair, there are also fans who feel that the Canucks time with Demko has come and gone. These fans see a positive outcome as simply getting good value in a Demko trade.
Aside from Demko, Filip Hronek’s name was also thrown around as a vet who some fans hope is moved for good value. Really more so than any one name, there is hope from fans that the team will trade players when their value is high and not sit on players who won’t be a part of this rebuilt team.
Funny enough, while some fans suggested Hronek could be a good trade piece, others saw him as the next captain. But the feelings on that certainly weren’t overwhelming. A large number of fans I connected with had a general hope that the next captain would not be picked until the timing is right.
The Worries of Canucks Fans
By far, the biggest worry from fans that the Canucks actually have control over revolves around ownership and management. While yes, a lot of fans mentioned to me feeling hopeful that this team will commit to its rebuild, far more fans said that they are worried this team is going to rush it.
Picks and prospects was the second most worried about category by fans, and a lot of the worries had to do with what is mostly outside the team’s control, falling in the draft. There is nothing more the team can do to try to secure the first overall pick this year, but in any year it can sometimes be a hard race to the bottom. Next year’s race might be a lot tighter.
Canucks fans are currently least worried about finding the team’s next captain. Most of the worry comes from a fear that it will be rushed and a captain will be picked before the next core is established.
So it makes sense that this topic was at least mentioned by fans in the context of both a hope and a worry. But it certainly isn’t the biggest thing that could go right or wrong over the next few seasons.
Worries for Ownership/Management
Ownership and the management of this team was by far the one topic that had the most chatter around it. For various reasons fans could foresee this rebuilding being rushed. Fans are worried that ownership will declare victory too early in the hope of getting a sugar high off of one or two years of playoff revenue.
Fans also foresee costly and rushed problem-solving through free agency, or a bubble Demko performance that gives management false hopes about the team’s overall capabilities.
Fans worry that instead of taking proper steps, holes will be plugged through acquiring different 22-year-old failed prospects that don’t perform any better on the Canucks.
Some fans were worried that management would stay the same, but at least for their sake, that does not appear to be happening. There was also some doubt cast on a practice facility ever actually happening, which is certainly a reasonable take to have.
Overall though, aside from pulling the plug on the rebuild, the next biggest worry from fans was really just that history would repeat itself. An overvaluing of vets, signing bridge deals that leave the club in a bad spot and a return to the playoffs that only ends like the 2023-24 season.
Worries for Picks/Prospects
For picks and prospects, the worries really fall into two camps: the things that the team can control, and the things they can’t. As mentioned earlier, there is a fair amount of worry that the team will fall to third in this upcoming draft and will be struck with a similar fate over the next few seasons.
Fans are also worried about overall poor draft positioning remaining a trend, which again is something the team can really only have so much control over.
However, what the team can control is what is done with the picks they currently have before and after they are selected. A big worry is that management will try to cut corners by trading far too many of their upcoming draft picks for players who can more quickly plug into the team’s line-up.
A slightly bigger worry, though, is that even if management shows restraint and retains the bulk of their upcoming picks, what if the team just can’t develop them or retain them long enough for that to matter?
The loss of Quinn Hughes still stings in many ways, which I think is where this worry comes from in part. A high first-round draft pick properly developed in Vancouver, one of the best players of his position in the history of the game, out the door because the team just couldn’t get it together.
What’s scarier than not getting the best pick or making the wrong pick, is making the right one, only to watch them walk before anything meaningful is accomplished.
Worries for Signings/Trades
People approached this category from different angles, with the core concern really being that the team could make some bad deals that would prolong the rebuilding process or run counter to it.
There are fears that management may look to plug holes with the wrong type of player, if the team trends downwards for longer than they can stomach. Fans could see this happening if management tries to make the team older, too quickly.
There is also the worry from fans that if trades with vets like Hronek and Pettersson do happen, the return will be weak. Fans are afraid management will miss the best windows, and the deals will come at times when the market is not in their favour.
Worries for Coaching, Player Performance and Standings
With coaching, people’s biggest worry is the exact counterpart to what people were most hopeful about. People are worried about the Canucks keeping Foote on as head coach. This was by far the biggest, most unanimous point brought up aside from this team abandoning their rebuild. Fans are very scared about what it means if Foote stays.
Related to this, there was a secondary coaching fear expressed by some fans regarding Manny Malhotra. Fans who want him to stay in the organization worry that the club is going to lose him to another team that offers him an NHL job if the Canucks aren’t ready to do that themselves.
Speaking to player performance, there were some general fears expressed. Notably, there is worry about a proper culture not being developed. Fans worry what this could mean for the next core if the right culture isn’t in place by the time they’re coming out the other side of the rebuild.
A lack of culture is really what this team has now, and it simply isn’t an environment that can sustain what the next young Canucks will need.
A team needs a good culture established, especially when it’s at the bottom of the standings, which is where this team should be for the next few years.
A worry fans have, more so than doing too well and overperforming for a season, is that the team won’t be able to be bad enough and will sit in the mid-20s during the next few drafts. That would have the team miss out on the best new prospects available.
Goaltending, Forwards and Captaincy
As mentioned, fans are worried about the next captaincy of this team and simply hope that it isn’t picked too early. These is no pressure from fans for the team to name their next captain right now. It can be a fun and exciting thing to do, but the team would be wise to hold off on this.
Interestingly, what I found to be the least discussed were worries related to current players actually on the roster. There were hopes about the future of the Canucks d-core, but no one really worried about it on the flip side.
Similarly, there were some fans worried about Elias Pettersson not bouncing back or Thatcher Demko remaining hurt, but there were more fans who discussed having hope for a positive outcome around those and other players.
This to me speaks to the faith that a lot of fans have when it comes to the long-standing Canucks on this team. Not too many people are worried that it’s going to be the Elias Pettersson’s, the Brock Boeser’s or the Thatcher Demko’s that are going to make this team sink or swim.
Fans see a lot of the risk and reward for the future success of this team coming from the upcoming draft results and management’s ability to properly navigate this rebuild.
Biggest Take Always from All Fans Hopes & Worries
At the end of the day, fans have their eyes on ownership and management more than any personnel or external factor that could come up around this team. Fans are worried more than they are hopeful that management will actually go through with this rebuild.
They are worried that corners will be cut and history will repeat itself. It’s up to this new GM and whoever eventually replaces Jim Rutherford to prove that fans don’t have to worry.
What is clear is that a lot of fans understand this team has to be bad, not just next year but the year after that. Fans will be mad if this team does too well, too quickly. That’s a good starting point for this new GM to come in on; he doesn’t have to sell the fan base on a rebuild, they’re sold, they’ve bought in.
Fans are living in that mindset and have been for a while. All this new GM needs to do is stick to that idea, and there will then hopefully be a lot more that fans can feel good about, as opposed to feeling worried about, over the years ahead.
Below I’ve listed a good number of the wonderful people who took the time to get back to me with extremely thoughtful responses for this article. Thank you!
@seattlechef.bsky.social / @jackson604.bsky.social / @jlout / @allydar.bsky.social / @albernisanders.bsky.social / @pnak3000.bsky.social / @theonlystowie.bsky.social / @gtotheoff.bsky.social / @522intoovertime.bsky.social/ @jholiday.bsky. social / @andrewbutworse.bsky.social / @dgk1969.bsky.social / @guillermosperro.bsky.social / @viewfromtherog.bsky.social / @canucklibre.bsky.social / @sgl10.bsky.social / @mrbearimy.bsky.social / @adamtate.bsky.social / @danmachholz.bsky.social