By: Brayden Fengler / September 16, 2025 The eve of a new hockey season is always an exciting time, regardless of last year’s standing after 82 games. All 32 teams start the season with identical records. It’s hard not to have some sense of optimism going into a new season just for that reason alone, and it’s that optimism that often draws people back in even after a particularly challenging prior seasons.
Cards on the table, full transparency, I am one of those people being drawn back in as I have been very much tuned out of the Canucks world over the summer months.
I haven’t had a summer in recent memory when I was more checked out of the goings on around the Canucks, and I can’t really put my finger on exactly why. But yet, a new season is here, and it’s time to check how much worse Sportsnet+ has gotten, so I can prepare to watch Canucks Hockey again.
Taking A Step Back
Until this past off-season, the results of a given season didn’t usually impact how dialed in to the team I would remain over the summer. Historically, I have often kept my finger on the pulse of everything Canucks; even during the driest months where sports radio has nothing to do but put together endless strings of fictional hockey teams just to pass the time. But this summer, I just didn’t have the motivation to be connected to this team in the same way.
This wasn’t an intentional choice; it just sort of happened. Upon initial reflection, it seemed odd to me. Two seasons ago, the Canucks came a game away from the Western Conference Finals after not making it to the playoffs in years. Yet that off-season, I was still on the ball, wanting to keep up with any news that broke.
Perhaps I felt that way because we thought the sky was still the limit for this team. Yet I also remember being aware that this team was likely to have been punching above its weight class during those playoffs, and that a regression was possible for the following year.
Well, a regression is what we got. The Canucks finished 18th out of 32 teams, dropping from 6th place in the previous season.
Not only did they miss the playoffs, we also saw locker room issues that ultimately led to the departure of J.T. Miller, who love him or hot him, was one of their top talent. Every turn seemed to give Canucks fans tangible reasons to question the direction of this Rutherford-Allvin area team for the first time. It’s hard to stay motivated to keep up with the Canucks over the dog days of summer when everything that seemed so clear less than a year ago, couldn’t be foggier.
Allvin & Rutherford Feeling a little Familiar?
A part of why this last season was so hard to watch and deal with afterward is that it was the first off-season in the Allvin & Rutherford era where progress did not seem to be trending upward. In the years before the Allvin and Rutherford took over, this was a normal feeling to hold onto each off-season, and I think Canucks fans became quite numb to it.
When missing the playoffs and broken promises are all you know from the Benning era, it becomes an easier pill to swallow every May when the team just keeps treading water. Through those years bitter/ practical Canucks fans always had the safety net thought of “Well, once Benning is gone, this will all turn around”. But that same safety net doesn’t exist here, not with Allvin and Rutherford, who are supposed to still be the main vehicle for that prophesied turnaround.
The reality is that we are three and a half years into the Allvin & Rutherford era now, and if moving on from Benning has not yet fixed the Canucks’ problems, would moving on from Allvin and co. do the trick now? I don’t think that is something seriously being called for by anyone, including fans.
But it does feel like any remainder of the grace period has lifted for this management, and it’s a scary feeling to be looking in the rearview of a particularly bad season, headed into four-plus full years with this current leadership who were supposed to be the answer to all of this organization’s problems.
Dialing Back In
Although I leaned towards tuning out this off-season for the reasons explained above, I am now dialing back in. Not because the calendar is telling me to, but because like anyone who watches sports, the call of a clean break and a new season is too tempting to resist.
There are enough new pieces and the hope of a fresh start without the J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson drama going any further, that make this season feel hopeful once more.
There are still questions to be answered. Can Höglander manage to really find his place on this team? Will Evander Kane be a good fit? Perhaps most importantly, will the team perform well enough to make it compelling for Quinn Hughes to stay a Canuck long into the future?
Every season brings with it new questions, but I believe that the Canucks should have the tools to answer them. Either way, it’s the painfully long journey that makes the destination worth the ride. 2025-26 here we come!