Fan In Van

A Cruel Summer

I’m normally a pretty positive Vancouver Canuck fan, but these last three months have been extremely hard for me, and I’m sure it’s equally trying for every single fan in this town. In my own view, this is probably one of the most darkest summers this franchise has ever had.

First we lost promising defenceman Luc Bourdon to tragedy, and then we lost the greatest player this franchise has ever had to retirement. And in a span of three days, we’ve struck out on some big name free agents and signed plug hockey players. But possibly one of this team’s greatest losses came today when we lost captain Markus Naslund.

This offseason has been an absolute disaster with the exception of the NHL draft. GM Mike Gillis has not done enough to bring that “winning tradition” owner Francesco Aqualini hired him for. In fact, Gillis has done the exact opposite. By swinging for the fences in trying to lure Mats Sundin for an appalling $20M over two years, Gillis has missed the boat on Marian Hossa, Kristian Huselius, Sean Avery and a hell of a lot more. In the three days since free agency has opened, Gillis has spent only 2.5M of the estimated 21M he had in salary cap space, signing Ryan Johnson, Darcy Hordichuk, Nolan Baumgartner and Curtis Sanford.

Now it’s all well and good for him to address those depth issues and role player voids that will be left by Brad Isbister and Byron Ritchie, but this sounds an awful lot like something ex-GM Dave Nonis did. At least with Nonis, the Canucks seemed to be headed in a direction with a plan: Build through the draft and succeed with strong goaltending and defence with a mediocre offence. But Gillis has been making moves which has left me scratching my head: The unprecedented 10M-a-year offer to Mats Sundin left me shell shocked for days.

And Markus Naslund’s now certain departure has sent this franchise in a downward spiral. Up until yesterday things didn’t look so bleak with the Canucks still having the chance to reel in Sundin and possibly have Naslund play alongside him for a legitimate two-line threat. But with Sundin putting playing plans on indefinite hold and Naslund gone, this franchise faces even more uncertainty than they did before the offseason began.

What happened in the span of three months? This fanbase though having Naslund and Brendan Morrison off the books would bring in new blood and fresh talent. But now it appears this club is headed for something much, much worse than that.