Canucks Mishaps Might Turn into Blessing

A lot has been made out from Trevor Linden stepping down from his position of President of Hockey operations a few weeks ago.

Firstly, the reaction of fans proved that the fans don't think before they speak as there is a lot more to digest than people realize.

For example, people last year calamine that Trevor Linden was just a pretty face and that he really doesn't know what he is doing. If that statement is true, than Linden stepping down is a good thing for the Vancouver Canucks.

However, there are people in Vancouver that were saying that him stepping down sets Vancouver back a 1-2 years.

These statements contradict each other as fans can't have things both ways.

Let's rewind the tape a bit five years back to May 2013 when the Canucks were ousted by the Sharks in a four game sweep. At this point, any logical Canucks fans would say that the Canucks current core wasn't going to win the Cup.

Was this the time to trade the Sedin twins? From my recollection, the Sedins had a no trade clause and it was going to be hard to trade 14 million dollars worth team to any team going for a Cup.

They decided to fire the most successful coach in Canucks history and hired the worst Canucks coach possibly that has been behind the bench for Vancouver.

The following year, Vancouver decided to "rebuild on the fly" and to credit of the owner, they did make the playoffs in 2015.

Yes, the last few years have been some of the most painful years but if things would have gone differently, would the Canucks have been better off?

If the season started tomorrow, Here's how the Canucks would line up:

LW                                                C                                                    RW
Sven Baertschi                        Bo Horvat                                        Brock Boeser 
Loui Eriksson                         Elias Pettersson                             Brandon Sutter
Brendan Leipsic                     Markus Granlund                            Nikolay Goldobin
Tim Schaller                            Jay Beagle                                      Jake Virtanen


 Not playoff ready yet but the progression is surely being made where I can definitely see this team making the playoffs by 2020.

Now, if the Canucks would have gotten rid of the Sedins in 2014 when it was apparent that this team was headed for some down years, these forwards would look quite different.

To be hypothetical, lets say the Canucks had the worst record in 2015. 

Using the results of the lottery, the Canucks would have drafted 2nd in 2015 which was Jack Eichel.As exciting as this would have been, the Canucks would have not had Brock Boesser in that draft.

Eichel might have helped Vancouver just enough in 2016 where they wouldn't have been in position to take an Olli Juolevi or Elias Pettersson the following years.

It's anyone's guess who the Canucks would have taken instead, but my point is, the Canucks most exciting player last year is from the 2015 draft, who we wouldn't have had if Vancouver tanked in 2015.

Even if we start this hypothetical in 2014, in retrospect the Canucks should have selected  Nikolaj Ehlers instead of Jake Virtanan, the Canucks might not be in position to draft Quin Hughes last draft as Ehlers popped home 29 goals last year while dishing out 31 assists.

My feelings are is that the Canucks maybe haven't rebuilt the most direct way, but their stubbornness to get younger in 2014 has gave Jim Benning a chance to build this team quantity along with quality.

We seem to be past the toughest point in the rebuild, lets have faith that Jim Benning knows what he is doing and stop complaining anymore.