The problem with "staying the course" is that Vancouver has been "staying the course" for the better part of six years now with very little to show for it. They're still missing the playoffs. Benning's machinations in free agency show no signs of slowing up anytime soon (he just re-signed Pearson to that inexplicable contract) and that routinely handcuffs them from being able to make the most rudimentary roster improvements, like signing Tyler Toffoli. You do it again by signing Armia, who is fine I guess, but like come on how many "fine-to-bad" bottom six guys making three million do you need, at the expense of good players?

If you're staying the course by "being bad to get high picks and rebuild", then Vancouver needs to stop signing these weird middle of the road guys like Armia and Pearson and just play bad players there for cheap. Sell the guys who don't fit your window, like you definitely should have done with Pearson and probably should do with Schmidt and Miller and Holtby if anyone will take him, and weaponize the cap space you'll have by taking bad deals from other team for serious payment, like Detroit did with Panik, in order to stockpile assets.

At some point I would like to think being bad for long enough just gives you enough high picks to fill out a good roster, but like, look at Buffalo. Vancouver has two elite core players, two young-ish really good top six fowards, and a decent goalie probably. That's a great foundation, but the key now is making the correct moves so that you can accentuate it. "The course" to this point has not been very successful at doing that.

This is what I don't get about guys like you . You whine about Pearson's contract of 9.6 mil for three years even though he has played 131 games for the Canucks scored 40 goals 72 points kills penalties and plays a good two way game. Then you cry that Benning did not sign Toffoli for 4 years at 17 million who played 10 regular season games and scored 6 goals 10 points . Hindsight is a wonderful thing but do you really think Toffoli would have scored 28 goals Pettersson playing less than half the season? It will be fun to see next year if Toffoli scores 28 goals or more.

I bet you were at the last Sedin game screaming one more year and then crying about the rebuild later.

I don't think Toffoli would have necessarily been a 28 goal scorer on Vancouver regardless because that's never really been his game and I obviously think it's an anomaly what he's doing in Montreal this year. But let's not pretend that this is everyone in hindsight saying that that was a mistake to let him walk. Toffoli is an excellent play driver which is good to have next to natural scorers like Boeser and Pettersson. It was clear he fit in well with the team and helped them make the playoffs that year. And everyone said when he signed with Montreal "wow that's all it took? Why couldn't the Canucks figure that out?" But Benning's bad contracts for players who aren't difference makers forced them to walk away from the table. Having one Tanner Pearson during the rebuild, I guess, is fine. But it's a pattern of behavior with the Canucks- Beagle, Sutter, Ferland (yeah he got hurt, good for Benning it allowed him to *checks notes* sign Pearson's extension), Roussell, Myers, Holtby- these are players who are overpaid and preventing them from actually making any sort of impact moves. I'm not saying Tyler Toffoli is Connor freaking McDavid but like he would be worth the four million and change that the Canucks could be paying him even without this Montreal season but whoops we signed Jay Beagle for a million years to have a 3 xGA/60 so now we have to lose a top six forward who was clearly good on a bad team like the Kings and then clearly better on a better team like the Canucks that year.

And chill on the assumptions buddy. I don't care about the Sedins (I mean they're cool but like as far as their career goes) and I think the Canucks very obviously had to rebuild when they retired. I honestly couldn't care less about what the Vancouver Canucks do besides just wanting them to generally be competent because that's good for the league. But they're not competent. They suck. And maybe they suck because their management has offered no palpable direction for the rebuild in the nine years Benning has been GM beyond "this guy in FA will surely fix all of our problems" and that staying the course will ultimately offer more of the same dysfunction.

Look at Colorado's rebuild, or Toronto's or Carolina's. It's not just about drafting high. You have to make impact moves on the peripheral to have success. Trading for and keeping Jake Muzzin, Devon Toews, Dougie Hamilton. Finding players who will punch above their payrate like Hyman or Nichuskin or Trochek. The Canucks are not doing this.

I remember looking on this other site called Hockey Buzz in the Canuck forum and almost everyone on there said do not sign Toffoli for four years that he was too slow. Today they are the first ones crying what a mistake Benning made. The hindsight of this fan base yourself included is mind boggling.

For your info, the year before Colorado turned the corner their fans were calling for the head of Sakic . It's amazing when you draft the first overall ,a franchise player like McKinnon or Matthews how your luck changes.

If you hate the Canucks stop watching them . Simple.

Dude I am not even a Canucks fan, I just like hockey. You don't need to be so sensitive about this.

Also, you have a generational player on par with those guys! Pettersson is that good! Why are you not good again if that's all it takes? The answer is because that's not all it takes. MacKinnon was on that bad Colorado team too.

Your point about Colorado is semi well taken though, because Sakic was really awful at first. BUT, once the team invested some money in analytics and started targeting undervalued players like Toews, Nichuskin, Girard, Saad, suddenly they got really good. Toffoli has always had really good underlying numbers. I can't imagine why the Canucks aren't having similar success when they are constantly signing guys who don't.

Pettersson is not even close to generational player, He is a good player. If you watched enough of him you will know he gets out battled many many times in puck battles and spends a lot of time falling. He has a long ways to go to be generational ( a term that gets thrown around far too much).