Vancouver Canucks management provided some clarity on where the team is headed.

Canucks reporter Chris Faber met with General Manager Patrik Allvin and discussed the team’s direction at this point of the season, where they are sitting in last place in league standings:

“We are transitioning into a rebuild here, acquiring younger players through the draft,” Allvin said. “Obviously, the draft is really important for us. Since Jim and I got [here] three years ago, we’ve definitely always emphasized on getting younger. We see a couple of younger players coming up through the system, getting a chance to play now, with the amount of injuries we had; players like [Tom] Wilander, DPetey [Elias Pettersson], [Jonathan] Lekkerimäki – [Kirill] Kudryavtsev, and [Ty]Mueller got games last year.

Before the Christmas break, Allvin joined the panel after the first intermission on Prime Monday Night Hockey when the Canucks faced the Philadelphia Flyers. He discussed the Hughes trade and said the team planned to retool with a hybrid form. Faber asked him what he meant by that:

“We still want to continue to acquire young players and draft picks in order to continue to build our roster,” Allvin said. “We saw what we did with the Minnesota deal, where we’re acquiring some players that were already in the league. I think it’s important for us to continue to do so in our rebuild here, but it is also important to have veteran players in our lineup to help and support the younger players learning how to be a pro, and I think that’s how you grow as a team.”

You can watch the full segment below:

Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre sat down with Jim Rutherford to clarify his views on the direction of the team: