Welcome back to WWYDW, the only hockey column on the internet not currently on an expiring contract.

Speaking of expiring contracts, the Vancouver Canucks will soon have a few of them, but none quite so significant as that of captain Bo Horvat, who becomes an unrestricted free agent as of July 1, 2023.

Don’t worry too much about that potential outcome, however. All indications are that the Horvat situation will come to a well-shaped head much sooner than that.

Reports have come out that the Canucks and Horvat are at an impasse, with the team having made its “final offer” and the Horvat camp firmly rejecting said offer, which was said to be somewhere south of an $8 million AAV.

With that having transpired, the Canucks are now said to be full-heartedly exploring the trade market for Horvat, and it’s expected to be quite a market.

Before any of that can go down, however, we’d like to put you in the negotiator’s chair. The Canucks may have made their final offer, but what say you?

This week, we’re asking:

Let it be known in the comment section!

You answered below!

BigBA:
Look at Columbus.

They are using all their injuries as a excuse to sink this season.

They have a very good young team, and if they draft in the top-three, will be very good soon.

Rutherford needs to use Demko’s injury as a excuse to sink the ship.

There is a 6.7 % chance in making the playoffs.

A 6.9 % chance of winning the lottery.

Make the smart decision, Francesco.

Allow Rutherford to rebuild the core this season and go for Bedard.

Tanking is a terrible idea, a crash course in learning how to lose in case they somehow forgot. It will ingrain more bad habits and damage competitive spirit in all the players remaining. It will make Vancouver an even less attractive place for players and create an even more acrimonious work environment. It will be yet another lost winter for fans, which will in turn load even more expectation of restitution on the team that follows. Even more pressure. And the payoff is, at best, less than a 30% chance at Bédard. It’s hard to imagine a worse plan.

There would have to be a mass sell-off of players to get tank status by the TDL. Then how do you extend Petey after that? Plus, the Canucks would have to take bad contracts back, and those players might actually play well with Bruce trying to get a job. If that is actually a possibility.

It boggles the mind that after 50 years of the mediocrity spin cycle, some fans and apparently management subscribe to the mirage of “let’s make the playoffs.” This notion is frequently associated with the “we just can’t tank” idea. “Making the playoffs” is not a plan or a formula to win a championship. If it was, after 50 years, we would have a Cup by now. Does it need to be said that, at this point of notable professional sports franchise futility, the only acceptable goal should be a champion?

With very few exceptions, champions are built through the draft. A team badly struggles for a series of years but collects a series of very high draft picks, perhaps they hit the lottery on a later pick. One or perhaps two of these picks are franchise players. If fortunate, a generational talent is collected. Four or five of these players are the required core, who then mature into prime ability roughly together. The rest of the team is simply filler. Colorado and Tampa are examples of the effectiveness of this approach. In future, watch Buffalo and New Jersey.

We need tanking immediately if we are to take advantage of the parts of this formula that we already have, such as EP, QH, and TD. It is probably already too late for BH to be part of a four-year plan to win a Cup on this model.

I disagree with those who suggest that players like EP would not tolerate proper steps to rebuild. I think it is the precise opposite. The entire hockey world knows the Canucks have been spinning their wheels for decades. Meanwhile, multiple younger franchises have won championships. Plural. This is a reality that even a hockey player could detect.

Gee, how did it work out for Buffalo, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa…?

Need I go on?

Need smart managers to build cup champions, not tank specialists.

Tanking is something only non-hockey people would consider. When Pettersson signed his extension, he was clear he wanted to win. How do you think tanking would affect his or Kuzmenko’s willingness to extend? Not good, I think. It is one thing to work hard and lose. It is another to deliberately lose or see management deliberately tank the team. Even if they did, there is no guarantee that you would draft first, or even second.

Smartest thing they could ever do, at this point. But, it will NEVER happen. Not tank, but sell this year.

We definitely need to be sellers this TDL, as we just do not have the depth to get anywhere near seriously contending, thanks to JB & Co.

If we truly want to be a CUP contender more than just a winner, we need to drastically change the way we are going about it, and not be paying to clear CAP trying just to make the playoffs. This plan has only put us further back and handicapped us for many more years. We would have been in the clear and ready to deal if we did not sell the farm to get rid of expiring contracts and bring on boat anchor OEL & Co.

We need to trade or move Miller, Garland, OEL, Boeser, Stillman, Hoglander, and maybe Horvat.

Are people blind to the cap issues?

Do people not realize that there is no money for both Kuzmenko at $5 mil and Bo at $8.5 mil?

Then, the year after to keep your number one center at $10.5 mil. Plus, you have to fix your defence.

They need to clear around $15 mil. If they can move Boeser and Garland without retaining salary for next, then fine. Otherwise, Bo is gone.

Yes, we are two points out of a playoff spot. Did you see how we got here? Who we beat, and how?

Personally, I don’t believe in deliberately tanking. That being said, the Canucks should not hold on to this roster as it is constructed or more correctly, “jury rigged.” So far this season, the Canucks have careened to a 12-12-3 record and looked extremely imbalanced in doing so. To put it simply, when they outscored their mistakes, they won, when they didn’t, they lost. While this is usually true for most teams, the sheer volume of mistakes this roster continuously churns out is staggering compared to most of the other teams. Incredibly, there is no sign this group is even remotely close to changing these habits any time soon.

It just cannot be any clearer just how far this team is from competing for a Cup. IMO, JR and PA need to walk the walk and start achieving some of the goals they have repeatedly made reference to. Creating cap space and adding picks and prospects should be the number one priority starting yesterday. If Schenn indeed gets a first round pick from a team, do it NOW. Don’t wait. If Horvat is not going to be re-signed, trade him NOW. Don’t wait!! Boeser/Miller/Garland can all go, too, if the price is right, as none have demonstrated they are willing to do what it takes to win here. What this team does for the rest of the year is a moot point as far as I’m concerned. If they win, great, if they don’t, that’s fine too, but the remaking of this team needs to be the only consideration going forward.

You never want to see your players tank and not give full effort (cough, cough… looking at you JTM). But if mgmt sees an opportunity to execute a trade, get maximum value for a peak asset, and acquire future draft picks or prospects to build around, then they should. And if the team that remains faces a short-term talent deficit, resulting in losing games and dropping down the standings (thereby increasing our draft position), then so be it.

Canucks can’t get bad enough without setting the team back so far that even the top pick won’t make them winners for years and years.

Also, you can finish last and not get the top pick, so what is the point?

It’s not as if you get your pick of McDavid, Matthews, or Crosby.

You might be lucky to get an Eichel.

Two points out of a playoff spot with 55 games to go, and you’re talking about tanking?

That’s insane. No more talk of tanking or trading away their best players for draft picks. This is a fan site. The Canucks are headed for the playoffs. Where did I put my sunglasses?

Brian Phillips:
As much as I would like to see a tank in Vancouver, a 12-12-3 team can’t tank with any dignity. You can also bet that Pettersson, and possibly a few others we’d like to see stick around, would look to get out of town. Done properly, a tank should have started in the offseason (see Chicago). Now, we’ll just have to wait until January to see what happens. Worst case scenario: team tries to tank, still ekes into the playoffs, and picks #17 in June. This is Vancouver. So you can take that to the bank.

The chances of the Canucks tanking are as slim as Luke Schenn being traded for a first round draft pick…