The Vancouver Canucks and their fan base had a day for the ages Saturday. Their season was finally euthanized – on a winning note, no less. There’s also the matter of the sixth overall selection which now serves as the worst case scenario for the Canucks at the Draft Lottery. 

I don’t think that’s the dream scenario this marketplace envisioned last summer. Hell, I know for a fact the team itself didn’t. This was supposed to be a 100-point season. Better, depending on which Canucks executive you caught on what day.

The Canucks had a vision, sure, but good luck convincing me it wasn’t through the lens of rotating slide glasses in a Toys’R’Us near you. The narratives changed since, though, to the point where they’re now convinced everyone involved knew their success last season sat atop a house of cards. To their credit, they made moves to build a sustainable foundation but more often than not found themselves deeper in a pit of their own devices.

If the stated goal was to get younger, to what exact end did the Canucks advance that goal? The glass half-full approach might suggest that the nine players making their NHL debut is a step in the right direction. At that point, we’re feigning applause for injuries though. 

There’s no accounting for the impact poor health will have over the course of the season. It’s neat the Canucks had prospects and things resembling them to sip some coffee at the NHL level, but nothing more. Did the Canucks actions themselves advance that goal? The answer is an easy no. 

Do they lose Frankie Corrado to waivers if they trip over themselves to beat a non-existent market to Matt Bartkowski? Were they getting younger when they dealt Zack Kassian and a fifth-round draft pick for 35 games of Brandon Prust’s corpse? Brandon Sutter and Markus Granlund are a net wash on age with Hunter Shinkaruk and Nick Bonino, but good luck convincing me the Canucks are any better for the privilege.

What if the Canucks take San Jose up on the mystery offer for Ryan Miller, rather than the pittance they accepted from Carolina for Eddie Lack? A linear comparison of their seasons suggests (fairly or otherwise) that the Canucks are surrendering a few wins off the top, but an extra $6-million can cover a lot of ground in free agency. That’s another three Bartkowskis. 

What’s especially damning, though, is that they not only sacrificed small chunks of the future for a better now, but they placed horrible bets therein. I can respect a team refusing to go silent into that good night, but it’s all the more difficult when they repeatedly shoot themselves in the feet trying to.

Prediction models across the board saw the Canucks as considerably worse this season than last. That’s not necessarily fair to those at the top, though, as some of the pieces in place were put there by prior regimes. The Hockey News looked at WAR (Wins Above Replacement) and found that the Canucks had one of, if not the worst off-season in the entire league by this most all-encompassing of advanced metrics though.

And while the picture painted is especially black already, we haven’t even touched upon the multiple errors of omission sprinkled on the margins. Not trading Radim Vrbata while his value was at an all-time high was a start, one which they doubled down on at a micro level with his deployment. Bumbling their way into the trade deadline with the best defender on the market and leaving empty handed can only be described as embarrassing when next door Brian Burke’s media tour was building a self-sustaining market for Kris Russell.

If you’re noticing a recurring theme here, it’s the litany of objective truths that read like a scathing piece of hate mail. The Canucks lost this season and very little of that had to do with their record. They bled value where they needed to add it at every available opportunity. They’ve fewer draft picks now than when they started the season. And for what?

The Canucks are no closer to turning this thing around now than they were a year ago. In fact, the case can be made they’re even further off. This season is, for all intents and purposes, a lost season. All that’s left for Jim Benning and Co. is to learn from it. They say you learn from your mistakes and oh, how very many of those they’ve something to glean from.