Until it finally happened, there was always an open question of how the Vancouver fanbase would react to the Canucks entering into an actual, official, self-declared rebuild. And along the way, the fans’ potential reaction to a rebuild was often held up as a reason not to rebuild, with many suggesting that a fanbase this large and this passionate just didn’t have the temperance or the patience to sit through a multi-year building-through-losing process.

As of now, that question still remains unanswered. Until we’ve all actually sat through several years of this rebuild and continued to maintain positive thoughts about it, we can not yet say that the Vancouver fanbase has been proven capable of handling a rebuild.

But we can say, without much question, that this fanbase has wholeheartedly embraced both the concept and the earliest stages of said rebuild. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a franchise entering into a rebuild with any more goodwill toward it than the Canucks have on their hands right now. That’s got to be good news for those who truly hope to see this process carried out all the way to the end, no matter how long that takes.

Long-term patience requires acceptance that the patience is necessary, and Vancouver Canucks fans seem to have accepted the necessity of the rebuild with open arms.

Think back to how often and how consistently past Vancouver front offices have been to even use the word “rebuild.” Even a few months ahead of it being declared, POHO Jim Rutherford was actively avoiding it. Back in November of 2025, he could be heard saying, “You have to understand rebuilds take a long time. There has to be a lot of patience, and for the teams that take the biggest jump and ultimately rebuild and win a Cup, they usually have a first-overall pick. And you still have to get lucky on that. I’m not naming teams, but some have tried a rebuild and had a ton of draft picks that didn’t turn out. So a rebuild is not something that we’re going to look at doing.”

There’s an awful lot of apprehension in that statement, and a lot of it has to do with the assumption that Vancouver fans wouldn’t have the willingness to be patient for a process that, in the end, requires a lot of luck to work out, and that ultimately has no real guarantee of success.

Within a month of that quote, however, Quinn Hughes had been traded to the Minnesota Wild in a package consisting entirely of under-24 assets, and Rutherford himself was talking about a “rebuild.” Within a month, he’d gone from “a rebuild is not something that we’re going to look at doing” to “[these players and picks] will be a key part of the rebuild that we are currently in, giving us a bright future moving forward.”

Somewhere behind the scenes, it was decided that the Vancouver fanbase could, in fact, handle the declaration of a rebuild. And if the team was gauging the response to that terminology, they had to be almost overwhelmed with the response.

Most fans breathed a sigh of relief. Most reacted with some version of the expression “Finally!” There was almost no pushback against the concept of a rebuild or its necessity. Instead, it was a nearly-universal response of gratitude that this organization was, for once, doing things the long, hard way instead of attempting to get by with wishy-washy concepts like a “retool on the fly.”

This is a fanbase, after all, that had just watched their captain and most talented player in franchise history be traded for a collection of youngsters, prospects, and a first-round pick, and who had largely been overjoyed with the return.

The reaction to the Hughes trade was the first sign that the Canucks faithful would be on board with the rebuild, and their reaction to the declaration of the rebuild that followed only underlined it. As has every reaction since, whether it be the hype over the draft lottery, or the intense focus on the third overall selection, or the hunger for more veterans-out, picks-in trades.

And then, on top of all this, intentionally or not, the organization set out to bolster all that goodwill with its next round of hirings.

They’ve replaced Rutherford with co-POHOs Henrik and Daniel Sedin. Not only are the Sedins two of the best people to have ever graced the sport of hockey, but they’re also two individuals who almost personify the level of patience required for a rebuild. The Sedins took forever to fully hit their stride as NHL players, but they were undoubtedly worth any delay. Just having the Sedins around in this capacity serves as a living reminder that good things come to those who wait.

No one has built up the level of trust and respect with the Vancouver fanbase like the Sedins. One could argue that the team has already been here before with Trevor Linden in the President’s seat. Still, even Linden didn’t have quite the same reputation as Henrik and Daniel, lifelong Canucks and the only MVPs in franchise history. Plus, we never got to find out what would have happened in a rebuild with Linden at the helm, despite his best attempts.

Now, we’ve got Henrik and Daniel in place with a rebuild already declared and accepted. There weren’t two people in this entire world who could have earned more extra patience for the rebuild from this franchise than them.

The dual hirings of Ryan Johnson as GM and Manny Malhotra as head coach only add to the general goodwill. Both are respected former players remembered for their work ethic. Both won an AHL championship in Abbotsford. Both appear to be in lockstep with the Sedins and the rebuild plan.

As a result, they’re not the only ones on board. The entire fanbase seems to be as well, which is vital because Rutherford wasn’t wrong when he talked about rebuilds requiring an inordinate level of buy-in and patience.

The main point to be made here is that the Vancouver Canucks quite literally could not ask for any greater level of goodwill at the outset of a rebuild than they have on their hands right now. There’s really no excuse left not to see this thing through all the way to its conclusion. If the fanbase has signalled anything in its response to this past year of happenings, it’s that anything less than a continued commitment to the rebuild would be nothing short of a grand disappointment.