There was a brief moment there where it looked like the Vancouver Canucks didn’t need Quinn Hughes after all.

Well, okay, not really.

But the Canucks did go on a four-game winning streak over their first four games after trading Hughes, which led to some fans eagerly stating that the Canucks were actually better off without Hughes. That Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, and Liam Ohgren could replace Hughes in the aggregate. That everything would be better with that darn puck hog Quinn Hughes gone! That last point is sarcasm from me, in case you’re new here.

And we won’t hold those hopium-fueled takes against anyone. How could you not hope that your favourite team might just end up better off after trading the best defenceman in franchise history in the prime of his career? Hell, even the GM seemed to buy into that hope, rebranding the Canucks’ plan as a “retool with a hybrid form” after those four wins (Allvin and Rutherford have since clarified that this is in fact a rebuild). And it wasn’t just those four wins, either. There was the shiny new toys aspect of it all as well. Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s former overseas linemate in Liam Ohgren (just imagine those two together again!); the centre the Canucks had long been interested in, Marco Rossi; and of course, one of the NHL’s top defence prospects in Zeev Buium.

Naturally, a lot of the focus in the aftermath of the Hughes trade focused on that exciting return package, and naturally, that excitement only increased when the Canucks rattled off those four straight wins.

Oh, to go back to those simpler times.

Since those four wins in mid-December, the Canucks have gone 1-8-2, with their last win coming in a shootout against the Seattle Kraken on December 29th. The Canucks have lost eight straight games. In that time, the Canucks have been outscored 36-16. No, none of these numbers are typos or errors.

To put it simply: after a fun first four games where Thatcher Demko stood on his head and the Canucks managed to defend with some semblance of structure, the reality of life without Quinn Hughes has fully set in.

It’s hard to say there are any real positives in a situation like this one, but if there’s one player whose stock has certainly improved since Hughes’s departure, it’s his old defence partner, Filip Hronek.

Now, Hronek has been getting his flowers all season long — he’s been one of few Canucks defencemen to thrive under Adam Foote’s modified man-on-man defensive zone — but he has undoubtedly stepped up in the absence of Hughes. From a point-producing perspective, Hronek has tallied one goal and 10 assists in the 15 games the Canucks have played without Hughes. That’s brought him up to being on pace to match the career-high 48 points he tallied in 2023-24, and if he keeps up his pace from over the last 15 games, he’ll soar past 48. Perhaps most impressive is that just three of Hronek’s 10 assists without Hughes have come on the power play, as even with Hughes gone, Hronek has been passed over for PP1 duties, with the coaching staff electing to give those opportunities to young defencemen Zeev Buium and Tom Willander.

The Canucks’ young defencemen have already spoken positively about Hronek’s leadership and guidance as they get their first real taste of an NHL season. Buium, in particular, sought out Hronek for guidance on improving his one-timer, and as a pairing, Buium and Hronek have posted solid results in a small sample size. When you watch the games, you can see Hronek — typically quiet and to himself anytime cameras are around — pointing and communicating with his young teammates. Just recently, Adam Foote namedropped Hronek as a leader for this group.

But with all due respect to Filip Hronek, the biggest positive of the Quinn Hughes trade and all the losing that’s followed is undoubtedly that it’s forced the organization to take a long hard look at what’s in front of them and finally go down the path of a long-overdue rebuild. The rebuild that Mike Gillis wanted in 2014. The rebuild that led to Trevor Linden and the organization “amicably parted ways” over before a series of shortcuts with Jim Benning at the helm led the Canucks to two playoff berths over the last decade.

A rebuild. It’s finally (probably) happening.

In recent days, Canucks management has said all the right things. Speaking with The Province’s Patrick Johnston, Canucks president Jim Rutherford talked about the Canucks’ rebuild, stating the club is set on “not taking shortcuts” to turn the team around. As we wrote in the aftermath of the Hughes trade, the organization’s constant shortcuts and premature acceleration set in motion a series of events that led Hughes to want out of Vancouver. A scary thought for any Canucks fan is that this regime was going to do the exact same thing as the last (with the same owner, of course): accelerate too quickly and, once again, build a team primed to finish just outside the playoffs year after year.

Instead, Rutherford is preaching patience. He’s hoping to get it done in 2-3 years, but understandably, it might take longer than that if the Canucks are serious about building a contender.

Now, the words are great. For this franchise, those words are absolutely a step in the right direction, no doubt. But fans are well within their right to be skeptical and to want to see actual action before getting too excited.

The pain of the Quinn Hughes trade won’t go away anytime soon, but if the Canucks can use it as a pivot point and fully commit to building the next truly great Canucks team, that will certainly soften the blow when we look back on the trade years down the line.