What we learned: the Vancouver Canucks woes nearly 7 years in the making

The fact that Bo Horvat spent time after Vancouver’s ugly loss to Toronto on Saturday entertaining questions about a potential rebuild is not a good sign. But the 2021 Canucks’ problems really started around the time the Sedin twins’ career began winding down.

The organization made the classic mistake of bringing in a new general manager to retool a roster that was well past just being flawed, with no unifying vision that would allow the team to be both competitive for the playoffs (they bricked that) and able to quickly surround the Sedins with younger talent than they’d been dragging along for a few too many seasons. The trades for Brandon Sutter and Erik Gudbranson were made with an eye toward becoming harder to play against. The Loui Eriksson contract was signed to add skill support to