from Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province,
Willie Desjardins has a vision.
In his dreaming, the Vancouver Canucks come back in 2016-17 with a healthy lineup, a renewed sense of purpose and the lessons from this awful season embedded in their collective DNA. The lines — centred by Henrik Sedin, Brandon Sutter, Bo Horvat and another guy — stabilize and find chemistry. The kids take another step in their development. The blueline benefits from the return of Alex Edler and the maturation of Nikita Tryamkin or Andrey Pedan or Philip Larsen or Jakob Chychrun or...nevermind, you get the picture.
As for goaltending, if this season has demonstrated anything, it's demonstrated the net is the least of the Canucks' concerns.
Yes, Desjardins can picture it all unfolding and after everything he's endured this season, you can give him that.
He believes the Canucks are a playoff team....
But there are also at least 10 other teams telling their fans the same thing. We're close. Look at all these good young players. This year, exactly one team arrived after a prolonged rebuild - the Florida Panthers. Next year there may be a couple more. But not all 10 of them are going to make the great leap forward.
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