The Canucks still do not have a practice facility after 15 years of “declaring their intention to do so,” but President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford said the team is “going to get this done, maybe long after I’m here, maybe long after I’m even on this earth, but it’ll get done,” according to Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver PROVINCE. Securing a practice facility was one of the first things Rutherford “vowed to get done when he was hired on as the Canucks’ hockey boss just over four years ago.” He said that they have “had talks with ‘three or four’ different facilities.” Rutherford said, “For different reasons, it didn’t work out.” It is “not hard to start filling out that list” -- SFU and UBC for sure, possibly the City of Vancouver. A fourth option “would have been the Richmond Oval.” Rutherford admitted that now the team is “looking at empty parcels of land.” But in a city that is “in an affordability crisis, where developers have been focused on squeezing in condos and townhouses wherever there’s space,” the idea that the Canucks will “find a standalone lot to build a low-rise ice arena is a little hard to fathom.” What the PWHL got out of the PNE is “over and above the base premise of what the Canucks have been after: a partner with an existing building, looking to offer up space to a professional sports team.” Johnston: “It is safe to assume it’s a question of money ... We wouldn’t even be having this discussion at this point if it were about anything else” (Vancouver PROVINCE, 4/24).
Canucks still without practice facility as options run thin
