Nobody saw this coming. Except for the man running it all.
When Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning insisted throughout the offseason that he had a team bound for the postseason, pundits scoffed at the proclamation.
Most saw the Canucks in line to hold a ticket for Nolan Patrick draft lottery, rather than primed for a playoff run.
A year ago, Vancouver tumbled down the standings, the second season under Benning, as the Canucks dropped to 75 points - 26 fewer than the prior campaign. Only two teams finished worse than Vancouver.
This season, the odds of postseason play in British Columbia seemed unlikely, given an aging club seemingly past its best days featuring young talent not yet ready for prime time.
But as Benning and Canucks president Trevor Linden attested, a formal teardown simply wasn't in the cards with the Sedins still in town. As long as Daniel and Henrik remained, Vancouver's focus would be on winning. In the interim, the Canucks needed some talent to hold down the fort while their young talent readied for their NHL future.
That left Benning to make the necessary deals to push his team into relevancy. Those moves proved unpopular at the time, but now appear to be savvy acquisitions, given the Canucks spot in the standings.
At the 49-game mark, the Canucks hold down the West's final playoff spot.
That makeover began in March 2015, when Benning shipped a second-round pick to the Calgary Flames for little-used forward Sven Baertschi, a one-time first-round pick who hadn't caught on with the Flames.
The Flames and Canucks reconnected a year later, with Vancouver this time shipping former first-round pick Hunter Shinkaruk to the Flames for Markus Granlund, another player who had made little impact in the NHL up to that point.
Both have emerged as key cogs this season with the Canucks, as has forward Brandon Sutter, acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in July 2015 for a package including center Nick Bonino. Only Canucks center Bo Horvat has found the back of the net more often this season than Baertschi, Granlund, or Sutter.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Canucks have some exciting prospects in the pipeline, including defenseman Olli Juolevi, goaltender Thatcher Demko, and 2015 top pick Brock Boeser, who is currently playing at the University of North Dakota.
The future is certainly bright in Vancouver, but the present has also proven to be something to behold.
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