Do the Vancouver Canucks realize they’re not contenders anymore?

Here’s a stat: the Vancouver Canucks, at this point in the season, have a 28 percent chance of making the playoffs.

And yet, if recent actions are any indication, their general manager misread that as 82 percent.

It’s no secret that Buffalo Sabres winger Evander Kane is a headliner on the current NHL trade market. Injuries dog him. The Winnipeg Jets traded Kane to the Sabres in 2014-15 when he was already out for the season. He only played 65 games last year (registering 35 points), and has a grand total of one point in seven games this year. I haven’t even mentioned his legal issues this summer and his poor response when he faced the media in preseason.

So, that he’s actively being shopped should be no surprise. But that the Canucks were this close to acquiring him is. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman had this nugget over the weekend:

Rumours of a potential move exploded after Vancouver management was seen on the scouting list in Buffalo as the Sabres hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.

“The story is that they did call and there were some conversations and John Weisbrod, the assistant general manager of the Canucks, was on the scouting list on Thursday night in Buffalo, which sent us all to DEFCON 1,” said Friedman on the Headlines segment of Hockey Night in Canada. “The word is Vancouver was not willing to pay the price that Buffalo was asking.”

First off, I really wonder what that price was. Buffalo gave up Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford, prospects Joel Armia and Brendan Lemieux and a first-round pick for Kane in 2015. His stock has certainly dropped since then. Maybe they’re trying to recoup their losses.

At any rate, Vancouver has no business trying to make that kind of move. Others have made a good case why: trading prospects and picks for Kane is something you do to bolster a playoff run. You do it when you know you’re close to contending and can afford the risk of barely missing the playoffs and picking in the middle of the first round.

The Canucks can’t. If they were smart, they would be sending out feelers to teams about their interest in Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Stockpiling prospects should be their priority.

But at this point it’s worth wondering how smart general manager Jim Benning is about the state of his team and building a roster in general. Trading for Kane is just the latest in a few red flags in the last few months.

Let’s go back to last season’s trade deadline. The Dallas Stars wanted defensive depth. A puck-moving defenseman. They had their eyes on Kris Russell of the Calgary Flames and the Canucks’ Dan Hamhuis, both of whom were set to be free agents at year’s end. Hamhuis waived his no-trade clause to go to Dallas. The Stars agreed to send a second-round pick and two prospects to Calgary for Russell. Then they came back to Benning with a third-round pick, and Benning declined because he didn’t think it was good value.

“We were in with Dallas and they kind of circled back to us at the end, but it was a deal that didn’t really make sense to us,” said Benning. “We were talking a similar deal (that Calgary finalized with Dallas) but they went with the other player (Kris Russell). In this year there weren’t a lot of buyers and it was going to be hard to get value for players.”

In the end, Hamhuis hit free agency, signed with Dallas anyway and the Canucks ended up with nothing to show for it when they could’ve had a third-round pick. He also failed to trade Radim Vrbata that day, too; Vrbata left in free agency for Arizona.

But Benning was busy in free agency, signing 31-year-old winger Loui Eriksson to a six-year deal worth $6 million per year. Benning couched it as a move for the future:

“He is an accomplished player who helps our team now and in the future as a leader and role model for our young players to follow. We’re excited to have Loui join our team and help us compete every night.”

At the time, that sounded pretty believable. Eriksson is a good dude by all accounts and his two-way style is certainly a great thing to pass on to young players.

But if Benning seriously went after Evander Kane two months into the season, then it gets hard to believe what he said about signing Eriksson and focusing on the future. His recent moves I just highlighted suddenly take on a new light as his priorities come into focus.

Why trade Hamhuis for a measly third-round pick when you feel like you’re close to making the playoffs if you keep him? Why not grab the best left winger on the market if you think your team is capable of competing the following year? Why not try and trade for a good winger when that team of yours, who you were so high on, suddenly can’t score any goals?

Here’s the reality: the Canucks are cratering because they’re at the end of their life cycle as a contender. And they’ve been trending that way for years. They are bad, and they need to stay bad to restock a shallow prospect pool so they can get better. This is the way the NHL works. This is where they’re at. No amount of money or desperate trades will right a ship that needs to sink before it can resurface.

It might be worth wondering if the Canucks themselves understand this yet. At any rate, that they balked at another questionable move is a good thing.