Mike Gillis wanted to take the Vancouver Canucks in a completely different direction before he was fired in 2014.

The former Canucks general manager oversaw the team’s rise to become a perennial Stanley Cup contender during his six-year run with the organization, famously nearly winning a championship in 2011.

With three games left in a disastrous season with John Tortorella behind the bench in 2013-14, Canucks ownership decided to fire Gillis. One day later, they hired Trevor Linden as president of hockey operations, who hired Jim Benning as the team’s new GM.

Rather than a full-scale rebuild, the team opted to try a quick retool, which failed miserably.

One has to wonder how history would have been different if Gillis had been able to see his plan through.

According to a report from Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston, Gillis had a bold plan to kickstart a rebuild. This involved trading Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows and collecting a boatload of draft picks before the 2014 trade deadline.

Gillis was allowed to trade Roberto Luongo, getting Jacob Markstrom in return, but ownership reportedly got involved in other potential deals.

Kesler would have been dealt to the Anaheim Ducks for two first-round picks before the trade deadline, Johnston first reported in April, while Burrows would have fetched another first-round pick from the Philadelphia Flyers.

Benning went on to trade both players, but for different returns.

Kesler, who reduced the number of teams he was willing to be traded to after Benning took over, was moved to Anaheim on June 27, 2014, for a first-round pick (Jared McCann), Nick Bonino, Lucas Sbisa, and a swap of third-round picks.

The Canucks held onto Burrows for three more seasons, eventually trading him to the Ottawa Senators for Jonathan Dahlen on Feb. 27, 2017.

Alternate Canucks universe under Gillis

The course of Canucks history would have been altered had Gillis completed those future-looking trades.

The Canucks didn’t have a great drafting record under Gillis, but maybe he wouldn’t have selected Jake Virtanen sixth overall in 2014. William Nylander (8th) and Nikolaj Ehlers (9th) were picked shortly after.

Anaheim’s first pick (10th) turned into Nick Ritchie, but Kevin Fiala was chosen right after him. The Canucks selected McCann with the second Ducks pick, but you have to wonder if a different regime would have instead chosen David Pastrnak, who went one pick later.

The Flyers’ pick (17th) turned into Travis Sanheim, a defenceman who played for Canada at the 4 Nations tournament. Alex Tuch was chosen right after him.

Those moves surely would have sunk the Canucks in the standings the following season, but maybe that would have been a good thing. Benning chose Brock Boeser 23rd overall at the 2015 draft, but what if Vancouver had been picking higher? Future stars picked in the top 10 that year included: Connor McDavid (1st), Jack Eichel (2nd), Mitch Marner (4th), Zach Werenski (8th), and Mikko Rantanen (10th).

They say hindsight is 20/20, but there was a push from Canucks fans and the local media to rebuild during the 2013-14 season.

Surely, not all of Gillis’ moves would have turned to gold, but the win-now path under Benning backfired anyway, as the Canucks had the fourth-worst winning percentage in a five-year span from 2014-15 to 2018-19.

Will history repeat itself?

Given the current plight of the team, you have to wonder if history is doomed to repeat itself.

A significant number of Canucks fans are starting to call for the team to rebuild.

Hockey Night in Canada’s Scott Oake said Saturday that approximately 75 per cent of the 400 questions received for GM Patrik Allvin on After Hours mentioned the word “rebuild.”

Allvin made it clear that an aggressive rebuild is not in the cards.

To be fair to Allvin, the Canucks are in a different situation than they were in 2014. Luongo had requested a trade after being benched by Tortorella at the Winter Classic, and Kesler wanted out, too. The prospect cupboards were relatively bare, and the Sedins were about to turn 34.

This edition of the Canucks has Quinn Hughes in his prime, but the lingering question remains, for how long?

If Hughes leaves, the calls to rebuild might rival those in 2014.