It’s become a running gag in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Canucks remain the only team in the NHL without any confirmed plans to build a practice facility.

At long last, that may be about to change.

CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal gave a good news update on the Canucks hapless endeavours at finally making progress on building a practice facility.

“Keep an eye on Britannia,” Dhaliwal said Friday on Sportsnet 650’s Halford and Brough.

Daily Hive’s Kenneth Chan reported last month that the City of Vancouver is back in the planning stage for replacing the Britannia facilities, including the community centre, aquatic centre, and ice rink.

With potential major changes ahead for the East Vancouver block, perhaps the Canucks have finally ended their futile practice facility search.

Considering how hard it’s been to find real estate near the arena, Britannia does seem like an ideal spot. The current Britannia rink is a 3.5-kilometre drive away from Rogers Arena.

“They could build a 20,000 square-foot connected facility, maybe a three or four-storey building,” Dhaliwal said. “The ice is already there. That lowers the construction time, the cost, and the need to find land.”

This isn’t the first time that the Canucks have been linked to Britannia. Back in June 2025, Irfaan Gaffar reported that the Canucks toured the rink and that they had interest in revitalizing the area.

Of course, even if the Canucks can get this across the finish line, the facility won’t be constructed for years.

But perhaps it will line up with a new era of Canucks hockey, with the team currently entering a rebuild.

At least, it will end some of the NHL-wide embarrassment the Canucks have faced over this debacle. Last spring, one of the reasons Rick Tocchet didn’t re-sign with the Canucks was because of the practice facility, something Dhaliwal reported on Friday as well.

“That wasn’t the reason Tocchet left, but it certainly was one of them,” he said.

Former Canucks goaltender Artūrs Šilovs appeared to throw some shade at the Canucks as well for the lack of a practice facility, once he began suiting up as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The practice facility debacle has dragged on for over a decade in Vancouver. There were plans to build one at the Plaza of Nations that fell through. According to Dhaliwal, other plans to construct a practice facility at Bill Copeland Arena in Burnaby, or at UBC, have also gone by the wayside.

Vancouver has enough problems on the ice. Here’s hoping they’ve gotten a step closer to solving one off of it.