After a season of failure and almost four decades of relatively unspectacular accomplishments, the time has come for the Vancouver Canucks to realize that good enough is no longer good enough. Playing it safe may continue to put people in the seats of G.M. Place and give them a competent, even competitive, team to support, but continually taking the conservative approach is no way to build a championship hockey club.

That’s why Dave Nonis, who’s about to enter his fifth year as general manager of the Canucks, has to be prepared to take a long walk outside his comfort zone this off-season and do whatever it takes to acquire a bona fide goal scorer. With the exception of Marian Hossa, it doesn’t look like the type of player the Canucks need will be available as an unrestricted free agent, which means that Nonis must find a way to address his team’s greatest need through a trade. And for the first time in a long time, the Canucks have to be willing to make a deal that might make them squeamish.

They’ve got to be prepared to make a trade that may not sit well in the pit of their stomach, one that may cause Nonis to lose some sleep, if not his lunch. The Canucks have to be willing to part with one or two of the top young players or prospects in the organization who may help them years from now for a player (or players) who can step in and make an impact next season.

Nonis wasn’t willing to make that kind of move at the trade deadline for a player whose contract expired at the end of the season. Fair enough. There have been enough examples in recent years—here and elsewhere—that rental players don’t pay off.

But this is not about renting a player. This is about the Canucks identifying proven commodities on other teams who are under contract and being active in getting one of them here for next year. At almost any cost. Nonis has to make calls, not take calls. He has to finesse his way through the process. He has to be willing to sweeten the pot—and possibly be willing to overpay—until another general manager is ready to deal.

Simply put, Nonis cannot take no for an answer. He may be putting his own future on the line if he does. Even so, he’ll likely be out of a job with one more year like this season.

Trading Todd Bertuzzi two years ago was an easy deal to make. His time here had run its course and there was no other option: he had to go for his own good and the good of the organization. It turned out to be a great trade for the Canucks, but it was also an easy one to make.

Without much thought and plenty of research, it’s hard to recall the last difficult trade this organization made. Perhaps it was shipping Trevor Linden to Long Island a decade ago, or maybe you have to go back to the Cam Neely deal to Boston almost 25 years ago. The bottom line is that peddling Matt Cooke, as they did at this year’s trade deadline, and players like Jason King, Dan Cloutier, Steve McCarthy, and Fedor Fedorov, as the Canucks have done in recent years, were not tough trades to complete.

Whether it’s Florida’s Olli Jokinen or Philadelphia’s Jeff Carter or Buffalo’s Derek Roy or Ottawa’s Jason Spezza or one of the many fine young forwards on the Los Angeles Kings’ roster, like Alexander Frolov or Dustin Brown, the Canucks have to find a team looking for help on defence and in goal. Then they have to be prepared to shop some combination of Alexander Edler, Luc Bourdon, Kevin Bieksa, Cory Schneider, and this year’s top first-round pick, which will be among the top 10 in what is considered by those in the know to be a strong draft class. If another team wants Mason Raymond included in the deal, the Canucks have to be willing to discuss that too.

Building and building and building for a future that never comes has been the path the Canucks have chosen for far too long. At some point, they’ve got to be willing to break the cycle of mediocrity and take a shot at something better. You’ve got to give something to get something, and the Canucks will have to give up some of their youth to find someone who can score and give them a chance to win. The fans deserve it and so do the players who so desperately needed some offensive help this season and were disappointed when none was given.

Next year, the Canucks have Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Taylor Pyatt, Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, and Matt Pettinger as their core group up-front. They have Willie Mitchell, Mattias Ohlund, and Sami Salo along with Bieksa, Edler, and Bourdon, all under contract on defence. And they have Roberto Luongo in goal. There are enough building blocks there to piece together a solid hockey team.

They’ve also got plenty of salary-cap space to round out their roster with a handful of free-agent forwards, but, most importantly, they have room to take on the salary of a scorer through a trade.

And that appears to be the Canucks’ best bet to get what they need.

Nonis may have to grit his teeth. He may have to take a bunch of deep breaths. He may have to pace back and forth across his office. And then he has to make a tough trade.

More of the same will only produce more of the same, and that hasn’t worked for the Vancouver Canucks. It’s time to take a different approach.

The players the Canucks have to part with may go on to be all-stars somewhere else. But no one here will care if that’s the price the Vancouver Canucks have to pay to land a player who can turn them into Stanley Cup champions.