The Vancouver Canucks made a couple of moves so far this off-season, but will it be enough to either push up the standings or contend for a lottery pick? Adam Proteau doesn't think so.
This is another of THN.com’s “off-season outlook” series, in which we’ve been breaking down every NHL team’s recent season, as well as its strengths and weaknesses heading into the 2023-24 season. In today’s file, we’re examining the state of the Vancouver Canucks.
2022-23 Grade: C
Biggest Positive Heading Into the Off-Season
The Canucks had made the playoffs just once in their seven seasons entering the 2022-23 campaign, and fan frustration with their consistent underachieving was at a boiling point. However, Vancouver GM Patrick Allvin was in no mood to embark on a full-roster rebuild, instead trading away one cornerstone component in center and captain Bo Horvat and, after a terribly drawn-out stretch of time, firing coach Bruce Boudreau and replacing him with Rick Tocchet in January.
Those changes didn’t make the Canucks better, but the problem is they also didn’t make Vancouver notably worse – as a result, rather than coming away with a top-five NHL draft pick, they ended up with the 11th overall selection. At that point of the draft, it’s unlikely a team will land a top-six forward or a top-four defenseman, and that reality almost assuredly will slow down the Canucks’ attempted ascent up the Pacific Division standings.
Still, if there is a positive for Vancouver, it’s the fact they have superstars in forward Elias Pettersson and blueliner Quinn Hughes. They also will be expecting a full season from No. 1 goalie Thatcher Demko, who dealt with injuries that limited him to just 32 games this past year. And Allvin made some notable roster changes this summer, buying out veteran Oliver Ekman-Larsson and further altering the Canucks’ defense corps with the signings of big body Carson Soucy and journeyman Ian Cole. Along with top-four D-man Filip Hronek (a trade acquisition late last season), the new faces give Vancouver a different look on the back end.
But is it enough to keep pace with other Pacific playoff contenders? We have our doubts. Vancouver may wind up in precisely the same place in 2023-24. They have talent – they just don’t have enough of it.
Biggest Need Heading Into the Off-Season
Vancouver did slightly better on offense last season, generating 24 more goals than they did in 2021-22. The problem is they were a significantly worse team on defense, surrendering 65 more goals against.
If Demko stays healthy and improves his individual numbers (including a 3.16 goals-against average and .901 save percentage) from last season, the Canucks’ chances of winning from night to night will improve. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking Hronek, Soucy and Cole will provide more stability in their own zone. They need internal improvement and help from their forwards to vault over Pacific teams such as Calgary and Seattle. That’s not something that’s assured.
As per PuckPedia, the Canucks are more than $3.61 million over the salary cap ceiling, and although they’ll get under it by placing injured vets Tucker Poolman and Tanner Pearson on long-term injured reserve, they’ll be left with very little cap flexibility in-season. More trades of veterans – most notably, winger Brock Boeser – could be coming, but Vancouver still feels like a group that could be sunk by injuries and struggles on ‘D.’ You’d think another season of middling results would finally be enough to get management on a full rebuild, but under current Canucks ownership, we don’t see that happening.
For better or worse, the Canucks are bound to be a middle-of-the-pack team that will have to expend all its energy just to have a shot at the post-season. The pressure to be better has ratcheted up exponentially – Allvin must make tangible improvements, or Vancouver fans will cry out for more change at the top of the organization. Anything less than that will be another miserable failure.
Bottom Line for Vancouver This Off-Season
Let’s be optimistic and argue Vancouver makes the playoffs. Once there, does anyone see them enjoying a deep run? We don’t. Even at full strength, the Canucks would likely be roadkill against the Vegas Golden Knights, Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings in a first-round showdown. And that amounts to another wasted season, one that could’ve been spent following the competitive path of the Chicago Blackhawks, who were rewarded for tanking with junior phenom (and B.C. native) Connor Bedard. Instead, they won a handful of games later in the year and wound up in the mushy middle of the Western Conference.
That’s something that very likely could happen for another season in 2023-24. The Canucks need all the stars to align to leapfrog over their Pacific rivals, and Vancouver fans should be all the more incensed if that doesn’t take place and they wind up out of the post-season yet again. You can change the coach, and you can change the GM, but if you don’t draft and develop well, those changes are not going to be a needle-mover in the standings. And it sure appears that the Canucks do not have enough horses to push them into the playoffs.