Canucks on pace to produce most power play goals in more than a decade

One one hand it makes perfect sense that the Vancouver Canucks would possess a potent power play. They have elite level offensive performers who have been together for a few seasons now building chemistry every time they work with the man-advantage. On the other hand, this is a team that traded away its most-ruthless power play goal scorer while its most gifted scoring star has contributed just six times all season with an opponent in the penalty box.

Through it all, this season's Canucks are trending to score the most power play goals the franchise has seen in more than a decade. After striking twice with the man-advantage in St. Louis last Tuesday and once more last Friday against Calgary, the Canucks have now scored 57 power play goals on the season. That leaves them just one shy of the 58 goals they generated a year ago which stands as the highest total the team has seen in the past 12 seasons. And this year's group still has six games remaining on the schedule.

The 2010-11 Canucks that went to the Stanley Cup Final were a power play production machine leading the National Hockey League in both goals (72) and percentage (24.3%) that season. No Canuck team since has been anywhere close to the raw goal total produced that season -- and this year's Canucks won't be either. But this team certainly has the potential to crest the 60 power play goal mark for the first time since the juggernaut Canucks scored 72.

Andrei Kuzmenko leads the Canucks with 13 power play goals this season. Bo Horvat, despite not playing for the team since January 27th, remains second on the club with 11 followed by JT Miller with 10. Elias Pettersson torched the Flames with his sixth power play goal of the season. That modest total puts him in a group that would be considered the supporting cast on this hockey club. Brock Boeser has 5 power play goals, Sheldon Dries has 4, Anthony Beauvillier has 3, Quinn Hughes has a pair while Conor Garland, Dakota Joshua and Ilya Mikheyev have all added one.

As far as power play percentage goes, this year's team is sitting 10th in the NHL at 22.6% scoring 57 times on 252 attempts. At that rate, it's a shade behind the 23.5% of last season and 24.2% clip the 2019-20 Canucks operated at. But with a big finish, both of those marks are within reach for this group -- regardless who the Canucks run with on their top unit these days.

All of this should give hope that the core of this team appears to have the component parts to be an elite finishing group with the man-advantage for years to come. With Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson only getting better, Andrei Kuzmenko settling in for a second full season next year and JT Miller under contract long-term, it stands to reason that the Vancouver Canucks will have a game-changing power play for the next few seasons. And perhaps they can get to a point where this group one day challenges the totals of that 2011 team.