The Vancouver Canucks are banking on many of their players taking significant steps forward next season
With little money to spend on free agents and no game-breaker in the prospect pipeline ready to make the jump, the Vancouver Canucks are banking on improvement from within for next season. General Manager Patrik Allvin said as much at his season-ending media availability in April.
It would be foolish to expect Elias Pettersson to suddenly become a 125-point player or for Quinn Hughes to push 100-points from the back end. Those players have established themselves as leaders and certainly there will be expectations that both replicate the types of seasons they had in 2022-23. But neither is really a candidate to take their games to another level. That responsibility falls on others on the roster and other areas of the Canucks overall team game.
Here are the top 10 Canuck candidates to make significant strides to help the hockey club next season:
1) Thatcher Demko: If the 26-year-old netminder can pick up where he left off after missing 35 games due to injury, the Canucks stand a significant chance to make headway in the Pacific Division and Western Conference. Demko has demonstrated the ability to be a difference maker and his play over the final two months of the season gave every reason to believe he had regained his elite form. But he needs to hit the ground running from the first day of training camp and avoid a start similar to last season. Overall, his season -- like his team's -- was a disappointment. And that's why he heads the list of candidates to show improvement from within from start to finish next season. After all he delivered just 14 wins last season. He needs to double that total -- and then some next season.
2) Penalty Kill: see above. With a healthy Demko and a full season of Rick Tocchet's systems and structure, there is nowhere to go but up for a penalty kill that ranked 32nd last season and 31st the year before. In the 36 games after the coaching change, the Canucks killed 78.4% of their penalties. That was a marked improvement from earlier in the season, but it still only ranked 21st in the league over that span. So there is hope. And there is definitely reason to believe the penalty kill will be an area of improvement year over year.
3) Ilya Mikheyev: the Vancouver Canucks never really saw the true Ilya Mikheyev last season. Injured in the team's preseason opener -- his first time wearing a Canucks jersey in game action after signing as a free agent last summer -- the Russian winger played through a knee injury that ultimately required surgery. Despite being far from 100%, Mikheyev still put up 13 goals and 28 points in the 46 games he played. There was nothing wrong with that kind of production rate. Signed for his speed and disruptive forechecking abilities, Mikheyev was limited in that regard. As long as he fully recovers, is stands to reason the Canucks will see a better version of Mikheyev next season.
4) Filip Hronek: the Czech defender is like a shiny new toy the Canucks purchased but never really got to play with. The newcomer, acquired with assets gained in the Bo Horvat deal, appeared in four meaningless late March games and then was shutdown for the season with lingering concerns over a shoulder injury. Hronek will help the Canucks and when next season starts will be firmly entrenched at the top of the depth chart among right side defenders. He will aid the Canucks defensively and should bring a little pop to their offense as well having twice scored nine goals in a season with Detroit.
5) Dakota Joshua: Rick Tocchet once proclaimed that he believed the big winger could be a 20-goal scorer in the NHL. That feels like a stretch. But it doesn't seem like a leap to believe that Joshua can build off a strong first season with the Canucks and round out his game in a number of areas. Even if he doesn't exceed his 11 goals and 23 points, Joshua seems to have more to give on the physical side of his game and he has to continue to learn the art of penalty killing. He also needs to sharpen his skills defensively. A goal prevented is as valuable as a goal scored.
6) Nils Aman: the Swedish centre formed strong chemistry with Joshua in his rookie NHL season. While it would be nice to see a little more production from Aman (4 goals and 12 points in 68 games), the real areas he needs to address are in his own zone. The Canucks were outscored by 12 at 5-on-5 with Aman on the ice last season. He carried an individual Corsi For of 40.8%. And he won just 38.2% of his face-offs. Aman now has a baseline of life in the NHL and shouldn't be overwhelmed by anything he sees in his second season. He just needs to fine tune the defensive aspects of his game and hope he can spend more of his shifts at the other end of the ice.
7) Oliver Ekman-Larsson: it's hard to truly know what to expect from the veteran blueliner at this stage of his career. But if he's back next season, he simply needs to be better. A full, healthy off-season should help after he was injured at the World Hockey Championships a year ago. A full season of guidance from Rick Tocchet and assistant coach Adam Foote should help, too. As should a role alongside Filip Hronek who can take some of the burden off OEL. But in a league that is getting faster each season, Ekman-Larsson's foot speed will certainly be something to monitor.
8) Vasili Podkolzin: after flashes in his 14-goal rookie season, Podkolzin didn't just have a sophomore slump. He ran headlong into a second-season wall that ultimately led to a demotion to AHL Abbotsford. In two seasons with the Canucks, the young Russian has played for three head coaches (and two more in the minors). With an emphasis on wall work and board battles under Rick Tocchet, Podkolzin's size and motor should earn him more of an opportunity from the outset of training camp. But nothing at the NHL level is given so Podkolzin needs to put in the work this off-season to be the best version of himself when next season rolls around. Surely, the Canucks are banking on more than four goals and seven points from the 10th overall pick in the 2019 Draft.
9) Nils Höglander: much of the above applies to Höglander, too. It will be fascinating to see what his time in Abbotsford does for his motivation heading into next season. Unlike Podkolzin, Höglander has not yet had the opportunity to play for Tocchet. Despite spending the second-half of last season in the minors, Höglander still boasts 141 NHL games and 26 big league goals on his resume. His attention to defensive details has sometimes waned, but a hungry Höglander could certainly be a strong bounce-back candidate and somebody that could help the Canucks with their desire to improve from within next season.
10) Rick Tocchet: the Canucks made their mid-season coaching change with the idea that the new coaching staff would have 36 games to analyze and assess what it had to work with. In that time, the Canucks went 20-12-4. Tocchet's team showed improvement in its structure and systems and the hope (there is that word again) is that over the balance of an 82-game season, the Canucks will benefit significantly from the way Tocchet wants his team to play. Of course, that was also the belief a year earlier under Bruce Boudreau who was relieved of his duties in January. Still, it is worth noting that if the Canucks are going to be a better team next season, the style they play will likely have much to do with it. While Tocchet was able to leave his stamp on the hockey club, he, himself, has plenty of work to do. He needs to breathe life into both special teams and make sure the Canucks are stout defensively over an entire season and that will be a challenge the two previous head coaches were not able to overcome.
Given where they were in the standings at the end of last season and also with their cap constraints, the Canucks are right to be banking on improvement from within. In fact, they flat out need it. But even if the most likely -- and most important -- candidates take significant strides next season, there is no assurances that will produce a playoff calibre team. Obviously the next few weeks will see the 2023-24 roster come into better focus and at that point, it will be easier to form thoughts and opinions on the team the Canucks will ice next season.