Will the Vancouver Canucks have six 20-goal scorers next season?

The last time the Vancouver Canucks line-up boasted six different 20-goal scorers was 2009-10. That season Alex Burrows led the way with 35 followed by Mikael Samuelsson with 30. Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin posted matching 29-goal totals, while Ryan Kesler and Mason Raymond each netted 25.

Last season the Canucks had four 20-goal scorers: Elias Pettersson (39), Andrei Kuzmenko (39), JT Miller (32) and the now departed Bo Horvat (31). After that, there was a considerable drop off to Brock Boeser and his 18 goals. 

For the Canucks to make significant strides in the Pacific Division and Western Conference standings, the team will need support players to increase their output. Boeser, Conor Garland, Anthony Beauvillier, Ilya Mikheyev and Tanner Pearson all have at least one 20+ goal season on their NHL resumes.

So there are proven goal scorers on the roster. Then there are the likes of Vasily Podkolzin, Nils Höglander and even Dakota Joshua who would require breakout seasons to threaten the 20-goal mark.

For the sake of this article, we'll assume full health for each of the players next season. Obviously, injuries will happen and that could very well impact any player's ability to produce. 

It's certainly expected that Pettersson, Kuzmenko and Miller will all contribute considerably more than 20-goals apiece. Beyond that, Boeser should be able to contribute 20-goals. That seems like a relatively low bar for him to clear without asking him to be a 30-goal scorer for the first time in his NHL career. Garland has yet to reach the 20-goal mark in either of his two seasons in Vancouver, but surely is hoping to prove he, too, can be a 20-goal guy for this team. 

Anthony Beauvillier is an interesting study. It's a contract year for the 26-year-old winger. It's in both his best interest and the club's for him to regain the scoring form he showed in his second NHL season when he notched a career-best 21 goals in 2017-18. If plays on a line with Elias Pettersson, it seems likely that Beauvillier could establish a new career-high for goals in a season. Then again, will he remain with the Canucks through the trade deadline?

Ilya Mikheyev and Tanner Pearson are both wild cards recovering from serious injuries. As such, it seems reasonable to temper expectations for both players without knowing how effective they can be. Mikheyev needs to find his skating legs again after season-ending knee surgery while Pearson has endured a nightmare recovery from what was supposed to be routine hand surgery and hasn't played a game since last November.

Nils Höglander scored 13 in 56 games as a rookie in the shortened 2021 season. That's a 19-goal pace over a full 82-game schedule. So 20 in a season isn't a wild projection based strictly on the numbers. But Höglander needs to earn a roster spot and prove that he can be an every night contributor for the Canucks. The same goes for Vasily Podkolzin who netted 14 goals in 79 games in his first NHL season before struggling to generate just four goals in the 39 games he played last season.

Dakota Joshua was a good news story for the Canucks last season and at one point Rick Tocchet proclaimed his belief that the rugged winger could be a 20-goal scorer in the NHL. But that's a far cry from the 11 goals he scored in 79 games last season. And it's likely a prediction that is simply a little too far fetched.

The best guess is that the Canucks will have six 20-goal guys on their roster next season. Pettersson, Miller and Kuzmenko feel like locks. Boeser and Beauvillier should be part of the team's 20-goal club. And that leaves one of the other candidates to step up and reach what feels like it should be an attainable target.