Less than 48 hours after the 2025 Stanley Cup was awarded to the Florida Panthers, a team from the Pacific Northwest kicked off their offseason with a bang, acquiring Mason Marchment from the Dallas Stars in exchange for 3rd and 4th Round Picks.
That team, however, was not the Vancouver Canucks. Instead, the Seattle Kraken took advantage of a team in need of cap relief, and in the process was able to acquire a 2nd line winger for pennies on the dollar. Whether or not State Tax rates played into this, I’ll leave that up to the insiders.
Vancouver, on the other hand, has been aggressively shopping the 15th overall pick in the hopes of acquiring an impact top-6 forward for a team that finished 31st in Expected Goals For.
Vancouver has already contacted Minnesota regarding a potential Marco Rossi trade, and while adding a top-six centre should be Patrick Allvin and Jim Rutherford’s first priority, their needs at the wing, especially on the right side, shouldn’t be understated.
In a surprising tweet, Andy Strickland, Rinkside Reporter for FanDuel Sports Network and Co-host of “The Cam & Strick Podcast,” stated that Troy Terry may be available from the Anaheim Ducks. He later stated that a team spokesperson reached out and refuted the rumour, but this piqued enough Canuck fans' interest to rank #1 in a poll of potential article ideas I put out on “X.”
VANCOUVER: Rainy City, Dry Offense
The most surprising part of the 2024-25’ season for the Vancouver Canucks on the ice was the lack of offense. Goals? Lacking. Expected Goals? Even worse. Scoring Chances? No chance.
The Canucks leading point scorer, Quinn Hughes, was the only player who could be relied upon to create offense on a nightly basis.
The team’s highest-scoring forwards, Conor Garland and Brock Boeser, both scored 50 points.
Garland is entering the final year of a 5-year, $24.75M contract, signed a month after he was traded to Vancouver alongside Oliver Ekman Larsson in exchange for Antoine Roussel, Jay Beagle, Loui Eriksson, the 10th Overall Pick, a 2022 2nd, and 2023 7th Round Picks.
Boeser on the other hand is slated to hit Unrestricted Free Agency, a move that will likely result in the Burnsville, Minnesota native signing elsewhere to continue his 8-year NHL career.
Suffice to say, the Vancouver Canucks need a scoring winger. They also need a winger that can be a dual threat off the rush.
The Canucks without Quinn Hughes or Filip Hronek, both of whom spent time on IR, including a stretch that resulted in the Canucks icing a first pair of Derek Forbort and Tyler Myers, were perhaps the most infuriating team to watch in the National Hockey League. “Glass and Out” breakouts became routine, it became their sanctity.
While oftentimes the easiest way to relieve pressure, this combined with Vancouver’s heavily structured defensive posture, limited the Canucks ability to transport the puck from the defensive to offensive zones.
With the addition of Marcus Pettersson, the emergence of Elias Nils Pettersson, and the potential for breakouts from Victor Mancini and Tom Willander, the Canucks defense has started to become a strength, and their puck-moving ability should take a massive step forward.
So what does that mean for the Canucks? It means that we can expect to see better breakouts, better transition offense, and hopefully as a result, more shots, chances, and goals. That’s where Troy Terry fits in.
Troy Terry being a 4x 20 goal scorer, including a career-high 37 goals in 2021-22’ would instantly add offensive credibility to a Canucks lineup that only has 1 former 30-goal scorer (Elias Pettersson, 3x 30 goal seasons) under contract for the next season.
As a right-handed winger, Terry would be the only right-handed forward amongst Canucks who scored 20 goals last season.
An equally impressive feat for the Anaheim winger would be the fact that over the last 4 seasons, Terry is the only Duck to be in the top 2 of team scoring every season. Terry has been the most consistent Anaheim Duck for almost half a decade.
YOU THINK YOU'RE SPECIAL?
Analytically, there is a lot to like about Terry. First, there are 2 outliers. 95th% in High Danger Passes and 91st% in Rush Offence. These are both qualities that the Canucks are desperately in need of out of their offseason acquisitions.
When you add Zone Entry, Zone Exit, and Rush Shot percentiles that are all at or above 84%, along with above average speed (73rd percentile), it paints a clear image of how Terry can help not only the Canucks, but their 11.6M Center, Elias Pettersson.
Elias Pettersson had a bad 2024-25 season, that much is obvious. If the Canucks want to have any chance of contending in the upcoming season, then they need to find players that can form a mutually beneficial on-ice relationship with Petey.
As stated in my previous article about potential top 6 players that the Canucks could acquire, part of Elias Pettersson’s struggles came from the Canucks inability to properly transition the puck.
Adding Troy Terry would instantly give the Canucks a secondary puck carrier for their first line, and better yet, a right-handed one.
Elias Pettersson’s best season of 102 points in 2022-23’ came alongside Andrei Kuzmenko, another right-handed winger who excelled off the rush. What Kuzmenko didn’t have, however, was speed. Kuzmenko since entering into the NHL has been consistently one of the slowest players in the NHL, and this would often lead to rush chances dissolving due to his inability to break away from defenders with speed. Troy Terry doesn’t have this issue and as a result benefits from being able to separate himself from back checkers.
Terry, being equally as capable of passing or shooting the puck, would also force defenders to give Elias Pettersson more space, especially if the duo of Terry and Pettersson were on the ice with Quinn Hughes.
Let’s look at an example of how Pettersson and Terry could work together off the rush.
These plays are very similar. With speed, the center offloads the puck to the strong side winger, attack the middle, which allows you to take the space in front of you, providing a partial pick and screen, and let the winger skate downhill and rip a wrist shot. With both Elias Pettersson and Troy Terry being former 30-goal scorers, this is a play that could be commonplace for both players. Players like Terry and Pettersson rely on intelligence and not raw power to produce their offense, and little plays like this demonstrate the high-end IQ of both players.
There is clear evidence supporting that offensively, Troy Terry and Elias Pettersson could be an elite offensive duo. A good line always needs a 3rd man, though. Who should that be?
Out of the Canucks current left winger options, the most intriguing players to fit as forward number 3 are Nils Hoglander, Jake DeBrusk, and Dakota Joshua. Before anyone says “Filip Chytil”, as much as yes, he would fit alongside Elias Pettersson, the Canucks need a primary puck carrier on line 2. Whether Chytil ends up as a center or winger is yet to be seen, but ideally he would be the primary puck carrier for that line given his superhuman ability to enter offensive zones with possession.
The decision on which of the 3 Left Wingers plays with Pettersson and Terry should come down to chemistry and production, but skill-set-wise, there are good reasons for each of the 3 players to get extended looks.
WHO'S THE THIRD MAN?
DeBrusk is probably the easiest to explain. 28 goals this season was a career-high for the Edmonton, AB native. A season where he was expected to form a formidable duo with Elias Pettersson became a season of DeBrusk playing with everyone and still finding a way to set personal records.
Throughout his career, DeBrusk has shown an elite ability to finish off the rush, with his patented short-side flick over the shoulder being his primary way of scoring off the rush. He also isn’t shy to score goals around the net, with an average goal distance of 11.8 feet (10.2 feet on the Powerplay), and happens to be the Canucks best player at scoring via tips and deflections, with 9 being the team lead, tied with Brock Boeser.
The question mark surrounding DeBrusk as being the 3rd man is his lack of physicality. While being able to take a beating, he hardly asserts himself physically, with 96 hits last season. Also, would putting all 3 of your best rush offense players on the same line be a good idea, or should DeBrusk get an extended look with Chytil and a proper 2nd line center to see if they can form a secondary rush offense threat?
Joshua is very intriguing because his skill set would make up for Elias Pettersson and Troy Terry’s perceived lack of grit. He is a fantastic forechecker and was amongst the league’s best at converting chances around the net in 2023-24’. In 2024-25’, Joshua’s season was derailed by testicular cancer, as well as 2 other major injuries.
The positive about Joshua is that he showed serious signs of coming back around to his previous form. If Joshua arrives at training camp in good shape with a full offseason worth of training under his belt, do not be surprised if we see him get an opportunity on one of the top 6 forward lines.
Nils Hoglander’s journey as an NHL has been full of ups and downs, and last season was no exception. Coming off a 24-goal, 36-point campaign, the Canucks were expecting Nils Hoglander to take another step. Ideally, Hoglander would have repeated a 20-goal campaign and perhaps matched it with 20 assists. Instead, Nils Hoglander was the victim of unfavourable deployment and healthy scratches.
With 7 goals and 17 assists, the idea of Nils Hoglander being a top 6 winger may seem far-fetched, but with an Expected Goals For Percentage (xGF%) of 57.66% since Jan 1st, a mark that leads the Vancouver Canucks, the idea that Hoglander can’t possess the puck against NHL competition is asinine.
Hoglander may be 5’9”, but at 185 lbs, he is a tank and a good example of a new-aged NHL Power Forward. One not described by his size, but rather his skill set. If Hoglander can be a more consistent finisher from within 20 feet, expect his production to explode. The Hoglander bandwagon is starting to take off. Make sure you hop on while you can.
WRAP UP
The Canucks desperately need top 6 help, and if they have actual aspirations of contending and keeping Quinn Hughes as a Canuck long-term, then they need to swing for the fences.
Troy Terry would not only be a home run swing but one that has the potential to be a grand slam for the Vancouver Canucks.
The acquisition cost would undoubtedly be tough to swallow. A combination of high picks and prospects would be a necessity for Anaheim in any trade. Either for them to hoard or use to acquire other NHL talents.
The Canucks however, have no excuses. They’ve made their bed, they’ve chosen their direction. When will the Canucks dive deep into the offseason transaction pool? If this management group's previous actions are any indication, something should be coming down the pipeline soon.