Canucks Season Preview.

 Season Preview series, in this new blog post series we preview the Canucks upcoming season, as the Canucks who made the playoffs last year as the Pacific winners and beat Nashville in 6 games in round 1 before falling to Edmonton in 7 games in round 2 look to improve off of last years season as they are the 2nd team we are doing in this series as I breakdown there offseason and what they could do next year.

In today's Season preview blog post, the focus is on analyzing the recent performance and future season of the Vancouver Canucks, the 2nd team in my season preview series. We start by taking a look at the Canucks most recent season as Vancouver made the playoffs, won their division, and were ousted by the Oilers in 7 games in round 2 of the playoffs, then we also look at the teams offseason as we look at both Vancouver’s free agent additions and losses, the teams trades and their top 3 picks from the 2024 draft, we also take a look at 2 questions I have for Vancouver entering training camp and look at 3 ways they can improve to do better then last year, and I give not only my lineup projections for this upcoming season, but also how I think they will fair this upcoming season with my season predictions plus I also give my rating for the Canucks offseasons on how I think they did.

Vancouver Canucks 

23-24 Season Recap

50-23-9 record, 109 points, 1st in PAC, 3rd in West, 6th in League

279 Goals For: 8th in NHL, 223 Goals Against: 5th in NHL

Point Leaders

J.T Miller 103

Quinn Hughes 92

Elias Pettersson 89

Goal leaders

Brock Boeser 40

J.T Miller 37

Elias Pettersson 34

Rookie Leader

Arshdep Bains 0-0-0

Playoff Point Leaders

Brock Boeser 12

J.T Miller 12

Playoff goal Leaders

Brock Boeser 7

Elias Lindholm 5

 

The Canucks last year were a pleasant and unexpected surprise as after a hit start and pretty solid end to the year they wound up being the Pacific leaders and beat out the Oilers for the top spot in the Pacific last year, they had a high powered offense lead by the likes of Hughes and Miller who both had 90+ point seasons to help the Canucks to 8th overall in goals for, while some solid play from Demko and DeSmith as well as a revamped D-Corp helped the Canucks be a top 5 team in the goals against category and helped them make the playoffs for the first time since 2015 (not counting the bubble year), and in round 1 they faced a hard and tough Nashville team but eeked out a few tight wins and beat the Preds in 6 games 4-2 while in round 2 they had 3 1 game series leads over Edmonton and had 2 chances to put away the series but faltered and with a banged up lineup fell in 7 to the eventual West Champs, so while they didn’t make the Western Conference Finals, they achieved a lot more then people thought and that is why I believe this year was a massive W for the Canucks.

Players they re-signed

T.Blueger 2x$1.8

D.Joshua 4x$3.25

L.Karlsson 1x$.775

T.Myers 3x$3

F.Hronek 8x$7.25

J.Woo 1x$.775

M.Friedman 1x$.775

C.McWard 1x$.775

A.Silovs 2x$.850

Bob DeChiara USA Today Sports 

Additions

J.DeBrusk 7x$5.5

D.Heinen 2x$2.25

D.Sprong 1x$.975

N.Smith 1x$.775

K.Sherwood 2x$1.5

V.Desharnais 2x$2

D.Forbort 1x$1.5

J.Patera 2x$.775

Losses

Elias Lindholm to Boston

Sam Lafferty to Buffalo

Sheldon Dries to Detroit

Ryan McDonagh to AHL (Charlotte)

Nikita Zadorov to Boston

Ian Cole to Utah

Casey DeSmith to Dallas

Trades

Moved Ilya Mikheyev (with 12% retained), Sam Lafferty (signing rights) and a 2027 4RD pick (VAN) to the Blackhawks in exchange for a 2027 2RD 

Analysis: So we look at the the addition’s and subtractions the Canucks made this offseason, they brought back Teddy Blueger who was a solid 3C last year, Dakota Joshua who fit in well on line 3 last year, Tyler Myers who proved to be a valuable 2nd or 3rd pair D-Men, Hronek who was a great top pair defender and Mark Friedman who is a solid 7th D as well as RFA AHL players Linus Karlsson, Cole McWard, Jett Woo and Arthur Silovs so they were able to bring a lot of players back including some big UFA’s who a lot of people were wondering if they would be back like Myers, Joshua and Blueger so interesting stuff there.

Now if you look at their additions they add Jake DeBrusk who should be a solid top 6 add for them, they add Danon Heinen and they add Daniel Sprong who should both be versatile middle six forwards and they add Nathan Smith and Keifer Sherwood who are depth adds on the forward group and they add Vinnie Deharnais and Derek Forbort on the defensive end as they should both be good 2nd or 3rd pair D-Men and they had Jiri Patera on the goaltending side as their new 3rd stringer so a lot of really good additions there.

Meanwhile with their losses they lose Elias Lindholm to Boston as that’s a big blow, Sam Lafferty to Buffalo,  Sheldon Dries to Detroit and Aiden McDonagh who was a prospect of their’s to the AHL Affiliates of the Florida Panthers, then they lose Nikita Zadorov to Boston which was another big blow, solid 3rd pie D Ian Cole to Utah and they lose Casey DeSmith to Dallas as they have a new backup so definitely all in all not too bad additions and losses this offseason as they definitely improved the forward group in my opinion even though they lost Lindholm and defensively they get a little bit worse but also got some pretty good additions there and losing DeSmith is bad but they are going to have Silovs for a full season this year so that's a pretty good pick up there for the Canucks and they did make one trade that wasn't a pick for pick swap this past year in the off-season and that was trading Mikheyev, the signing rights of Sam Lafferty and a 2027 second round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for their 2027 fourth round pick so it was a cost cutting move and something they needed to do to get rid of the Ilya Mikheyev contract and they were able to do so, so that's a pretty good deal there for the Canucks as they made some pretty good deals this offseason. 

Top 3 Picks from the 24 Draft

3RD #93 RW Melvin Fernstrom: potentially a future middle 6 forward

4RD #125 C Riley Patterson: potentially a future 3rd or 4th line Center

6RD #162 C Anthony Romani: potentially a future 3rd or 4th line Center

2 Biggest Questions entering training camp:

1: Next up is the two biggest questions in my opinion for this Canucks team entering training camp in my opinion is one will they add more on the blueline, they made some pretty good additions so far and they don't have too much cap space but do they try and make one or two more moves to try and add some more depth on the blueline so it will be interesting to see if they make a play for one more defender.

Sergei Belski USA Today Sports 

2: And secondly will Podkolzin and Hoglander make the team, now both those guys are sort of up in the air right now and in question if they'll make the team or not with the additions that the Canucks made this off-season so it'll be interesting to see if those two are able to maybe make the NHL team this year or if they are going to have to play at the AHL level and potentially go on waiver before the year starts so I'm not exactly sure if they both make it or not but I

think the two biggest questions right now for the Canucks is one do they add any more on the blue line and two does Podkolzin or hoglander or both wind up making the team or do one or two of them wind up missing and playing in the AHL so it'll be interesting to see but there those are my two biggest questions for the Canucks (Update: Podkolzin was dealt to the Oilers)

Here is My current Projected Lineup for the Canucks for the 24-25 season.

N.Hoglander-E.Pettersson-J.DeBrusk 

        D.Sprong-J.T Miller-B.Boeser

         D.Joshua-T.Blueger-C.Garland

      K.Sherwood-P.Suter-D.Heinen

                 Q.Hughes-F.Hronek

                    C.Soucy-V.Desharnais 

                  D.Forbort-T.Myers

                            T.Demko

                             A.Silovs

Spare: P.Di Giuseppe-N.Aman-N.Juulsen

Cap Space: $2.69 Million

24-25 Season Predictions: 100 points, 3rd in PAC, 5th in West, 9 points worse then last year.

Meanwhile for my projections for this team for the upcoming season I do have them taking a little bit of a step back because as much as I do think they had a pretty good off-season, I do think the losses of Lindholm and Zadorov will hurt them but they didn't have those two guys for majority of the season last year so once again I think they will take a little bit of a step back, but I'm not going to say they're going to take a huge step back which at some points earlier I was thinking that this team might wind up being a wild card team or maybe missing the playoffs but I think after their off-season I sort have changed my tune a little bit and I have the Canucks finishing with 100 points and I think they're going to finish nine points lower than last year and they're not going to be as high in the standings as they were last year, but I do think they will make the playoffs and be a top three team in the Pacific Division, so I have them finishing third in the Pacific and being a top three team with 100 points so interesting stuff there but that's my prediction right now for the Canucks and where I think they will finish this upcoming off-season.

3 ways to Improve

1: have a healthy Demko: Up next looking at three ways I can see this team improve to get better and improve on last year and first up I think they need to have a healthy Demko, I think Demko being injured really did hurt that team last year even though Silovs played really good in the playoffs I do think the injury of Demko hurt that team, so if he can stay healthy this year that could be a huge boost to that team and could give them top 10 level goaltending and on top of that if Silovs can play the way he did in the playoffs next year that could also take some load off of Demko too, so I think the really good play of Silovs and the health of Demko are going to be major questions entering trading camp for the Canucks. 

2: more dominant Pettersson: Next up I think they need to have a better Elias Pettersson, now he started out fantastically last year but tailed off towards the end of the season and in the playoffs so if they can have a much better Pettersson next year I think this Canucks team could be a whole bunch better this upcoming season so a more dominant Pettersson could make the team more lethal. 

3: continue strong defensive play: And finally they need to continue their good play defensively, this past year they had some really good defensive play but did lose a lot of pieces in guys like Zadorov and Cole, but I do think that this team still needs to be a really good defensive team if they're going to try and make the playoffs again this year, so interesting stuff there but that's my predictions on ways I can see this team improve by having a healthy Demko, more dominant Pettersson and continuing strong defensive play. 

Final Offseason Rating: B-

So in my opinion with their additions and losses and how they have sort of gone about business this year I have them with a B- rating, I think that's sort of warranted with where they are right now in the standings so in my opinion I think they could have had a little bit of a better offseason maybe if they kept Zadorov or Lindholm or something like that but I think this team, definitely given their circumstances and what they needed to do kept a lot of really good players even if they did lose a couple of really good guys they replaced them with some decent players so interesting stuff there but after some really good additions there I think a B- rating is warranted for a team like the Vancouver Canucks so interesting stuff there but that’s my opinion and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.