The Vancouver Canucks Young Stars and training camp are done, but what questions were answered? There are plenty of hints and potential visions of the future to poke through, so let’s get down to it.
Vancouver Canucks Training Camp Questions and Answers
More answers will come as the team plays four preseason games in the next week. Like many teams, they will have essentially two groups, mixing in plenty of prospects and potentials. Then there’s a three-day break before wrapping up on October 4th. That’s when the cuts will come.
Goaltending? *sigh* Goaltending.
Talk about a roller coaster. Right up until the last game against the Edmonton Oilers, rumour was that Thatcher Demko would be ready for the next round. There was even the possibility that he could play game seven – or at least be on the bench for it.
Spoiler Alert: He wasn’t. But even the possibility of a reappearance by Demko was a reassurance to a city with a “special” relationship with their goaltenders. Okay, he only played one game in the playoffs. But he’d be ready to go next year after surgery.
Spoiler Alert 2, Electric Boogaloo: Nope. All through Summer, how exactly he was injured remained a mystery, even as he did have minor surgery. So, hearing from Demko himself was necessary to get the straight facts, as clearly as possible.
Spoiler alert 3, the Wrath of Wrong: Fans almost know less now than they did before he spoke. According to Demko, it is a “muscle injury” that they found nowhere else in hockey. A few soccer players had what he does have, which is rare enough to lack a name.
Shooting Gallery Guest Stars
With the signing of Kevin Lankinen, the Canucks added stability to their goaltending. They have a full roster between the pipes, which changes any plans they had for Artūrs Šilovs. In an ideal world, Šilovs had enough of a show to start this year in the NHL as Demko’s backup.
With Demko gone for an unknown span of time, everything changed. The team likes Šilovs, make no mistake about it. But he has a total of 19 NHL games experience, and that is only if you include playoffs. There was no way the team was going into a season with so little experience backing them up.
The problem with signing Lankinen is the same as the reason they signed him, he is an NHL veteran. If Vancouver went with their original plan, he would need to pass through waivers to go to the AHL on Demko’s return. Therefore, don’t be surprised if Šilovs is the one sent to Abbotsford.
Wing Things
Despite coach Rick Tocchet‘s best efforts to stop us, we’re going to read into his line composition. Odd as it sounds, missing Dakota Joshua isn’t going to make things difficult in the top six. Today’s NHL is primarily about forward pairings as much as it is about lines. Specifically for Joshua, is his fit with Conor Garland.
In that top six, it seems clear that J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser remain a set. Jake DeBrusk is going to get every chance to match with Elias Pettersson, probably with Nils Höglander early on. Pius Suter is also an option to replace Höglander if he starts missing his defensive responsibilities again, though.
The benefit of being on Pettersson’s line is that he won’t get the hardest matchups. Defence might be a little less important, since Miller frankly loves playing against the league’s best. And to go with him and Boeser is new arrival Danton Heinen.
If these Canucks training camp lines hold, questions about who to take later in your fantasy draft are easy. Both Heinen and DeBrusk should find themselves in fine positions to start the year. Lower down, though the team is nearly full up to their contract limits, Joshua’s absence may provide an opening for Sammy Blais. Here on an AHL deal, Blais has just a bit more heft than Phillip Di Giuseppe and could earn an upgrade because of it.
Getting Defensive
Quinn Hughes has spoken. And what he says is “Don’t Touch.” Or, to quote him more directly, “Don’t fix what’s not broken.” There is some weakness in the defence pairs, but it’s also kinda easy to ignore. If Hughes and Filip Hronek remain the top pair, that’s almost half the game with no fear.
After that, it gets a bit dicey. Tyler Myers was reborn with less pressure and playing below 20 minutes for the first time in his career. But after him was the ever-reliable Ian Cole. Horribly unlucky playoff series against the Oilers aside, he was the defenceman every other defenceman played better beside.
Also gone is Nikita Zadorov, who had perhaps the perfect mirror-image season of Cole. He had a very average regular season with a magnificent playoff run, but won’t be building on that run with the Canucks. Carson Soucy hasn’t really established himself as a top-four guy, or as one who can survive an entire season.
New arrivals Derek Forbort and Vincent Desharnais are very big, but need to prove they are better than improved Noah Juulsen.
Strategery-Do
The most interesting answer to come from the Canucks training camp is questions of scoring. Last season, the Canucks were one of the dominant teams in the league in scoring. But eventually, their advantage faded, and in no small past because of a weaker power play and more emphasis on defence. That carried over into the playoffs, and Tocchet is looking for a cure. There were three days of skills practice before their final scrimmage to break camp, and they were heavily focused on offence. The Canucks worked on breakouts and scoring on the attack, less on last season’s “hold until it’s perfect” strategy.
This is an interesting take, given the issues they might have on the blueline. Beyond the top pair, that’s not a lot of folks famous for moving the puck up quickly. Myers is a very good skater, and Desharnais has been working on his passing. But most of the pressure is on the top two.
Can they pull that change in style off? The skill up front is absolutely available to them. And scoring on the attack reduces the amount of time forwards are banging their way to the net. That could help keep certain players healthy longer. The team already knows it can hold the puck if they need to.
But they will be more vulnerable to counterattacks, and without Demko behind that blueline, it’s a risk. Fun to watch, but a risk. And for those watching the goaltenders, don’t worry too much about the training camp numbers. Three days of shooting galleries would make Patrick Roy look miserable.
Canucks Training Camp Questions… Of the FUTURE!
Jonathan Lekkerimäki spent plenty of time with Pettersson and DeBrusk through the camp. No, he’s not going to start in the NHL unless he absolutely blows the doors off in these preseason games. But they don’t want him to be on the fourth line when he does make the team. On the plus side, he looks like he’s keeping up fine in camp, neither deferring too much during play nor ignoring veterans away from it. Vilmer Alriksson enhanced his status on the team at the prospects camp, but Kirill Kudryavtsev was an eye-opener with how far he’s come.
As for players who we’ll probably see this year, Aatu Räty and Arshdeep Bains showed up. Finding one or possibly both on the opening night roster would surprise no one in a normal year. But this season looks like it could be something special.
Five games in the preseason with few openings will make for some interesting competition. The new arrivals, including agitator Kiefer Sherwood and sniper Daniel Sprong, are locks to play. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for players pushing upwards.
The 2024-25 season, unlike so many others for the Vancouver Canucks recently, includes a hard fight at every spot. Expectations are much higher than they have been in years. Now the team has to live up to it.
Main Photo Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports
