Last Word on Hockey’s Puck Drop Previews are back for the 2024-25 season! As the regular season approaches, Last Word will preview each team’s current outlook and stories to watch for the upcoming year. We’ll also do our best to project how things will go for each team throughout the campaign. Today, we preview the 2024-25 Vancouver Canucks.
2024-25 Vancouver Canucks
A Review of the 2023-24 Season
Expectations for the Canucks season were hopeful but low. Even their president was famous for describing the upcoming year: “We have a playoff team if everything goes right.” Fifty wins and two playoff rounds later, it’s fair to say that enough “went right“. That doesn’t mean it was a perfect season, but starting the year with an 8-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers was a good indicator.
Seven of Vancouver’s regular skaters hit career highs in points, and a few others came close. The team reached 50 wins for the third time in their history. They made the second round of playoffs for just the second time since their 2010-11 Stanley Cup Final run. All of their top seven scorers played 80 or more games. Their starting goaltender was second in Vezina Trophy voting.
There were a few bumps, though. Previous season’s star Andrei Kuzmenko was traded away, Elias Pettersson‘s scoring touch faded late, and Dakota Joshua got injured early. Joshua was possibly the best story from 2023-24, forming a perfect duo with positional rival Conor Garland. Centred by either Teddy Blueger or Pius Suter, they were arguably the best line Vanvouver had for long stretches.
2023-24 Playoffs
The worst news the Canucks got last season was the injury of starter Thatcher Demko. Initial reports in early March were that it was a straightforward knee injury. As he stayed off the ice for longer, reports from the team became vaguer and vaguer. The team wanted to see if he could start the playoffs, so told him he needed to start two games before the season’s end.
He met their schedule, played one game, and was absent for the rest of the post-season. Fortunately, the Canucks brought in a veteran to back up Demko for just this circumstance, and Casey DeSmith did a fine job as the new starter. Then he was also injured, giving way to Artūrs Šilovs to salvage their first round and lead the team into the second.
2023-24 Offseason
The Canucks season ended in that second round, but by all measures, it was a successful year. The bar was officially raised for the 2024-25 Vancouver Canucks, and for a team still fighting their way out from a salary cap crunch it meant hard decisions had to be made.
Fan favourite and playoff star Nikita Zadorov walked in free agency, as did team favourite Elias Lindholm. Veteran Ian Cole left. Speedy but frustrating forwards Sam Lafferty and Ilya Mikheyev were traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in return for their cap space.
The free agent signings this past summer can be cleanly divided among the three positions. The Canucks made their defence bigger, their forwards faster, and their goaltenders… more? Sure, more. As much as management wants to avoid going into long-term injured reserve, missing Demko and Joshua makes that unlikely.
Looking Ahead and Projected Lineup for 2024-25 Vancouver Canucks
Forwards
Danton Heinen – J.T. Miller – Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk – Elias Pettersson – Nils Höglander
Dakota Joshua – Pius Suter – Conor Garland
Daniel Sprong – Aatu Räty – Keifer Sherwood
Teddy Blueger
Nils Åman
Top Six
It’s our best guess which new arrivals start where, and it could change between now and opening night. It’s even something of a challenge to determine which line is the “first” one. Miller often plays against the opponent’s best, classically a “third line” duty. If that continues, then Heinen makes sense there. Miller and Boeser reached career highs, targets that are unlikely to repeat. Heinen, on the other hand, could and should hit his career-high of 47 points.
Höglander came into camp on a mission. With coach Rick Tocchet putting forward a more aggressive game plan than last season, fitness will be a key element as the season progresses. And Höglander scored the team’s highest marks at the beginning of camp. DeBrusk is getting the chance he was promised beside Pettersson. If his finishing stays in place then he should blow past his career high of 50 points.
Pettersson had a slow second half in 2023-24. After charging out of the gate, he ended the year with a “disappointing” 34-goal, 89-point season. It really showed in his six-point playoff run, and he has something to prove in the first year of his new contract. Doubt him at your own risk, especially if he finally gets regular linemates all year long.
Bottom Six
With Joshua absent as he recovers from cancer surgery, expect Blueger to be in the lineup on opening night. He could take Räty’s spot at centre. He has more experience there, as Räty moves up to the wing. The team has expected Räty to be a winger at this level, but he’s shown improved skating and faceoff skills. If he can break through as a centre, that will be so much gravy. That’s why we have Räty in the lineup over Blueger.
Expect Joshua to take his spot back with Garland when he returns. Depending on the season Räty is having, Blueger could take that centre spot from him as he returns to the AHL. It’s an actual fight for every spot this season, including for the 13th forward.
Sprong and Sherwood bring different things to the ice, and either one might get moved up as the season progresses. Sherwood’s physicality would make him a fine retriever or forechecker on either of the top lines if somebody stumbles. Sprong has an astounding shot and can produce in very few minutes per game. But if his defence improves, he could well get his chance in the top six. His shot is that good.
Defence
Quinn Hughes – Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy – Tyler Myers
Derek Forbort – Vincent Desharnais
Top Four
Our format breaks down a bit here. The gap in talent between Vancouver’s top pairing and the rest of the blueline is vast. Fortunately, that says more about the Hughes-Hronek duo than the other defencemen. Since Hronek’s arrival, there has been talk of him anchoring his own pair and it never happens. The highs of him and Hughes together are just too much to shake.
This puts Soucy and Myers as a second pair, which is fine. They were used as the match-up defence pair against the opponent’s best and did fine, for as long as Soucy was healthy. He only lasted 40 games, though, and that is an ongoing concern. Myers’ mobility hasn’t diminished much as he’s aged, and he’s still capable of carrying the puck up the ice. In contrast, the team will look to upgrade their top four through the season, if not sooner.
Bottom Pair
Forbort is a large, veteran defender and penalty-killing specialist. After nine seasons and 500 games, he knows what his limits are and he plays within them. Desharnais is a much harder read, with the Canucks targeting his side during the playoffs. Another giant man, second in height only to Myers, but he’s also a 28-year-old with just 114 NHL games on his resume.
Neither player is particularly fast, though Desharnais may get the chance to explore a more offensive mode if he has Forbort beside him. Several players could take the seventh defenceman role, and Vancouver might dress seven defencemen in games. We’re going with Friedman as the extra because of his smart play, even if he’s not six feet tall.
Goalies
Thatcher Demko
Artūrs Šilovs
The early assumption after the playoffs was that Šilovs proved he was ready for the big time. He would come up and dress as a regular backup for Demko, easy-peasy. Then Demko’s injury became more mysterious, and a fan base that already knows a ridiculous amount about the structure of human knees got to add “popliteus muscle” to their vocabulary.
So Lankinen was added to the roster and for a very good price. So it seems likely that Lankinen will be supporting Šilovs to start the year. And that’s fine, as Lankinen is a good goaltender with quite a bit more experience than Šilovs. The downside of that experience is that he will need to pass through waivers to be sent to the AHL. Therefore, when Demko does return, Šilovs is the obvious choice for demotion.
This doesn’t delight Šilovs, who has told management that he wants to be in the NHL this season. He thinks he should be in the NHL, and it’s hard to argue against him. His contract is one-way, so there will be no reduction in salary, but he wants to make that next step now. There will be opportunities as the season progresses, as Demko will be rested more frequently, but it’s worth watching.
This is especially true with famous goalie coach Ian Clark looking to leave the team. It’s been a few years since the team had their annual goalie controversy and the 2024-25 Vancouver Canucks is looking to make up for lost time.
Players to Watch
Nils Höglander
Coach Tocchet has marked Höglander for criticism in the past, making him a healthy scratch twice in the playoffs. In response, he’s come to camp in the best shape of his career, leading the team in fitness measurements. The 23-year-old has a prime opportunity to break into the top six after his 24-goal season. If he gets any power play time, he could match last year’s goal totals.
Aatu Räty
Räty was challenged to increase his foot speed, and he did. He is in camp with all the intelligence and his puck handling that made him a first-round pick, but stronger and faster. He’s still just 22 and has a long runway to make the league. He might not stay for the full season, but he’s got a good chance to start in Vancouver.
Daniel Sprong
His hands are phenomenal, but his reliability has always been a mark against him. He wants to put an end to the repeated one-year and two-year deals. Tocchet is a blunt teacher, but he leaves no doubt about what you need to improve for him. Sprong likely saw Tocchet’s results with Joshua and the contract that it earned him and wants the same.
Prediction for the 2023-24 Vancouver Canucks
Most people watching the club are confident, to a point. The defence could use improvement, and the goaltending is suddenly a question mark. But their forward corps is possibly the deepest in the league right now and will add Dakota Joshua back soon. That being said, it will be hard to improve on a 109-point season, especially given the improvement of the bottom-feeders in their conference.
The team should have no problem making the playoffs, even if they don’t push to win the division. Lots of players hit career highs, which you can’t expect will repeat. This has the strange rating of being a better team than last season but with fewer points. They should flirt with triple-digits, assuming everyone stays healthy.
Main Photo Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
