There is no dearth of interesting Vancouver Canucks storylines* for the upcoming season. Rick Tocchet will run training camp for the first time. Star players look to repeat hitting career highs. How quickly – and strongly – injured players can come back. Prospects needing to make big impressions. And, of course, the now yearly pressure of performing well early.
Let’s focus on the personnel this time. Here are five players we haven’t talked about much that will be on the team this year – probably – and the storylines to go with them.
Interesting Year or Essential One for Vancouver Canucks Players
Drama comes to the Canucks as easily as early tee times. We’ve already talked about the unique pressures both Vasily Podkolzin and Nils Höglander are under this year, so we won’t rehash those stories here. Likewise with Elias Pettersson, this time with the pressure he brings to the team instead of the other way around.
Instead, we want to look at five players with their own stories, none of which are likely to be resolved at training camp.
Spencer Martin
Spencer Martin was the Hot Noise for a minute in Vancouver, right until reality asserted itself. Martin had a hilariously weird stat of going almost five years between NHL appearances. That his Canucks career started 6-0-4 as a backup quickly made him a fan favourite.
Starting as Vancouver’s backup last year was a risk, but paid out with a mix of sterling, good, and good enough games. Until the team lost Thatcher Demko on December 1, Martin’s record for 2022-23 was 6-2-1 with a .902 save percentage. He managed to keep the team afloat until the end of the year, going 5-4-0, though the heavier workload behind a weak defence showed.
When the calendar flipped, the Canucks collapsed and brought their goaltenders with them. Martin went 0-9-0 in nine appearances with an atrocious .832 save percentage. He was sent to Abbotsford when Demko returned, leaving Collin Delia and Artrs Šilovs to clean up.
Martin rediscovered his game in the AHL, matching Šilovs with a 2.43 save percentage and .916 save percentage in 16 appearances. Unless there is another signing or things go very wrong, Martin is likely Vancouver’s backup this year. Given the slim margins for making the playoffs this year, they can’t afford him another off year.
Dakota Joshua
Dakota Joshua is one of the most interesting Vancouver Canucks free-agent signings in recent years. Signed to a two-year deal after the St. Louis Blues let him walk as a free agent, Joshua brings size and a nice offensive touch to their fourth line. It was his first full year in the NHL, and he rewarded the team with 11 goals and 23 points in his 79 games.
Joshua was used as a penalty killer for some of the year, though out of desperation as much as promise. His best role is likely as a 5-on-5 shift disturber, using his size to hunt for the puck and harass opposing players. Eating time in the offensive zone and making life difficult for the defence seems his best option to stay in the league as long as possible.
That being said, his scoring ability is intriguing. There were excellent results for Springfield in 2021-22, and he has experience at centre if his line is caught in the defensive zone. In a pinch, Joshua can move to the middle of the ice for a faceoff or in case of injury.
Vancouver has a surplus of wingers this season, but Joshua’s size and willingness to drop the gloves gives him his own category. If forwards are traded out of town, Joshua will have an opportunity for an expanded role.
Filip Hronek
A very slim sample size doesn’t tell us much about how Filip Hronek fits into Vancouver’s defence. While he played 64 games last season, only four of those were with the Canucks. And the defence has seen a major overhaul since then. So what can we tell about Hronek and his possible impact? He takes a great beefcake photo, sure, but what else?
He is an interesting Vancouver Canucks reach for the right side of the defence, for one thing. When Bo Horvat was finally traded, there was a sudden hope among many fans that it signalled an actual rebuild. Then the first-round pick the deal brought back was shipped out again – with a second – to get Hronek.
Management sounded baffled that anyone thought they’d actually use the picks in a loaded draft year. Judging from the trades Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin have made, they likely didn’t move Horvat until they had the Hronek deal lined up.
So now Hronek is here and ready to prove himself as a solid second-pair defenceman. He played that role, and sometimes higher, on a notoriously bad Detroit Red Wings team since his rookie season in 2018-19. His publicly available numbers from those years aren’t great, but there was little chance they would be.
By some accounts, he was annoyed that he lost his top spot on the right side to some kid named *checks notes* Moritz Seider. Combine that with entering his contract year and Vancouver is getting a highly motivated right-shot defenceman.
Hronek hasn’t yet hit 50 points, but he has scored 9 goals in three of his five NHL seasons. Expect more.
Tanner Pearson
Less a question of “what’s he got” and more one of “does he still have it”. Tanner Pearson has had a miserable time post-injury, with a half-dozen surgeries needed on his wrist and hand. He wasn’t having his greatest season when it came to an end after 14 games, either. His one goal and five points was his worst production since joining the Canucks.
Pearson hasn’t played a competitive game since November. Coming back from injuries gets harder as players age, and he turned 31 in August. Vancouver has plenty of wingers to choose from, as well. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Pearson started the year in the AHL. So why would Vancouver keep him?
With the caveat that they might not, Tanner Pearson is a known quality. He’s been a solid secondary scorer, and unafraid to work the walls to get the puck or keep it in the offensive zone. While he was used as a utility tool early, over the past few seasons he has been a 5-on-5 player. Even so, his scoring and assist rate remained good for a middle-six guy.
And anyone with a Stanley Cup ring gets some extra leeway with most coaches and management.
Both Phil Di Giuseppe and Vasily Podkolzin are in direct competition with Pearson, which doesn’t help his cause. Both are considerably cheaper, and the team very much wants Podkolzin to graduate to the big club this year. Indeed, the better Pearson does, the higher the chance of him being moved later in the year.
Brock Boeser
Here we go again, again.
Somehow, Brock Boeser is the lightning rod for both hope and criticism for Vancouver Canucks fans. So much so that he asked the team to shop him around in hopes of getting a fresh start elsewhere. Unfortunately – or not – his salary cap hit and drop in goal production made him undesirable to teams that could afford him.
One of the more interesting Vancouver Canucks decisions was encouraging Boeser’s agent to help broker a deal. And to let that encouragement be known to the general public. Yeah, that didn’t leak out accidentally. It no doubt gave the player and his agent a clear-eyed view of his value around the league just then.
So he and the two years remaining of his $6.65 million contract remain with the team that drafted him 23rd overall in 2015. There are fans, casual and serious, who see his scoring numbers and remain unimpressed. Which, to some degree, is fair. They’re allowed. But other considerations should be had.
The 26-year-old right wing has had to deal with a horrific amount of tragedy in his life. The untimely death of his cousin, a car crash killing a childhood friend, his father’s long battle with Parkinson’s before he passed away last year.
And then there’s his luck on the ice. A truly ludicrous number of injuries have haunted Boeser throughout his career. The silly thing is that they aren’t the typical sort of recurring injuries. It’s not like one of his joints keeps slipping, or he has a bad back. It’s his foot, then his hand, then ribs, groin, back, COVID, other foot…
It Ain’t Boeser’s Skill
To be clear: Brock Boeser is a very good player. The accusation that he’s never hit 30 goals is true – as far as it goes. Thing is, it’s not a lack of skill, it’s a lack of time. He’s been on pace to blast through that mark three different seasons – but didn’t play enough games for whatever reason.
The idea he’s somehow a defensive liability is simply nonsense. Boeser’s career Corsi is a decent 51.2% at even strength, and while he’s not the fleetest of foot he knows how to get into position for his shot.
The biggest source of criticism for Brock Boeser is that he hasn’t produced to the level of his skill. And after last season’s “Thirty goals for sure” prediction came back to bite him, he’s not making a similar claim now. But even his disappointing 18 goals came with a career-high 37 assists.
What makes Boeser such a fascinating story this season is the wait. The perpetual feeling that one of these years, when he’s undistracted and healthy and actually plays up to his full potential… What will that look like?
Everyone – fans, coaches, and Brock himself – is waiting for that moment. And when it does, we’re all going to brag about being there to see it.
*As Thomas Drance of the Athletic puts it, “Can they just be normal?”
Main Photo: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
