Offseason Review: The Vancouver Canucks got a whole lot better
Written by David Quadrelli.
The Vancouver Canucks are undeniably better than they were last offseason.
What happened in 2021?
Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong for the Canucks last season.
To begin their season, the top six forward group was stagnant, and the bottom six just wasn’t built well enough to provide secondary scoring. Additionally, Thatcher Demko was still unproven and was alternating starts with Braden Holtby, who wasn’t playing like his old self.
As soon as Elias Pettersson and the rest of the top six started to heat up and claw back from a brutal first month of the season, Pettersson went down with a freak wrist injury.
This was the beginning of the end for the Canucks. J.T. Miller was moved to center and had to play with a carousel of wingers, many of whom were picked up off the waiver wire.
Then, just as it seemed the Canucks were close to being able to battle back in the North Division standings without their superstar center, the team got hit with the worst COVID-19 outbreak out of any NHL team.
Over 25 players and staff were infected with the Brazil P1 variant and were sidelined for two weeks.
Then once they returned, they were given a schedule that saw them still finish the entire 56-game regular season. J.T. Miller voiced his displeasure about being “rushed” back and the league pushed back the Canucks’ return further. This, in turn, made the Canucks’ schedule even more compact and got rid of any hope among players and fans alike that they’d be able to battle back into the playoff conversation.
Last year was a write-off for the club, and from top to bottom, everyone is itching to bounce back this season.
What did they do in the offseason?
The club moved out some dead weight — and goodness knows it was heavy weight — in the form of the contracts of Loui Eriksson, Antoine Roussel and Jay Beagle. In return, the club received Conor Garland along with the long-term weight of Oliver Ekman-Larsson with Arizona retaining 12% of OEL’s salary.
Garland is a bonafide top nine winger who the Canucks signed to a five-year $4.95 million per year deal shortly after acquiring him.
Ekman-Larsson, on the other hand, is a former Norris Trophy-caliber defenseman who has had a tough past couple of seasons. The Canucks are hoping he can bounce back with a change of scenery, but many are skeptical if this is possible for the 30-year-old defenseman who has battled injury issues in the past.
Tucker Poolman was signed to a four-year deal, and early indications out of Vancouver are that he and Ekman-Larsson will form the Canucks’ new shutdown pairing.
The Canucks tremendously overhauled their depth, and found it much easier to attract AHL free agents thanks to their decision to move their AHL team out of Utica and into Abbotsford, which is a short drive away from Vancouver.
Phil Di Giuseppe, Brady Keeper, Justin Dowling, Nic Petan, and Luke Schenn — the list goes on — the Canucks were able to greatly add to their depth this offseason which should help them avoid having to claim so many skaters off waivers like they did last season.
The club also signed Jaroslav Halak to a one-year deal to backup Thatcher Demko while they wait for prospect Michael DiPietro to flourish into an NHL-ready goaltender.
What to expect in 2021-22?
Expect for the Canucks to score a ton of goals. The forward group is perhaps the best they’ve had since the 2011 cup run team, and the club now boasts tremendous depth.
They’ve got a lot of unproven defensemen and are going to need Demko to be as good as he was last season if they want to stay in the playoff hunt all season long.
The Canucks believe Demko is the guy who can lead them to the promised land, and put their money where their mouth is when they signed him to a five year $25 million contract extension last season.
The Canucks believe they’re a playoff team, and there’s an understanding at every level of the organization that anything less than a playoff berth is a failure.
If they can remain healthy, look for the Canucks to be a force to be reckoned with this season.
One bold prediction…
A poker player, head coach Travis Green is a coach who excels in the playoffs. He played a large part in the Canucks’ ability to get to Game 7 of the second round of the 2020 playoffs against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Combine that, with a significantly better forward group than they had in 2020, and it becomes more and more clear.
If the Canucks do indeed qualify for the playoffs, they could shock a lot of people.
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Make sure to head to subscribe to ESPN+ at the link below where for just $69.99 USD a year, you can catch all the action.
