3284 days is how long it has been since Vancouver hosted an NHL playoff game. Going into this season Vancouver was critiqued by many as a league midcarder that would likely sit just outside of the playoff cutoff. Surprisingly, the Canucks came out the gates swinging this season sitting atop the NHL standings at the Christmas break and eventually going on to finish the year sixth in the league. In addition Vancouver captured their third best regular season finish in franchise history against all expectations that were placed on them heading into this season. There’s a community of people however, that are calling this season a one off and a fluke. I’m here to tell you why this is just the beginning of the Canucks rise to the top.
The general manager’s goal at the start of every season is to ice a team that can compete for the Stanley Cup come June. Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin did just that this season and he has a plethora of options this summer to keep the Canucks competitive moving forward. At the conclusion of this year’s season, the Canucks front office will have a lot of big decisions to make regarding the identity of the team moving forward. Big names and rising stars like; Tyler Myers, Dakota Joshua, and Filip Hronek are all pending free agents albeit some restricted, and likely not have the means to retain all of them. This begs the question: what should they do?
Vancouver’s number one contract priority this coming summer should be to resign Dakota Joshua. A big reason for the Canucks success this season has been the emergence of Joshua as one of the league’s most effective power forwards. Joshua put up a season high this year of 18 goals and 32 points while managing to shut down some of NHL’s top lines. Turning 28 years old this year “Dak” is coming into his prime and still has greatness ahead of him.
DAKOTA FREAKING JOSHUA
CANUCKS LEAD 🤯 pic.twitter.com/9KaOnrNddf
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 22, 2024
Second on the priority list is to deal with Filip Hronek. In his first full season in Vancouver Hronek has put up an impressive 48 points on the top pair with captain Quinn Hughes. Hronek has also been a great addition to what was previously considered a weak Vancouver defensive core, but with him being a restricted free agent this summer, the Canucks may elect to look for better value. The 26 year old was reportedly asking for somewhere in the eight million range and that may be out of general manager Patrik Allvins comfort zone. Fortunately with him being an RFA the Canucks hold the power to trade his rights elsewhere. A potential move that they could make would be to flip him to another team for players and draft picks to potentially flip those for a better value defenseman. Either way Vancouver will come out with valuables.
Vancouver’s top prospects are expected to be in training camp and possibly even push for a roster spot come September. 2023 first round pick Tom Willander and 2022 first rounder Jonathan Lekkerimaki are two guys that could make a name for themselves and possibly break in their own roster spot. If these guys could come in next season and play somewhat effectively this could be a game changer for the Canucks as it would keep them young and on a budget.
I think it’s safe to say that the Canucks are just good, it’s pretty difficult to fluke an 82 game season. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be great again next year if not better. The development of the Canucks supporting cast with players like: Hoglander, Joshua, and Suter is expected to continue while their top Stars are entering their prime. A little money spent in free agency and some prospect surprises. This could be a team to reckon with moving forward.