How exciting is this time of year!? The NHL regular season is less than a month away, and pieces are falling into place for this to be an all time season, no matter who you’re rooting for. One team ripe for a spectacular upcoming year is the Vancouver Canucks. Nobody could’ve predicted how perfect last season would go after the constant disappointments over the previous decade. To recap, the Canucks went into last season with little to no expectations as a team considered hopeful to snag one of the last playoff spots in the west. However they came out flying with an eight to one win over rival Edmonton Oilers in last year’s season opener before beating them again just days later. At the time of the annual Christmas break, Vancouver sat atop the league standings and stayed in the hunt for first until the very end. The good guys finished sixth overall in league standings as well as clinched the first place spot in their Pacific Division. With a strong foundation to build on coming off of last year’s campaign, there’s a lot to be excited about as October nears.
The countdown continues at 3️⃣0️⃣ days! pic.twitter.com/8jwPINQTTj
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) September 9, 2024
Electricity is in the air surrounding a few of the Canucks new acquisitions. Some big names like Jake Debrusk, Danton Heinen, and Daniel Sprong signed to the “Couv” this summer giving the Canucks offensive core a makeover. The cherry on top was seeing fan favorites Dakota Joshua and Arturs Silovs resign with the team, exhibiting their belief in the teams future. Of course you know this came at a cost with beloved faces Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov leaving to Vancouver’s staple enemy the Boston Bruins in free agency. As much as this might seem like a downgrade, there was a method behind the madness. One of the least talked about and most underrated in any sort of roster transaction whether it’s a trade or simply signing (in this case unsigning) a player is the cap space. If you aren’t familiar with the salary cap, every team is limited to paying their players a maximum of whatever the NHL designates its salary cap to be for that given season. In recent years the salary cap is around 85 million per roster, however this number increases every year. Because of the importance of salary cap space, teams are going to have to make tough but smart decisions when it comes to constructing their roster. That is exactly what the Canucks did here. Zadorov and Lindholm signed for a combined total of 12.75 million dollars this season. Granted given their former contracts, the Canucks only received about 8.6 million in cap relief from their departures. Let’s move away from the numbers now and talk about what this means for the roster itself. Because of Vancouver’s savvy cap decisions, they managed to sign a young high potential forward in Jake Debrusk as well as re-signing breakout power forward Dakota Joshua to long term contracts. These two will be key pieces in the upcoming season for Vancouver as both Debrusk and Joshua will likely be getting time in the top six. Joshua is coming off a career year where he scored 18 goals and 32 points, while playing mostly on the third line. He also scored four goals in the playoffs, all of which came in clutch time. Some time closer to stars like Pettersson or Miller and he could be a safe bet for a full on 50 point breakout season. Debrusk on the other hand is a proven 20 goal scorer who seems to be again similar ironically enough to JT Miller whom he’s likely to share a line with this upcoming season. The Canucks star could be seen as a potential blueprint for Debrusk’s trajectory going forward with the club as he enters his prime.
JAKE = SIGNED 📝
The @Canucks ink Jake DeBrusk to a seven-year deal! #NHLFreeAgency pic.twitter.com/wDjEO89Fyn
— NHL (@NHL) July 1, 2024
Depth is talked about a lot around the week and has been something the Canucks have been desperately missing for the better part of a decade. You could go as far to say that this is the deepest the roster has ever been. NHL ready Players like Mark Friedman, Nils Aman, Phil Di Guiseppe are overflowing the organization. When looking at great cup teams and recent champions, there’s a real argument to be made that depth is the biggest factor. One of the main reasons the Oilers were able to defeat Vancouver in the playoffs last year, was their superior depth. Scratch depth aside, it’s important to have penciled in regulars that you can insert anywhere in the lineup. Vancouver ultimately lacked that ability to move their lines around when things got stale. With one star player (in that series being Pettersson) not performing it throws the entire team’s rhythm off. Couple that with your top goal scorer missing a game and you got a problem on your hands. However, too much depth is a good problem to have and we’ve already seen the Canucks make some moves to address it this offseason trading forwards Ilya Mikhayev and former tenth overall pick Vasily Podkolzin for draft capitol. Going into this season coach Tocchet has an abundance of lineup options and wingers to play with his star centers and will make for an interesting dilemma come opening night.
Quinn Hughes on Canucks outlook: “I think we added depth, added goal scoring. I think I’ve arrived as a player, and Petey has and all these guys have. I think we're at the top of our games. We’re just more mature. We should be a really good team.”
— Iain MacIntyre (@imacSportsnet) September 8, 2024
How could you forget about goaltending? The Canucks also have a top five goaltender in the NHL, by award standards top three in Thatcher Demko but that also comes with an asterisk. As you may recall Demko after putting on a spectacle in Vancouver’s playoff opener last season went down with a knee injury following the game. This came after just his third game back from an unrelated knee injury the previous month. You see the pattern here? As good as Demko is between the pipes, he has a lengthy injury history and has raised questions on if he can be relied upon to stay healthy. As October draws near the goaltenders availability come opening night is still in the air nearly six months later. To address the internal concern the Canucks have brought in Jiri Patera as a third string goalie to come in if Arturs Silovs is given the reins. Silovs had a fantastic playoff showing in Demko’s absence and should have you excited as the next franchise goaltender of the Vancouver Canucks. WIth a good year this year and possibly some heavy minutes given the status of Demko, Silovs could be a guy they look to take over sooner rather than later if Demko’s issues persist. The team also has reportedly reached out to other NHL journeymen to give the roster that extra depth, because well you can never have too many goalies as we’ve seen in recent years.
The Vancouver Canucks have a very bright future ahead of them with young guns like Raty, Lekkerimaki, Pettersson, Willander, and Bains all expected to be fighting for potentially the final spot on the roster. In addition to the confidence and swagger the team will be riding coming off of last season, the stage is set for the franchise to build off of what was a giant leap forward last year. The Canucks will kick off their season October ninth at home where they will host the Calgary Flames in what is expected to be the start of a very special season.