how i think the canucks roster* could be set up for success next season
*as of july 3, 2025. with my luck they are going to make a trade within the week now that i’ve written this.
so, i find that the general vibe on the canucks in many online spaces and podcasts right now is a little on the negative side, basically entirely due to the admittedly rather lacklustre forward group that they currently have. everyone points to defence/goaltending as a strength, but it does feel like the worries about offence tend to outweigh the positivity about the other aspects of the team.
i wanted to discuss the components of the team as a whole and talk about how i think they’ll be able to work around the issues that kind of jump out at you on paper, because i genuinely think that they have a chance to be a strong team!
to be kind of organized about it, here’s a brief table of contents (i’ll warn you that this is long, but also that might not be a surprise):
defence
goaltending
the forward group
penalty kill
power play
an identity to work towards: infuriating the opponents
conclusion
1. defence
at the beginning of last season, our defence core was basically hughes-hronek against the world. now, it’s a huge strength of the team!
right now we have a good mix of defencemen who can help break the puck out of our zone/contribute offensively, as well as those who are very strong at in-zone defence. we shouldn’t have the same issue as much of last year when the team literally just could not get out of their zone if quinn wasn’t on the ice, which will help the team defence in general (easier to prevent goals when you aren’t constantly right. in front of your net). it will also help the forward group, though — by getting out of our zone more efficiently, our offensive players will have more opportunities to create scoring chances, and the more you create the more likely one might go in the net (even if it’s just dumb luck).
if i were assigning the defencemen their partners, i’d probably do it like this:
hughes-myers
metey-hronek
forbort/dpetey-mancini/willander/dpetey
i would still put hughes/hronek together situationally (ex. halfway through the 3rd period and they’re down 2 goals), but i think hughes elevates myers enough to allow hronek to run the 2nd pair and help generate more offence there. and, maybe willander will excel so quickly that he’s taking shifts with quinn by january 👀
2. goaltending
guys, we have thatcher demko (career sv% of .910 despite playing for the 2021-2023 canucks, runner-up for the vezina one year ago, and visibly an incredibly goalie to anyone watching) and kevin lankinen (literally saved the canucks season last year) as our goalie tandem. the injury issues we’ve seen demko deal with in the past have always come from him being overplayed, but with lankinen there we won’t have to ride demko into the ground. conversely, last season we saw lankinen’s game weaken as he was played over and over — but with demko there, that won’t be the case.
good goalies steal games, give your team a chance to win most nights, and give your skaters confidence. we don’t have a good goalie — we have a great goalie, and an elite goalie.
like, we are so back. we just need to say a prayer every night for demko’s knees, and make sure lankinen drinks emergen-C every morning to ward off the flu.
3. the forward group
look, it’s admittedly the weak point of the team. ideally you’d like another centre, either a 2C or a stronger 3C who can move up the lineup in case (god forbid) petey or chytil get injured.
HOWEVER! it’s not as dire as it may seem! i think that as long as the players are distributed to the various lines appropriately, so that everyone has linemates with complementary skills, the team will be able to score goals by committee.
IMO the best puck-carriers and playmakers on the team are petey, chytil, and garland — so if one of them is on each of our top 3 lines, each line should be able to get the puck into the offensive zone adequately, and have at least one player who can create scoring chances.
you also need someone who is ideally quick, and can win puck battles — think of höglander, garland, debrusk to some extent, kane (if he’s trying), sherwood, etc. — as well as someone who can score when they’re passed the puck (boeser, debrusk, etc.).
what you DON’T want is to waste two of our rare play-drivers on the same line (ex. i don’t want to see garland as petey’s winger), have two wingers who are more inclined to be the 3rd forward into the zone than they are to chase the puck down and win it back for their centre, or have 3 guys who aren’t going to shoot.
i don’t have super strong feelings on how the puzzle is pieced together — like if you put debrusk with petey instead of boeser, or sherwood with him instead of höglander, i’m fine with that. still, for the sake of the post, and assuming at least one of our left-wingers will be able to lay on the right side, this is an option i think would utilize the players well:
höglander-pettersson-boeser
debrusk-chytil-kane
joshua-blueger-garland
o’connor-räty-sherwood
we saw that top line have a lot of success at the end of last season, and it would be great if they could build on that! i think that if kane is willing to work hard (which i’ve heard isn’t always the case), he’ll be good to get into the dirty areas for chytil and debrusk, debrusk/chytil will be a good pair off the rush, and you have 3 scoring options. the third line is another that we’ve seen build some great chemistry, so just giving them a run together to find it again would be a good outcome. and the 4th line will have a defensive conscience while also bringing speed and physicality.
now, petey, boeser, and debrusk will very much need to carry the offence. no pressure 😭 but with our defencemen helping facilitate breakouts and a strong defensive structure + goaltending hopefully allowing us to keep our games low-scoring, i do think our forwards will be able to score their way to victory more often than not (and we’ll get goals from defencemen, too!)
4. penalty kill
this was like the one good thing abt the team last year and while we lost suter, the rest of the PKers are still here — i think we will continue to see it be a strength.
i really wouldn’t change it from last year, with the exception of needing a new centre on PK1. i think pettersson is the best option for the beginning of the year — he has incredible hockey IQ and is great at breaking up passes and anticipating where the puck will go, as well as being very (VERY) willing to block shots, and his faceoff% is pretty much on par with suter so that won’t be a big difference.
if he’s able to develop into a full-time NHLer, though, i’d like to see räty develop into a PK1 player over the course of the season: he’s great at faceoffs and i think he’s smart enough to fulfill the other PK requirements, and this means that petey (who will already need to carry the team at 5v5 and on the PP) won’t have to play as many tough PK minutes.
5. power play
we can only pray that our PP will work out this season 😭 i don’t even rly know what i’d do here — boeser is elite at the netfront and debrusk did well in the bumper, so i wouldn’t really want one of them to move to the former miller spot. i’m not sure that lekkerimäki is likely to make the team right out of training camp, which is why i don’t see him as an option. maybe put sherwood out there? or bite the bullet and move boeser to a half-wall, and put kane netfront?
as the #1 garland on PP1 anti i can tell you i do not want him there (i’ve discussed this before but his shot isn’t a threat, and PKers therefore don’t feel the need to defend him as closely — so they cover everyone else), but i do worry that this is what we might see 😭
gun to my head, i would do this:
kane (netfront)
debrusk (bumper)
boeser (left half wall)
pettersson (right half wall)
hughes (point)
6. an identity to work towards: infuriating the opponents
this is something i’m genuinely excited about!! hear me out —
we have a lot of players who just get under their opponents’ skin: teams and fanbases alike despise evander kane (me too 🍅🍅), and garland and höggy both make their opponents irate to the point where they lash out (looking @ you mcjesus). on top of that, we have joshua and sherwood who will kill anything that walks and help break down their opponents physically. then, we have our skilled guys like petey and quinn who can make a professional NHL player look like a peewee skater. and to top of all off, we have goalies who are really hard to score on.
my point is that if all these things come together, i think that the canucks could piss off their opponents. a lot. and when opponents are pissed off they’ll take more undisciplined penalties, might become sloppy in their frustration, etc.
if everyone leans into what they naturally to do anger people — whether it’s petey making matheson fall due to his incompetence, brock smiling charmingly at someone who’s angry they just got scored on, kane just irritating tf out of everyone, or sherwood pummelling the top players of the opponent into the boards every 30 seconds — i think that not only will it help the team find success, it’ll help them feel like they have an identity every time they step onto the ice for a game. and it’ll also be fun to watch!!
7. conclusion
to wrap this up, i’ll again say: there is so much hopelessness, critique, and worry that you see surrounding this team anytime you so much as open twitter or turn on the radio. i don’t think our forward group is necessarily a strength, but i truly think that the team is going to be good next year.
