Dom Luszczyszyn of the Athletic released his NHL Player Tiers list for the 2024-25 season. The Athletic ranks six Vancouver Canucks within this top 150 players stretched between five tiers. Here is how Luszczyszyn describes this tier list:

“For those new here, this isn’t your typical ranking because it isn’t really a ranking. It’s a hierarchy, one where grouping players together is the primary feature and meant to celebrate exactly how diversely most people see this sport. There are levels to the league and while one player may be more well-liked by some over another, another group may see it differently. Putting two players side-by-side allows for the uncertainty that comes with trying to rank players in similar weight classes — usually a fools’ errand.”

“As usual, this isn’t a single-source ranking. It’s a composite of new-school data blended with old-school wisdom in an attempt to gauge where the league’s very best stand going into the 2024-25 season. The goal is to create the definitive list of hockey’s greatest stars — one that starts with a modeled output based on projected Net Rating and evolves into a much more complete look after hours of internal and external deliberation.”

This model has five tiers: Tier 1 – MVP, Tier 2 – Franchise, Tier 3 – All-Star, Tier 4 – Star, and Tier 5 – Support.

Here are how the six Canucks are ranked:

Hughes, 24, is the reigning James Norris trophy winner, leading all defencemen in points with 17 goals and 75 assists for 92 points in 82 games. In his first year as Canucks captain, Hughes cemented himself among the upper echelon of the league’s defencemen. Hughes earns a massive bump in the tier list, as last season, he was tiered in 3B – All-Star.

Two other defencemen are ranked in the MVP tier: Cale Makar (1B) and Adam Fox (1C).

Hughes shares the 1C rank with Fox, his brother Jack Hughes, David Pastrnak, and Matthew Tkachuk.

Pettersson, 25, is coming off his second-best campaign, scoring 34 goals and 89 points in 81 games. And all things considered, most believe that this was a down season for the sixth-year Swede. He’s just one season removed from a 39-goal, 102-point season, which helps earn him the same 2B – Franchise tier as he had last season.

Five other centremen are ranked in the Franchise tier: Sidney Crosby (2A), Sebastian Aho (2B), Jack Eichel (2B), Brayden Point (2B), and Nico Hischier (2C).

Pettersson shares the 2B rank with Aho, Eichel, Miro Heiskanen, Connor Hellebuyck, Mitch Marner, Point, and Mikko Rantanen.

Demko, 28, is coming off a season in which he finished second in the Vezina Trophy voting. He boasted a 35-14-2 record, a 2.45 goals against average, and a .918 save percentage. The American netminder is currently still dealing with a knee issue that held him out of all but one playoff game last season, but his efforts still earned him among the league’s top netminders.

Two other goaltenders are ranked in the All-Star tier: Andrei Vasilevskiy (2A) and Jeremy Swayman (2B).

Demko shares the 3B rank with Jesper Bratt, Noah Dobson, Gustav Forsling, Roope Hintz, Zach Hyman, Josh Morrissey, Jaccob Slavin, Swayman, Robert Thomas, and Brady Tkachuk.

Miller, 31, is coming off a career year where he hit the century mark for the first time, registering 37 goals and 66 assists for 103 points in 81 games. This ranking seems pretty low for a player who scored over 100 points last season – and 99 two seasons ago. However, this is still an upgrade on his 4D – Top Line tier, which he had last season.

Six other centremen are ranked in the All-Star tier: Connor Bedard (3A), Roope Hintz (3B), Robert Thomas (3B), Dylan Larkin (3C), Tim Stutzle (3C) and Tage Thompson (3C).

Miller shares the 3C rank with Mathew Barzal, Matthew Boldy, Drew Doughty, Mattias Ekholm, Clayton Keller, Larkin, Stutzle, Shea Theodore, Thompson, Devon Toews and Mackenzie Weegar.

Boeser, 27, finally established himself as a prominent goal scorer in the NHL by posing his first 40-goal season. He added 33 assists to tally 73 points on the year. The Minnesota native finished tied for 15th in goals with Steven Stamkos and William Nylander, earning him a spot on this list for the first time in his career.

Eight other right-wingers are ranked in the Support tier: Nikolaj Ehlers (5A), Jordan Kyrou (5A), Troy Terry (5A), Adrian Kempe (5B), Bryan Rust (5B), Alex Tuch (5B), Patrick Kane (5C) and Alexis Lafreniere (5C).

Boeser shares the 5B rank with Cole Caufield, Alex DeBrincat, Aaron Ekblad, Kempe, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Jonathan Marchessault, Jared McCann, Ryan McDonagh, Brandon Montour, Rust, Mark Schiefele and Tuch.

Hronek, 26, earned himself an eight-year $58 million extension after a career-high 48 points and a plus-33 rating on the season. The right-shot defenceman helped elevate Hughes to Norris-calibre level in their first year playing together. This is Hronek’s first time on this tier list.

17 other defenceman are ranked in the Support tier: Joonas Brodin (5A), John Carlson (5A), Seth Jones (5A), Hampus Lindholm (5A), Owen Power (5A), Mikhail Sergachev (5A), Aaron Ekblad (5B), Letang (5B), McDonagh (5B), Montour (5B), Rasmus Andersson (5C), Thomas Chabot (5C), K’Andre Miller (5C), Brett Pesce (5C), Matt Roy (5C), Brady Skjei (5C) and Chris Tanev (5C).

Hronek shares the 5C rank with Andersson, Matty Benier, Jamie Benn, Quinton Byfield, Chabot, Dylan Cozens, Tomas Hertl, Kane, Lafreniere, Arturri Lehkonen, Elias Lindholm, Miller, Alexander Ovechkin, Pesce, Roy, Stuart Skinner, Skjei, Juraj Slafkovsky, Dylan Strome, Tanev and Owen Tippet.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Do you agree with the Athletic’s rankings of the Canucks in the tier list? What would you change? Let us know in the comment section below.