Are The Canucks Tough Enough To Survive The Pacific Division?

The Pacific Division once had a reputation as the quite literal Wild West of the National Hockey League—with the @Vancouver Canucks forced to carry such notable hockey luminaries as Wade Brookbank and Darcy Hordichuk just to get by in a division full of monsters.

But the Pacific—and the NHL as a whole—just ain’t what it used to be.

Fighting and other forms of physical play are down across the board. Enforcers, with a handful of exceptions, have become extinct. The goons are gone. Even those players who used to make their bread and butter by inciting questionable collisions—the Matt Cookes and Zac Rinaldos of the world—have all but disappeared in a league that is waking up to the threat of head injuries at a van Winkle-like pace.

With all that being said, the question of toughness and grit are still not moot points when it comes to discussing life in the Pacific—and the more things change, the more they stay the same. Those aforementioned surviving enforcers? Most of them ply their trade on the west coast. And the disappearance of their bellicose brethren has only given rise to the age of the agitator—with some of the game’s most antagonistic personalities taking up residence across the Pacific Division.

All of which leads us to a question that has been asked before nearly every NHL season for the past couple decades—Are The Vancouver Canucks Tough Enough To Survive The Pacific Division?

It’s a question that takes on more importance now that the league’s playoff format relies so heavily on divisional matchups—and now that the Canucks have set their gazes firmly on a postseason berth. With that in mind, we’re here to assess how Vancouver stacks up against its divisional rivals in terms of Consistently Physical Players, Agitators, and true Enforcers—those intimidating individuals who could theoretically throw down with anyone else in the league.

Let’s dust off our knuckles and get to it.

Consistently Physical Players: @Ryan Getzlaf, @Max Jones, @Josh Manson, Nick Ritchie

Agitators: @Ryan Kesler?, @Nick Ritchie

Enforcers: @Nicolas Deslauriers

–There once was a time when the Ducks were the terror of the division—but those days have gone the way of the Hollywood Tower of Terror. They acquired legitimate toughie Nicolas Deslauriers in the offseason, but he doesn’t project to play much—while noted pain-in-the-ass Ryan Kesler doesn’t project to play at all. Beyond that, Anaheim has a standard array of physically punishing players—but they just can’t bully like they used to.

Consistently Physical Players: @Lawson Crouse, @Ilya Lyubushkin

Agitators: None

Enforcers: None

–The Coyotes have become progressively softer over the years since Shane Doan’s retirement—though they’ve also improved quite a bit over that same period, so take that how you will. Lawson Crouse remains the only player of any physical note on the Coyotes’ roster, though he’s not an insignificant one and can forecheck with the best of them. Arizona is a team that will be looking to win with skill, not grit, in the 2019/20 season—as their offseason acquisition of Phil Kessel clearly demonstrates.  

Consistently Physical Players: Sam Bennett, @Travis Hamonic, Milan Lucic, Matthew Tkachuk

Agitators: @Sam Bennett, @Matthew Tkachuk

Enforcers: @Milan Lucic

–If there’s a team that has the potential to “bully” the Canucks’ young stars in 2019/20, it’s probably the Calgary Flames. Matthew Tkachuk might be one of the most consistently annoying players in the league, and Sam Bennett has been similarly despised in Vancouver since his playoff debut in 2015. Milan Lucic may not be as much of a physical factor as he once was, but he’s still one of the most imposing figures in the league when the gloves come off—and he’s been known to take swings at pacifist opponents on numerous occasions. The Flames are the kind of team against whom a game could quickly spiral out of control.

Consistently Physical Players: @Josh Archibald, Zack Kassian, @Jujhar Khaira, @Adam Larsson, @Darnell Nurse

Agitators: @Brandon Manning?, @James Neal

Enforcers: @Zack Kassian

–The Edmonton brass hasn’t done a fantastic job of surrounding the generational Connor McDavid with talent, but they’ve at the very least provided him with a wide array of physical teammates. Zack Kassian leads the pugilistic charge, but Jujhar Khaira has also developed into the sort of player that opponents must keep their eye on at all times—and Darnell Nurse is just an unmitigated badass. Brandon Manning and James Neal may look like a couple of bloated contracts, but they’re also individuals who have been known for their cheapshots in the pasts. The Oilers hope that these players will at the very least keep opposing teams honest when it comes to McDavid.

Consistently Physical Players: @Dustin Brown, @Kyle Clifford, @Drew Doughty, @Austin Wagner

Agitators: Austin Wagner

Enforcers: @Kyle Clifford, @Kurtis MacDermid

–The Kings are a team without a clear identity heading into 2019/20—caught between their glory years and a full-on rebuild—and that even extends as far as their physical presence. Their big hitters from the Cup years—Dustin Brown, Kyle Clifford, and Drew Doughty included—are all still around, but each of them is older, slower, and less effective. Los Angeles does have an old school tough guy on the roster in Kurtis MacDermid, but he probably won’t be in the lineup regularly.

Consistently Physical Players: @Brent Burns, @Brenden Dillon, @Barclay Goodrow, @Evander Kane

Agitators: @Brendan Dillon, @Evander Kane

Enforcers: @Dalton Prout

–The Sharks have an advantage in that so many of their top players have a prominent physical component to their game—and so opponents have to worry about dodging checks from the likes of Brent Burns and Evander Kane on every other shift. San Jose has toughness throughout their roster, as opposed to concentrated in a few designated players—with the organization having moved on from the always-furious Micheal Haley in the offseason.

Consistently Physical Players: @William Carrier, @Deryk Engelland, @Brayden McNabb, @Ryan Reaves

Agitators: Ryan Reaves

Enforcers: Deryk Engelland, Ryan Reaves

–The Golden Knights are an interesting team in this regard, because they possess arguably the two best fighters in the NHL in Ryan Reaves and Deryk Engelland. Both are holdovers from the halcyon days of enforcers, though each has adapted their games to suit the evolved NHL since. Despite that seeming advantage, Vegas tied for the least amount of fighting majors in the entire league—perhaps indicating that the old school notion of fistic deterrence still works to some extent.

In Reaves specifically, the Golden Knights have one of the few players in the league who can wear opponents down physically, agitate them with his antics, and then beat them up when they try to do something about it—truly a unique threat in the modern NHL.

Consistently Physical Players: @Jordie Benn, @Alex Edler, @Micheal Ferland, @Tyler Motte, @Jake Virtanen

Agitators: Micheal Ferland, Antoine Roussel, Jake Virtanen

Enforcers: Micheal Ferland, Zack MacEwen

–With all the cards on the table, the 2019/20 Vancouver Canucks stack up rather favourably against the rest of the Pacific Division. Though they lack a true nuclear deterrent, the addition of Micheal Ferland gives them perhaps the most well-rounded physical threat in the division aside from Ryan Reaves—with Ferland tying for the league lead in fighting majors in 2018/19 despite missing 11 games with injury.

In a throwback to the early 2010s, the Canucks have potential to be one of the more annoying teams in the league—with Ferland, Antoine Roussel, and Jake Virtanen honouring the legacy of Alex Burrows and Max Lapierre with their bodies and their banter. Alex Edler’s consistent physicality on the blueline will be supplemented by the addition of Jordie Benn, who’s been known to take himself out of position on occasion just to land a huge hit. If Zack MacEwen makes the roster, he’ll instantly become the toughest player on the team, and add one further layer to the team’s overall intimidation factor.

Vancouver may not have the best fighters in the Pacific Division, but that’s an increasingly irrelevant component of physicality in today’s NHL. Consistent checking, standing up for one’s self and teammates, and the ability to get an opponent off their game, however, remain important factors in a team’s success—and that’s where the Canucks promise to excel this upcoming season.