CANUCKS ARMY ROUNDTABLE: SCORING TITLE

It’s a month into the season now, and one thing that has become abundantly obvious is that the Canucks are going to struggle to score goals this season. Many of the players they relied on to score points are showing lackluster results, and injuries are plaguing the team left, right and center.

But someone has to win the scoring title at the end of the season. So I asked the writers who they think will take home the crown of “Leading Canucks Scorer for the 2016-17 season”

Here’s what they said.

Question: Who wins the scoring title at the end of the season?

Loui Eriksson. Sometimes with players, if their skating falls off a bit and they are not smart, they can’t figure it out. But I feel like he’s a real smart player, his hockey sense is excellent, he’s versatile. He can play left wing, he can play right wing, he kills penalties. There are so many things to like about Loui. I think it’s a good fit for this group.

It’s been awhile since Henrik has had more points than his brother, so I’ll go with him.

I’ll go with Daniel Sedin. Why not? The guy’s on a hell of a run lately. The twins offence may be atrophying at even strength, but it’s worth noting that they’ve still a long way to go before they’re not useful as average-to-above-average first line contributors offensively. Now, just imagine if they had a little support. This team could maybe compete for 10th spot! Wouldn’t that be a treat!

I’ll go with one of the Sedins as well, because who else can you realistically say it could be at this point? It won’t be Brandon Sutter – if he’s anywhere close to the top it will be because of the Sedins. Horvat will put up some points, but he won’t get to play priority minutes (i.e. power play) to score more than one of the twins. It’s not quite as bad as the Maple Leafs from 1995-2008, when Mats Sundin led the club in scoring every season except 2003, but it’s close. Without any reasonable challenge from the organization’s youth, Sundin would lead mediocre-to-good Leaf teams in scoring, mostly uncontested. It’s the same story here with the Sedins. They’re still very good players, but by this point in their careers they should be taking a back seat to the next generation of Canucks. But that’s why the Canucks are a lottery team. Henrik finishes with 55 points and leads the team in scoring

I’ll go with Henrik Sedin, because he’s usually good at this kind of thing!

Danrik Sedin. I’m 99% it’s going to be one of the twins, which shouldn’t be a surprise since it’s been that way every year since 2006-07. There’s pros and cons so this, though. Obviously it shows that they’re still able to produce & carry the team at their ripe age of 36, but it also shows that there isn’t that much behind them. I think Horvat will be third and Eriksson (if he picks up his game) would be near by too.

Somehow Bo Horvat’s super cool moves and determination start clicking on the reg and he takes the top points. I predict 65 points which might be crazy but I’m crazy and you still read my stuff. My second answer is Jake Virtanen

As long as Daniel Sedin stays healthy, I don’t see how he loses this race.

Unless both of the Sedins suffer serious injuries this year (and maybe even then), it’s difficult to imagine that there’s anyone else on the roster that could lead the team in points over the course of the entire season – even Bo Horvat, who I think will be closest. On a side note, if or when Horvat does lead the team in points, he’ll be the first Canadian to do so since Trevor Linden in 1991-92.

The difficult aspect of the question is: which Sedin will it be? This is just a gut feeling, but Daniel seems to be aging better than Henrik at this point. He was also the faster twin (“fast” is a highly relative term when it comes to the Sedins), but he seems to have retained a higher percentage of his speed than his brother and the difference appears more pronounced than ever. While speed isn’t the core aspect of their game, they still require it at some level to catch up to pucks in order to establish and maintain the cycle. Daniel’s finishing ability should also help – he can create more offence by himself, while the team has precious little finishers aside from Daniel for Henrik to assist on.

I’ve been bullish on the Sedins continuing to be fairly productive as long as they stay healthy. I’ll go with 26 goals and 39 assists for 65 points for Daniel this year – and even that seems optimistic at this point.

I find it hard pressed it won’t be a Sedin. They always are on the ice in key moments in the game and on the power play, they are the only true constants on the scoring lines. I’ll go Henrik by a point.