For the first time in this goofy off-season competition, outside noise surrounding the Vancouver Canucks seemed to bleed into the competition and affect the vote.

The first elimination was our most subjective vote of the competition. The fanbase voted for their favourite players, and the takes that would be the most fun to experience as a Canucks fan. The second elimination was highly polarizing, with the subjectivity of hot versus cold requiring award-winning show host, me, acting Jeff Probst, to break the competition’s first tie.

With fewer “obvious cold takes” available, the fanbase flipped their votes for episode 4. With players returning to Vancouver for training camp, Captain’s practices, and the Penticton Young Stars, the lukewarm takes that skated by were suddenly hot, and the hot takes which used to be “just toasty enough” were suddenly “too hot to handle.”

Let’s see who got the boot in this edition of Hot Take Survivor.

But first! The votes!

108 votes were collected from five sources: the CanucksArmy comment section, Twitter, Facebook, the Canucks’ Discord, and internally, via our writer’s group chat.

To ensure a fair, democratic elimination process, we weighted the votes accordingly.

After last week’s polarizing vote that resulted in a nerve-wracking tie and the elimination of Stephan Roget from the competition, the episode 4 voters were significantly more aligned.

The result for this week was a near-unanimous elimination that angered our contestant so badly that security needed to be called (Jeff Probst has security on the show, right?).

With that. Presenting the Hot Take voted (by you) as the coldest/least likely take of the bunch.

After tearing his Buffalo Bills jersey off his back and throwing it at award-winning fake reality TV show host (me) following the verdict, award-winning journalist Wyatt Arndt kept screaming at the remaining contestants, “I am an award winner, and winning is what I do!”

It was a tough look.

One of the remaining contestants jumped up from their stool, began flexing, and waved goodbye aggressively at Arndt, shouting, “Silovs is the best player in the world aside from Connor Bedard, according to the IIHF!”

Following the revelation that Andrey Kuzmenko had cut out Nutella pancakes from his diet, the voting public seemingly lost confidence in the Russian winger’s ability to repeat his goalscoring success of 2022-23. Arndt’s take was the first casualty of training camp news bleeding into the competition.

How will the Penticton Young Stars tournament impact the fans’ opinions on Akito Hirose’s NHL upside? Will the acquisition of Casey DeSmith impact Arturs Silovs’ ability to play more NHL games than Spencer Martin? Will Tanner Pearson’s absence open up the door for a Nils Höglander 25-goal season? Or will the still-present cap issues see him moved as part of another pre-season cap-crunch casualty move? Has Dom Luczyszyn’s model changed fans’ opinion on Quinn Hughes’ ability to hit 20 goals? Can Elias Pettersson overcome the distraction of his contract status to beat Connor McDavid for Art Ross supremacy?

With the season drawing near and CanucksArmy Hot Take Survivor drawing to a close, the stakes have never been higher, and the competition has never been more challenging.

Some have said Hot Take Survivor is the most difficult championship to win (citation needed). Alas, Wyatt Arndt was not the contributor to win it this year.

Let us know in the comments how you would rate CanucksArmy’s six remaining Hot Takes by the best/most amusing concept with the greatest likelihood of actually happening. One contributor’s take will outwit, outplay, and outlast the others, and it’s up to you to help us determine who has one aspect of next season figured out already!

A reminder of the takes still on the line for Hot Take Supremacy!

The remaining takes below are ranked, not from best to worst, but to help you vote down in the comment section or on our Google Voting Form!