Playoff Postmortem Mailbag: series reviews, prospect readiness, injuries, offseason strategizing, and so much more
2 months ago
Inhale.
It’s kind of funny how it’s pouring rain the day after the Canucks got eliminated like it feels almost like cleansing in a way— hayls 🧁 (@beauboesnbarzy) May 21, 2024
Deep down inside, I think we all knew this was where the buck would inevitably stop for the 2023-24 Vancouver Canucks’ magical postseason run.
Game one against the Nashville Predators featured two goals in 12 seconds to tie the game and secure the win.
Game two saw them generate 77 shot attempts, and Casey DeSmith stepped in for an injured Thatcher Demko.
Game three saw DeSmith nearly post a shutout only to be immediately waylaid with injury.
In Game Four, Arturs Silovs won his NHL Playoff debut, and Brock Boeser scored a hat trick to force overtime with seven seconds left in the game.
In game five, Nikita Zadorov wheeled down the left wing and went over the shoulder with a bardown snipe on Juuse Saros, just for the team to give up two goals in the third period.
In game six, the Canucks won their first postseason series in five years on the backs of Pius Suter’s second goal of the playoffs.
That was just one series.
Then came Edmonton!
In game one, the Canucks rallied back from a 4-1 deficit, with four straight goals, to win 5-4 at home.
In game two, the Canucks got outshot 15-2 in the third period en route to their first loss against the Oilers for the entire season!
In game three, Silovs stood on his head with an outrageous 42-save performance for a 4-3 win on the road.
In game four, the Canucks rallied back from a 2-0 deficit in the third period, scoring with less than two minutes to go to tie the game, only to give up the lead a minute later to lose for the first time in regulation against the Oilers all season.
In game five, Phil Di Giuseppe channelled his dad’s energy to tie the game. Then, J.T. Miller pulled a UNO Reverse card on the Oilers and scored with less than a minute to go in regulation for the win.
After five straight, tightly contested one-goal games, the Oilers’ went back to Stuart Skinner, who had lost the crease earlier, rattling off their biggest victory of the season against Vancouver by a score of 5-1.
Then game seven, the Canucks’ rattled off their worst performance of the postseason by far. For 50 minutes, the Oilers dominated puck possession as the Canucks power play floundered while their entire forward collective struggled to hit the net with their shots. Down 3-zip, as they’d done time and time again, the Canucks found that extra gear, scoring two straight to make the Oilers sweat over the final ten minutes.
Exhale.
The Canucks were clearly gassed at the end of the series, and can you blame them? Just giving the Coles Notes versions of this playoff run was exhausting!
This series inspired hope for the future and galvanized a fractured fanbase into uniting together against a familiar common enemy: everyone who kept picking the Canucks to lose.
Though, at times, frustrating, it was a magical, exhilarating time to be a Canucks fan again.
Hopefully, this run was a signal of more legendary Canuck playoff moments to come and less tears-in-the-rain like the 2020 bubble playoff run was.
Let’s get into all the questions you had after the Canucks whirlwind close to their return trip to the postseason.
(Let’s start with some positives)
What were your favourite moments of this Canucks season?What were your favourite moments of this Canucks season?— Lucas 🏆⚒ (@HammerFan_) May 21, 2024
This question is tough, mostly because I have an in-season memory of a goldfish.
I had to peruse my list of Stanchies that I did this past year to remember the best parts.
Number 1: The Canucks getting Jay Woodcroft kicked out of the game with a systematic annihilation (as I called it) of his then-team by a score of 6-2.
Number 2: Basically, every time Brock Boeser scored. Going from one of his worst on-ice and off-ice seasons to the best goalscoring season of his career, including becoming one of the team’s best defensive forwards and leading the team in playoff points, has to be in the Hall of Fame of career comebacks.
Number 3: The entire playoff run, if only for the sheer volume of, “They’re not going to do it again, are they?” comebacks.
Number 4: Covering my first-ever NHL playoff game for the Stanchies! A dream come true.
Number 5: Dave Hall filling in on Farmies duty and crushing it.
In November, my wife and I learned that we are expecting our first child this summer. It was a difficult first trimester, resulting in several ER trips. I can’t thank Dave and the CA team enough for filling in for me on many occasions while we ensured Little Cody Junior was on the right track!
For the 2024-25 season, I’ll be abdicating the Farmies throne in favour of being a dad who backs up for the Stanchies, answers questions for the Mailbag, and occasionally edits when Quads needs a helping hand—assuming my hands aren’t stuck inside a diaper genie.
Seeing the goofy, grammar-less series that I began on Reddit evolve into an established series for CanucksArmy has been quite the trip. Dave crushed it with his Farmies recaps this season, and I’m certain he and any of the other great CanucksArmy contributors who help out on Farmies duty will crush it next season and beyond! I can’t think of anyone better suited for keeping Canucks Nation up to date on the AHL team on a game-by-game basis.
AHL Readiness expectations!
Are there any guys in Abby who can realistically be an NHL regular next year?Podkolzin seems to be the obvious one but does anyone else standout?— Karan (@_Karanage) May 21, 2024Which of the AHL call ups makes the team next year? SILOVS and… ?— whatateamwhatagame (@haroldsneptsfan) May 21, 2024
I’ll sort players into tiers because this is already a pretty wordy mailbag, and I’ve barely answered any questions!
Though I’ve based these tiers on the past season, bear in mind that any player(s) could surprise by having an unbelievable offseason, during which they add several facets to their play that boost their chances of ascending the “readiness” tiers.
Ready for regular NHL duty
- Vasily Podkolzin
Based on regular AHL season play and brief postseason appearances, I believe Podkolzin is ready for a full season alternating between the regular rotation and the press box. Though he still looks like he’s overthinking the game, I have to believe that the guy who scored double-digit goals in his rookie season can do more than what he showed this season and last.
Pressbox/spot duty
- Linus Karlsson
- Arshdeep Bains
Assuming the organization re-signs Karlsson, I think he can play in a Nils Åman-like capacity. Karlsson plays an extremely coach-friendly, safe playstyle, has shown quality work as a forechecker, and subtly good playmaking abilities against his competition at the NHL level. I also thought Karlsson had a very impressive playoff debut for Vancouver in the game they won. Karlsson’s had a very unconventional development path, and I would not be shocked if he had more to give at the NHL level if given a bit more rope to work with during the regular season.
Arshdeep Bains is a long shot to provide pressbox/spot duty. However, given how he went from a middle-six AHL contributor who can PK to a first-shift penalty killer, second-unit power play bumper player, and near-point-per-game forward, I would not doubt that Bains learns from this season and takes another giant leap. Again, it’s a bit of a longshot to see him carve out a tweener role, but his slingshotting up the reliability chart helps his case when looking ahead. Word of advice to Bains: stop taking penalties in the offensive zone.
Cup of coffee
- Max Sasson
- Aatu Räty
- Cole McWard
- Jonathan Lekkerimäki
- Elias Pettersson (D)
Were it not for a mid-season injury, I think Sasson would have been one of the first forward recalls that the Canucks made from the AHL. He has speed, hands, forechecking, and playmaking ability. Abbotsford controlled play territorially whenever he was on the ice at 5-on-5, better than any other player. With Sasson on the ice, the Farm outscored the competition 47 to 23 at 5-on-5. As for “being a clutch player,” with Sasson on the ice during a tie game, the Farm outscored their opposition 18 to 11 at 5-on-5. Again, a better ratio of goals scored than anyone else on the team.
I dropped Räty into this tier because of his wild rollercoaster of a season. He started the season strong in 5v5 production but was highly inconsistent. Three-quarters of the way through the season, Räty’s production evaporated, with just three points across ten games. Räty then exploded out of nowhere with nine points over three games and 14 over seven before closing the season with a single point over the final six games. Assuming he irons out some of his skating inefficiencies and plays more like a point-per-game AHLer than not, then I figure he will get a few looks on the final year of his ELC.
Cole McWard was quietly very consistent for Abbotsford this past season. Assuming the Canucks re-sign him, I think he can give the Canucks a few games here and there as a number eight on the depth chart.
These are pure “vibe” picks, but I think Lekkerimäki and Pettersson (D) will surprise as training camp and earn cups of coffee much sooner than anyone anticipates. Lekkerimäki’ll get the nine-game run to start the season in the NHL based on his shot and forechecking strength alone. Tocchet, Foote, and Gonchar will love Pettersson for his physicality and size. I had thought that the jump from the HockeyAllsvenskan to the AHL would be too much for the 20-year-old, but he played with confidence, picked up a few points, threw some big hits, defended his teammates, blocked a bunch of shifts, and looked solid.
My hot take for next season is that Pettersson will get at least one call-up next season.
Playoff series review
If you had to hazard a guess at who was playing with injuries, who would it be?If you had to hazard a guess at who was playing with injuries, who would it be?I got Hughes, Petey and I’m sure it’ll come out that Miller was playing with a broken spine or something and was still competing.— Luc (@lcfrst2) May 21, 2024
Even though Rick Tocchet threw water on the “Pettersson is injured” fire, for some reason, I’d bet we find out he was playing with no bones in his right wrist or something absurd.
If I were ranking players by “likelihood of injury and severity,” my list would go: Dakota Joshua, Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, Filip Hronek, Ian Cole, and lastly, Nikita Zadorov.
Midway through the Nashville series, there was a staggering drop in swagger levels among the Canucks. The sassy Zadorov, who once mocked Evander Kane for complaining to the referees, disappeared quickly in games six and seven. If you told me Dakota Joshua played zero games for the Canucks this playoffs, I’d believe you. Filip Hronek wasn’t even attempting his patented slapshot from hell, so I have to think his wrists turned into jelly at some point toward the end of the regular season.
I’d be shocked if fewer than a handful of players were injured.
As I said, maybe the back-to-back losses were just the club hitting its ceiling and being fatigued beyond belief from having played so many tight, physical one-goal games.
What was up with the low shot totals?What was up with the low shot totals? Even in game with Demko, only got 20. It was weird.— Tg28dux (@tg28dux) May 21, 2024
So, here’s the thing.
During the regular season, the Canucks were very underwhelming at registering shots on goal.
At 5-on-5, the Canucks tied the Arizona Coyotes with the seventh-lowest shot rate in the NHL. Only Detroit, Montreal, Anaheim, Chicago, San Jose, and Washington had a poorer rate of shots on net than Vancouver.
Despite their pitiful ability to hit the net, they made what did hit the net count!
The Canucks finished first in the NHL by goals on shots per-60 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time. Go figure!
Across 82 games, the Canucks registered 1763 shots on goal against 3751 shot attempts (on net + blocked shots + misses) at 5-on-5. Their on-net percentage was 47%, the fourth-worst in the NHL. Expanded to all situations shots and shot attempts, Vancouver finished with the fifth-worst on-net percentage in the NHL.
Only Washington, San Jose, Carolina, and Seattle had a worse rate of getting their shots on goal.
On the bright side, this is the Canucks first trip to the playoffs where they’ve had to deal with NHL teams going all out to block shots. I’d expect the Canucks to recalibrate their approach this offseason. Funnelling offence through the middle of the ice via shots from the perimeter works during the regular season when half of the opposition has been checked out for weeks and where blocked shots are less than a dozen per game.
The spray-and-pray approach requires an obscenely strong forward group to escape playoff-calibre defencemen and retrieve blocked shots, rebounds, and missed attempts to give their perimeter players more follow-up attempts. It’s a lot of work and requires Hurricane-like persistence and the ability to win that many retrievals and battles to generate more volume for potential goals.
The Hurricanes finished the regular season with over 1,000 more shot attempts than Vancouver (5819 to 4836) across all situations. For their efforts on the volume approach, the Hurricanes finished the season with two fewer goals than Vancouver, two more points in the regular season standings, and one fewer win in the 2024 playoffs. Again, it’s a playstyle that exacts a heavy toll. Should the Canucks lean harder into it as Carolina did and hope their shooters continue to convert? Or, now that they know they can play a precision shooters version of Carolina’s game, should Vancouver find a happy middle-ground pivot during the regular season that is less exacting and lends to better playoff success?
After 13 games, the Canucks finish this postseason with the worst on-net percentage of the 16 playoff teams, just 270 shots on-net against 703 attempts. The two leading teams right now are the Edmonton Oilers, who have 358 shots on goal on 726 attempts (49.31 on-net percentage), and the Florida Panthers, who have 363 shots on goal against 760 attempts (47.76 on-net percentage).
If I were a betting man, those would be my two finalists for this year’s Stanley Cup Finals.
The Dallas Stars have the second-lowest on-net percentage (42.09%), and the New York Rangers have the fourth-lowest (43.07%).
The Vegas Golden Knights won last year’s Cup with an on-net percentage of 53.36%, the second-best among all teams. The Colorado Avalanche won the previous season’s Cup with the sixth-best on-net percentage, 54.2%.
Could the Canucks have won the series if Demko was healthy and Boeser was available in game seven?do we think we could have won the series is demko was healthy and we had brock in game 7. also we need to get rid of hronek, mikayhev, lafferty, blueger and sign DJ, big z and hopefully keep lindy— nux (@vancity1114) May 21, 2024
Maybe if Demko is healthy and between the pipes, the Canucks win the series.
Maybe.
Brock would have obviously been massive, considering he was the only guy this postseason who could hit the net. At even strength, Boeser was second only to Pius Suter and Nils Höglander in on-net percentage.
Hopefully, these blood clots are a minor inconvenience and not anything Boeser will have to deal with long term. The guy’s been through enough. Just let him play some hockey without uncontrollable, unforeseen b.s!
Is the number of chances that missed the net a stategy or talent issue? How should the try to address it for next season?Is the number of chances that missed the net more of a strategy issue or a talent issue? How should they try to address it for next season?— Nik von Krosigk (@nikvonk) May 21, 2024
See above. I think it was both.
The Canucks’ playstyle worked like a charm when half of their shooters were converting at career-high rates: Convert on a few shots, dominate the second period, increase the lead, sit back in the third, and then defend extremely well against teams trying to push from behind for the final 20 minutes. Rinse and repeat to win the Pacific Division.
I feel like Nashville did to Vancouver what Vegas did to Vegas during the bubble. They stymied the club’s ability to generate legitimate shots on goal, resulting in every forward on the team overthinking their shooting lanes. Inevitably, Nashville’s stifling play rattled Vancouver to the point where every forward was skying their shots fifty miles over Saros, Pickard, and Skinner’s heads from point-blank range.
It is hard to convert on a few shots when you don’t know where to place them, hard to dominate second periods when you’re not shooting where you need to, hard to increase leads when you never have them, and hard to defend well when you’re chasing the game while frustrated at the lack of shots converting.
The cure to this would be to add higher-end talent to the roster who can also convert at obscenely high rates during the regular and postseason. Imagine this roster with Jake Guentzel or Tyler Toffoli in the top six trying to convert instead of Ilya Mikheyev, Sam Lafferty, or Linus Karlsson.
Arturs Silovs’ playoff performance review
I thought that Silovs played incredibly well.
I also thought that the problems that plagued Silovs during the AHL season plagued him in the playoffs. Not that it matters since those same problems in the AHL season occurred in some of Vancouver’s biggest games in the last decade.
Sure, Silovs’ struggled with tracking point shots from the blue line behind the Canucks’ towers on defence. But, whatever. He should have never been in the starter’s crease, but gave the club a serious boost with his stellar play in the Nashville series and beyond against some unbelievable shooting talent and high-end chances.
For the point-shot problem, Nikita Zadorov, Tyler Myers, and Carson Soucy are absolute units relative to those that Silovs played behind during his AHL tenure.
These are the defencemen and their total games played in front of Silovs when he was between the pipes for added perspective on Silovs’ familiarity playing behind big boys.
6’4″ Elias Pettersson: 1 GP
6’3″ Nick Cicek: 19 GP
6’2″ Christian Wolanin: 21 GP
6’2″ Guillaume Brisebois: 1 GP
6’2″ Matt Iwin: 27 GP
As a big boy himself, Silovs will eventually figure out how to scan plays developing at the top of the zone and learn how to see through bodies in front.
The Ilya Mikheyev question
What has been management’s biggest mistake up to this point? And why was it signing Ilya Mikheyev to that contract?— EastVanNucksFan (@EastVanNucksFan) May 21, 2024
Hot take number two from me: I think the Canucks would be wise to hold onto Mikheyev, assuming they can add two high-calibre, high-ceiling pieces that push Mikheyev down the lineup to the third or fourth line on a full-time basis.
Even if his offence has completely dried up, it’s better to suffer with the speedy defensive specialist in your lineup with a pick/prospect in your back pocket until an opportunity arises. Heck, I thought the club was hooped heading into the season with Anthony Beauvillier’s contract on the books. Then the entire Blackhawks lineup got injured, and Vancouver jumped at the opportunity to profit from another team’s misfortune! In my mind, the club has under $24 million in cap space to work with this offseason, so paying to get rid of Mikheyev now doesn’t seem like the best use of assets.
Honestly, the Mikheyev contract wasn’t the worst mistake up until this point. I thought the Hronek deal was a more significant mistake. Despite Hronek’s upside and potential fit, I thought the incredibly small window of cost control (1 year) almost guaranteed that the club would “butter their own bread” by playing him with Hughes, resulting in an outrageous ask on a new contract.
Sure enough, Rick Dhaliwal reported on Tuesday morning that Hronek’s camp had held firm on an ask of $8 million dollars on the AAV of Hronek’s next contract.
The other major mistake was signing Andrey Kuzmenko to a two-year extension without giving their recently hired coach a run of games to evaluate the fit. The return on Kuzmenko in that season could have been massive.
At least with Mikheyev, I could understand the thought process: buy high one of the league’s fastest skaters who just hit twenty goals as a prominent penalty killer. There’s not much Allvin and company could do about Mikheyev blowing out his knee in a meaningless preseason game. It would be unfair to fault them for that, of all things.
Offseason things!
The Canucks’ top priorities this offseasonIn your opinion, what’s some of the Canucks top priorities in the offseason?— Ed Helinski (@MrEd315) May 21, 2024
Top six wingers with a high ceiling!
Talent. Skill. Talent. Skill.
Use cap space to raise this club’s baseline skill and talent level. This should be especially important if Brock Boeser is not ready for the start of the 2024-25 season.
With $24 million in cap space, the club has enormous flexibility in accomplishing this goal without sacrificing its long-term outlook.
Offseason coaching changes this summer?Alvin and company have big summer ahead. Roughly 26mil to continue the work of last summer. We will obviously see some stay and some go. The one aspect that could affect the product on the ice is coaching. Could any of the assistant coaches end up changing this summer?— Josh Haggstrom (@JoshHaggstrom) May 21, 2024
I would have answered a couple of months ago, “No chance. Allvin and Rutherford went and got all of their guys from the old back-to-back cup-winning Penguins. These are their guys!”
Then Rick Dhaliwal reported that he was hearing about an impasse with Jeremy Colliton regarding his current tenure as head coach of the Abbotsford Canucks.
Colliton was one of Allvin/Rutherford’s guys. The past two years have seen heaps of praise thrown Colliton’s way for his work with the prospects on the farm team. That Colliton could potentially be no longer “their guy” makes me wonder whether Allvin/Rutherford would be willing to change things at the NHL level, too, if it meant improving the club, if even by a small margin.
Who will be a candidate for pp coach position.— Lee Liang ツ (@surevanc) May 21, 2024
These two might be hard to pry out of their current organizations, but I would look into Ryan Warsofsky from the San Jose Sharks and Jessica Campbell from the Seattle Kraken (Coachella Valley Firebirds).
Warsofsky is a two-time AHL Calder Cup champion. His 2018-19 Charlotte Checkers finished the regular and postseason with the 10th-best and fourth-best powerplay. His 2019-20 Charlotte Checkers finished the regular season with the 3rd-best powerplay in the league. His 2020-21 Chicago Wolves finished with the 4th-best powerplay in the regular season. His 2021-22 Chicago Wolves finished the regular and postseason with the 12th-best and 2nd-best powerplay. The Shark’s 2022-23 regular season power play was awful, but the genuinely atrocious 2023-24 Sharks finished with a powerplay that clicked at 20.19%—a power play that clicked better than the offensive talents of Winnipeg Jets, Ottawa Senators, and Pittsburgh Penguins.
As for Campbell—and this is likely recency bias as the Coachella Valley Firebirds have absolutely dominated the Abbotsford Canucks on the powerplay—she has finished both AHL seasons with the 14th-best powerplay in the regular season and a postseason powerplay that has clicked above 20% in both of the Firebirds Calder Cup runs. Most recently, the Firebirds went 2/10 against the Ontario Reign, who finished the regular season with the second-best penalty kill in the AHL.
Alternatively, as I’ve said many times in this Mailbag, add several dynamic, ceiling-raising top-six forwards, and maybe Tocchet can get away with running the power play on top of his usual duties for another season.
Broadstrokes: “who stays; who goes?”Who do you think SHOULD stay/go vs. who WILL stay/go?— CrankyCanucksFan (@CrankyCanuckFan) May 21, 2024Out of the UFAs/RFAs, who should the Canucks (realistically) try to re-sign?— Mcsuper (@Macusian12345) May 21, 2024
My guess on who will stay/go:
Stay: Nikita Zadorov
Go: Blueger, Joshua, Lafferty, Lindholm, Cole, Friedman, Myers, and DeSmith.
Who I think SHOULD stay/go (assuming price/term isn’t atrocious):
Stay: Zadorov, Joshua, and Myers
Go: Lafferty, Lindholm, Cole, Friedman, and DeSmith
The “Lindholm: go” guess is based purely on pundit speculation that he’s looking for a big payday elsewhere. I think Lindholm had a great playoffs for Vancouver, but I think Conor Garland outplayed him, and I wouldn’t pay Lindholm more than Conor Garland.
Hypotheticals!
Lindholm, Hronek, and Zadorov or Ehlers, Guentzel, and TanevWould you rather have lindholm hronek zadorov or ehlers guentzel tanev next season?— Lawhi (@LawhiLeonard2) May 21, 2024
No question, Ehlers/Guentzel/Tanev.
Anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves.
What is Filip Hronek worth on the trade market?
What is Hronek worth in a trade?
Is he possibly worth enough to just send him and Mikheyev somewhere without having to give up too, too much?— Lou Slips (@louslips) May 21, 2024
Before this morning, I’d say at least enough to get a good pick or a young-ish credible defenceman in return.
But then Rick Dhaliwal dropped this bomb:
Maybe Utah wants him to hit the cap floor? Or maybe Buffalo realizes they went a little too youth-heavy with their movement. Maybe Carolina thinks Hronek is a replacement option for the outgoing Brett Pesce or Brady Skjei.
Otherwise, I can’t imagine teams are coughing up premium assets for a guy unwilling to budge on expectations of a massive payday.
Obviously, this is just negotiations via the media. However, Hronek’s camp is out to lunch if they legitimately believe he should make anywhere close to what Hughes is making. I’d consider trading Hronek for future considerations for having the audacity to put his salary demand in the same ballpark as the greatest defenceman to ever play for the Vancouver Canucks. You know, the guy about to win his first Norris Trophy.
Hronek, Mikheyev, and a 1st Round Pick for Lawson Crouse and Victor SoderstromWould you package Hronek, Mikheyev, 1st round pick to Utah for Crouse and Soderstrom?— Oscar (@OWostenholme) May 21, 2024
Honestly, the last thing I want to see is Vancouver trading another first-round pick to the Arizona Coyotes—er, the Utah Menn-on-ice.
I’d veto this trade on that principle alone.
Lawson Crouse is cool, though. He would be a guaranteed upgrade on Lafferty, Åman, Di Giuseppe, Karlsson, Podkolzin, or [insert any other Abbotsford Canuck here] in next year’s bottom six.
The Future!
What to do with Brock Boeser?The UFA’s and RFA’s are one thing. My biggest question is what do you do with Brock Boeser? Do you extend him after clearly his best season or explore other options?— Ktownchef (@ktownchef) May 21, 2024
Extend him! Retire him as a Canuck.
Start pitching the haircut extension now! Lock him in through the remainder of JT’s contract.
DO IT.
DO IT NOW!
Who out there is up to being Quinn Hughes’ d-partner, assuming Hronek isn’t brought back.Assuming hronek isn’t brought back who out there is up to being QH’s D partner? Tanev is not the long term answer imo— Mattitude (@Mattitude80) May 21, 2024
Haha, I couldn’t help but giggle at the phrasing of this question because I bet there are A LOT of defencemen who want to play caddy to a Norris Trophy-winning all-star D-man.
I get what Matt is asking, though! I don’t think there are too many players available that would fit as Hughes’ partner who wouldn’t cost an arm and two legs to acquire. A few guys, including Chris Tanev, would still cost a tidy sum on the open market as UFAs but would still come cheaper than Hronek’s reported ask of $8-million per season.
Since this Mailbag is already a unit, I’m just going to rattle off a bunch of names with zero consideration of cost to acquire, trade implications, or likelihood of being a good fit, but who would nonetheless be headline additions: Noah Dobson, Simon Nemec, Brandon Montour, John Carlson, or MacKenzie Weegar.
Here are a few lesser-known names that won’t be headline news but are interesting additions due to their age, low cost, underlying numbers, or potential for more: Dylan DeMelo, Matt Roy, Sean Walker, Michael Kesselring, Jordan Spence, or Kaedan Korczak.
Unrelated, but the Canucks should try and grab Akil Thomas out of Los Angeles; major Tyler Motte energy.
Does this core have what it takes to win a cup?Does this core have what it takes to win a Cup?— FredGShag (@ShagFred) May 21, 2024
Absolutely.
Go Canucks Go.
Lastly, thanks to everyone in the CanucksArmy comment section for their contributions to another great season of Monday Mailbags.
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