The Canucks Milestone Watch 2015-16

8 years ago

The regular season is upon us! The Canucks exhibition series has come to a close, and as exciting as all the points the kids put up were, they don’t mean jack squat in terms of career numbers. Now that the vets have worked out the kinks, and the kids have made their mark on the roster, the real hockey is about to start. And real hockey means real numbers.

Milestones are arbitrary markers that bring special feels to players and fans. Is the difference between 99 goals and 100 goals really greater than the difference between 98 goals and 99 goals? Of course not. Does it feel like it is? Hell yes.

Now these stats certainly aren’t fancy, so maybe they aren’t quite the style of numbers that we at Canucks Army are known to fawn over – but human beings like milestones, and dammit, we’re humans too. So let’s check out which of your beloved Canucks are reasonably within reach of milestones this season.

Points

Henrik Sedin – Milestone: 1000 Points

Current: 915 – Required: 85

This is the big one, so it gets to go first. There are many milestones on this list that should be easy to hit. This is not one of them. Daniel Wagner of Pass It to Bulis recently discussed whether Henrik Sedin is still capable of hitting 85 points in a single season. The short answer is: we don’t really know.

The Sedins are certainly capable of surprising us on any given night and in any given season. While I think that 85 points is pretty unlikely for the 35-year old Swede, I am loathe to rule out the possibility completely. Suffice it to say that it would require a perfect storm of on-ice shooting percentages, a top tier powerplay (Yannick Weber anyone?), plenty of empty net situations and a season long clean bill of health.

Even then, Jamie Benn won the scoring race last season with a measly 87 points (no offense Jamie). Is it really conceivable that Henrik Sedin finishes that close to the top of the league? As Daniel Wagner concluded, “expecting 85 points out of Henrik (and by extension, Daniel) is optimistic, but not unreasonable.” When it comes to the Wonder Twins, we still don’t quite know what to expect – and they have a tendency to amaze.

Target Date: October, 2016

Daniel Sedin – Milestone: 900 Points

Current: 881 – Required: 19

While Henrik reaching 1000 points this season is a bit of a reach, Daniel reaching 900 is a shoe in. The very-slightly-younger twin is just 19 points away from this milestone. Barring a catastrophic early season injury, it isn’t a matter of it he gets there, but when.

Last season it took Danny 19 games to reach 19 points. The year before he picked up 17 points in the first 17 games, and had 20 points by game 24 (and that was in a year in which he finished with 47 points). The point is, even if you don’t think the Sedins are still point-per-game players, they still have a recent tendency of getting off to hot starts. The November 16th tilt against Montreal is the Canucks’ 19th game of the season. If he hasn’t hit 900 by then, he should be close.

Target Date: November, 2015

Other Points Milestones:

Player	Milestone	Current	Needs
Alex Burrows	350	342	8
Chris Higgins	350	329	21
Dan Hamhuis	300	290	10
Brandon Sutter	200	185	15
Jannik Hansen	200	182	18
Derek Dorsett	100	98	2

Goals

Daniel Sedin – Record: 347

Current: 327 – Required: 20

The Sedins own nearly every offensive record in the Canucks’ history books, and only 20 goals stand between one of the most prestigious. 19 more goals for Daniel will tie Markus Naslund’s franchise record, and one more will set him apart as the team’s all-time goal scoring leader. Is he capable of hitting 20 again?

Daniel Sedin’s goal scoring abilities may have fallen off a little bit since Duncan Keith ruined everything, but last year he demonstrated that he can still be a 20 goal scorer in the NHL. His shooting percentage was 8.8% – nearly 3 full points below his career average. The 2.75 shots-per-game rate he managed last season was his lowest since 2005-06.

Danny needs to shoot more often. Eight times last season he put 6 or more shots on net – he scored in six of those games. The more Daniel gets in the shooter’s groove, the more it pays off for him. The fact that he finished last season with goals in four straight games (and scored two more in six playoff games) also lends credence to the idea that his days as a 20-goal scorer are not over.

For bonus points, 23 goals this season will give him a nice even 350 career tallies.

Target Date: March, 2016

Other Goal Milestones

Player	Milestone	Current	Needs
Radim Vrbata	250	246	4
Alex Burrows	200	175	25
Brandon Sutter	100	98	2

Games Played

Henrik Sedin – Record: 1141

Current: 1092 – Required: 49

Another one of the few records that the Sedins don’t yet hold is the games played in a Canucks uniform mark. Former captain and current president Trevor Linden currently holds the record with 1140 games. A total that once seemed insurmountable is now within reach for the current captain.

With just a moderately healthy season, Henrik should be able to overtake the Canucks overlord, needing only 48 games to tie, and one more to seal the deal.

Game 49 takes place on January 23rd in Pittsburgh. If all goes according to plan, mark your calendars for a raucous celebration when the Canucks return to Rogers Arena three days later. Being the all-time franchise leader in games played is a hell of an accomplishment.

Target Date: January, 2016

Daniel Sedin – Record: 1141

Current: 1060 – Required: 81

Thanks to a broken foot back in 2009 – during Henrik’s most prolific scoring season – Daniel has always been behind Henrik in points and games played. You see, given their freakishly similar point rates, these two stats go hand in hand.

Like Henrik, Daniel has a chance to break Trevor Linden’s games played record. However, barring a significant injury to his brother, it is likely that Daniel finds the record has changed by the time he reaches it.

Target Date: April, 2016

Other Games Played Milestones

Player	Milestone	Current	Needs
Chris Higgins	700	678	22
Alex Edler	600	568	32
Brandon Sutter	500	495	5
Jannik Hansen	500	470	30
Brandon Prust	500	451	49

Penalty Minutes

Alex Burrows – Milestone: 1000 PIMs

Current: 964 – Required: 36

36 penalty minutes is all Alex Burrows needs to reach the impressive plateau of 1000. Back in the day, Burr could have knocked this out in a game – maybe two. He gathered many of these minutes not with just your typical infractions, but a myriad of misconducts. Fighting, biting, hair pulling – Burr could do it all. These days, the more calculated Burrows trolls with expertise, walking the fine line of right and wrong in order to get under the skin of the opponent.

Of course, it’s still Burrows, so 36 PIMs are easily going to manifest themselves somewhere.

Burrows is the Canucks active leader in penalty minutes, and so I’m sure this milestone will be a great honour to him. There are six players ahead of him on the Canucks all-time list, and it seems pretty unlikely that he’ll climb very far up that ladder. Gino Odjick owns the top spot with a mind-blowing 2127 penalty minutes, which he gathered in just 444 days. Of course, it helps if you’re willing to fight the entire other team at once.

Target Date: November, 2015

Other Penalty Minutes Milestones

Player	Milestone	Current	Needs
Brandon Prust	1000	977	23

More Records and Milestones

Daniel Sedin – Milestone: 3000 Shots

Current: 2811 – Required: 189

Daniel Sedin already owns the record for most shots taken in a Canuck uniform, so this is a just a neat number to hit. Only 87 players in the history of the NHL have hit the 3000 mark in shots on goal. Daniel has managed at least 200 per season in every full campaign since the full season lockout 10 years ago, so it should just be business as usual for him to join that club.

Target Date: February, 2016

All numbers are from NHL.com