The top 25 Vancouver Canucks stories of the year 2022
1 year ago
Yesterday, we listed in detail the top 25 Vancouver Canucks headlines from the year 2022. Today, we’re going to go over the top 25. Let’s start at number 25.
25. “11 assets the New York Rangers can offer the Vancouver Canucks in a trade for JT Miller” by Stephan Roget on January 19th, 2022
If only.
Last winter, trade rumours were rampant surrounding JT Miller, and the New York Rangers were believed to be in the mix. Our ideas included Braden Schneider, Nils Lundkvist, Filip Chytil, Brennan Othmann, Vitali Kravtsov, and others.
Unbeknownst to us at the time, but we wrote this very close to when the Rangers would end up offering the Canucks a package believed to have contained Lndkvist, Chytil, and a first round pick… but more on that story later.
24. “‘I miss him terribly’: Canucks’ Bruce Boudreau provides an update on assistant coach Scott Walker” by David Quadrelli on March 8th, 2022
Scott Walker’s departure from the Canucks’ bench after taking a puck to the head wasn’t talked about much, but Bruce Boudreau opened up about what Walker was dealing with and how much he missed his friend behind the bench.
Walker, 48, was hired by the Canucks in December when the organization cleaned house and was put in charge of the club’s penalty kill. He left the club this past offseason.
23. “Report: Canucks are in on Ethan Bear; ‘vultures are out’ trying to get their young players” by David Quadrelli on October 26th, 2022
Ethan Bear had been tied to the Canucks in trade rumours since the summer, but when the season began and Bear couldn’t get into Carolina’s lineup, the trade talks picked up again.
One guy who was right on top of the Bear situation was Rick Dhaliwal, and that’s who this report came from.
“There’s a rumour going around that Ethan Bear is close to being traded. The Carolina defenceman can’t get into Rod Brind’Amour’s lineup. I believe the Canucks are still trying to acquire Bear. He falls into that category of 26 and younger right-shot D, the Canucks like this player,” Dhaliwal said.
And obviously, he was bang on.
22. “Canucks forward Elias Pettersson reacts to the Canucks selecting Elias Pettersson” by David Quadrelli on July 8th, 2022
This story was so delightful to write, and you just knew there would be fun stories like this the second the Canucks selected Elias Pettersson — known as D-Petey on this site — in the third round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
And the older Elias Pettersson wasted little time in giving us a couple of gems — the best of which we think was when Pettersson simply posted the Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme on his Instagram story.
21. “B.C. born Bowen Byram linked to Vancouver Canucks in potential trade” by Zach Laing on March 4th, 2022
Put this in the “this would have been nice!” file as well. This wasn’t a massive story or report or anything, but when Thomas Drance and Rick Dhaliwal said this in a report, you knew this market would go wild for it.
“One name sure to interest our Vancouver audience that we were surprised to hear linked to the Canucks by one of our contacts this week, in conjunction with Colorado’s interest in Miller: Bowen Byram.”
20. “A day after the Oilers took him to JOEY and gifted him a signed Wayne Gretzky jersey, Andrei Kuzmenko is in Vancouver to meet with the Canucks” by David Quadrelli on June 16th, 2022
You just knew this was a done deal once Kuzmenko left Edmonton and immediately arrived in Vancouver to be wined and dined by the Canucks.
Shortly after this report, Kuzmenko announced he was signing in Vancouver.
19. “7 predictions for the Vancouver Canucks’ offseason” by David Quadrelli on May 17th, 2022
Yeah, I couldn’t have been more wrong about some of these predictions. In this article, I predicted Bo Horvat would be re-signed, Miller would be traded, and the Canucks would trade away the 15th overall pick.
Instead, well, you know what happened instead. The only thing I got right out of the seven was that the Canucks would navigate Boeser’s tricky qualifying offer by extending him for three years. NAILED IT!
18. “Jaroslav Halak appears upset by Boudreau’s call to put him in for third period against Flames” by Mike Gould on March 20th, 2022
The Canucks’ final stretch run of the season was interesting, to say the least. It became clear to everyone that the team wasn’t going to make the playoffs, and there were enough little side drama pieces to talk about, cause of course there were.
One of those little pieces of drama was when cameras caught Jaroslav Halak appearing to be upset by the fact Bruce Boudreau was putting him in to relieve Thatcher Demko in the third period of a blowout loss to the Calgary Flames.
“I would bet that [Halak] thinks that he’s playing tomorrow against Buffalo, and he hasn’t played in a long time,” Sportsnet analyst Elliotte Friedman said during the telecast at the time. “He’s probably thinking, ‘well, if I’m going in for the third period, I’m not playing against Buffalo tomorrow.’”
Halak didn’t seem to love his time in Vancouver, to say the least.
17. “Report: Coyotes have called the Canucks offering to take on bad contracts” by Mike Gould on June 8th, 2022
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, strike three.
After swindling the Canucks’ last management regime into giving up future assets in order to take on Conor Garland and the Oliver Ekman-Larsson contract so that they could “win-now”, the Coyotes were reportedly up to their same old tricks with this new management regime. Only this time, the Canucks didn’t bite, and ended up drafting in the first round.
16. “Trying to piece together the reported Canucks-Islanders trade that fell apart at the 2022 Draft” by Lachlan Irvine on July 10th, 2022
It was the trade that never was, and to this day, nobody seems to really know the full story of what went down between the New York Islanders and Vancouver Canucks on day one of the draft in Montreal. Not publicly, anyway.
All we know for now is that Elliotte Friedman reported that there was some sort of deal between the Islanders and Canucks brewing. Shortly after, the trade was apparently called off, with the Islanders instead acquiring Alex Romanov from the Montreal Canadiens instead.
It was an interesting story to follow along with, and maybe one day all of it will come out.
15. “Contents of Rangers’ pre-Trade Deadline offer for Canucks forward J.T. Miller revealed” by David Quadrelli on May 24th, 2022
You knew we’d be bringing this one up, because you were probably one of the thousands of people who read this story enough to land it at 15th on our list.
We alluded to it above, as this story was one that became public thanks to Satiar Shah and will be referenced for a long, long time, we’re sure.
You’ve heard it before, but in case you haven’t here’s what Sat reported the Rangers offered the Canucks prior to the 2022 trade deadline:
“So from what we can gather, it was essentially, Nils Lundkvist, a first-round pick, and Filip Chytil. Now there was some talk about Kravstov, this and that, but it’s very evident — whether these pieces were all together or not — that the Rangers were not offering Braden Schneider.”
Oh, what could have been.
14. “Canucks confirm analyst Rachel Doerrie’s departure, but questions remain” by David Quadrelli on September 30th, 2022
Prior to the season, there were whispers that Rachel Doerrie and the Canucks had parted ways, but neither side wanted to comment on the rumours initially. The Canucks eventually confirmed the departure, but there weren’t many details.
This article pieced together all the available information in one place, and people were clearly curious to know what was going on there.
13. “Projected 2nd overall pick Slafkovsky says the Canucks interviewed him and asked if he could play centre” by David Quadrelli on June 3rd, 2022
There were those that wondered if the Canucks may be interested in moving up in the draft, and when reports surfaced that the Canucks asked Juraj Slafkovsky — who ended up going first overall — if he could play centre, folks were intrigued.
Turns out it was what we suspected in the article — a team doing their due diligence because anything can happen on draft day.
12. “Coyotes claim Valimaki, Adam Gaudette and other former Canucks hit waivers, Wolanin and Dries clear: Around the League” by David Quadrelli on October 9th, 2022
The Around the League series has been popular with the readers at CanucksArmy, so it’s no surprise that one about multiple former Canucks hitting waivers was the 12th most-read article this year!
People seem to love to keep track of what the players they once watched are up to now.
11. “Two intriguing defence options for the Vancouver Canucks just hit the waiver wire” by Noah Strang on October 7th, 2022
We were right on top of it when Jonathan Kovacevic and Dimitri Samorukov hit waivers. Kovacevic was certainly the most intriguing option for the Canucks, but he ended up getting claimed by the Montreal Canadiens, who were first on the NHL waiver list at the time.
10. “‘He’d be captain on most teams’: Flames coach Darryl Sutter has high praise for Canucks defenceman Luke Schenn” by David Quadrelli on December 14th, 2022
This was a recent one, and it was somewhat unexpected but well-warranted praise for Luke Schenn from Flames head coach Darryl Sutter when he was asked what he likes about the Canucks.
“It’s pretty obvious,” said Sutter. “They’ve got at least five guys, at random, on pace for what, 35-to-50 goals? That’s…I don’t know if I like that…and then I guess, what else? Luke. I like Luke Schenn a lot. I coached him in LA. He’s a top guy. He’d be captain on most teams. I like that.”
9. “Canucks place Wolanin on waivers; plus how the Juuso Valimaki waiver sweepstakes will work” by David Quadrelli on October 8th, 2022
Christian Wolanin cleared waivers, and has played very well in Abbotsford this season. This article came after some good preseason play from Wolanin, and as everyone around the league began talking about Juuso Valimaki hitting the waiver wire.
8. “The Jack Eichel situation is another slap in the face for the Vancouver Canucks” by Noah Strang on February 16th, 2022
Noah wrote a passionate op-ed about the LTIR loophole that teams around the league exploit. More specifically, he wrote about the situation with Jack Eichel last season, when the Golden Knights placed Mark Stone on LTIR so they could fit Eichel’s cap hit in.
It was all for naught though, as the Golden Knights failed to qualify for the playoffs last season.
7. “The Stanchies: Delia’s big night, Bogilny’s pair of goals, and the Connor McDavid tantrum” by Wyatt Arndt on December 24th, 2022
Just in time for the year ending, Wyatt brought the heat in the wee hours of Christmas Eve and detailed Connor McDavid’s tantrum last Friday, along with Collin Delia turning in a solid effort.
It was a great edition of The Stanchies, and it’s still somewhat relevant, so you can read it here if you so please!
6. “The Stanchies: JT Miller calls Canucks “immature” in 5-1 loss to the Florida Panthers” by Wyatt Arndt on December 2nd, 2022
Look at Wyatt go! It’s funny that a couple of his Stanchies take the 6 and 7 spot, because the 26-50 spots were almost all Stanchies written by Wyatt.
This one, in which JT Miller fired from the hip to begin the month of December, was the most read Stanchies of the year.
5. “Canucks President Jim Rutherford on trade plans, shaking things up, and Elias Pettersson’s struggles” by Lachlan Irvine on January 2nd, 2022
We wrote about the top five in depth yesterday, and you can read that full article by clicking here as we get to the final five!
4. “Report: San Jose Sharks terminate Evander Kane’s contract after travelling to Vancouver while COVID-19 positive” by Zach Laing on January 8th, 20223. “The Arizona Coyotes are out of control and it’s time for the NHL to take action” by Noah Strang on May 22nd, 20222. “Tampa Bay Lightning announcer calls Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau a “moron” live on air” by David Quadrelli on March 14th, 20221. “Report: Multiple Canucks players say dressing room atmosphere “a breath of fresh air” without Hamonic” by Mike Gould on March 23, 2022
Thanks for reading CanucksArmy folks! Here’s to a great 2023!
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