We have officially hit the halfway mark of the Vancouver Canucks’ season, and to say it’s an entirely different feel from where this team was last year would be a massive understatement.
The current Canucks are in the midst of their longest losing streak of the season, losers of four straight as they go through the gauntlet of their schedule, playing six straight playoff teams. Before that, they faced off an easier part of their schedule, playing seven straight non-playoff teams. However, they only managed to muster up a 2-2-3 record over that span.
However, you can chalk a few of those losses up to not having two of their most important players – Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson – in the lineup. That’s not to mention that, at some point this season, their top three forwards, their Norris-trophy-winning defenceman and Vezina-trophy runner-up had all missed time.
Whether it’s where they sit in the standings, team stats, player performances or just the overall feel of the team, it’s been a struggle some seasons for the blue and green. So why don’t we put these numbers to the test and see just how drastic things have changed in just one season?
Record/Standings
2023/24: 27-11-3 record, 57 points, 14-4-1 home record, 13-7-2 road record, Pacific – 1st, Conference – 2nd, League – 2nd.2024/25: 18-13-10 record, 46 points, 7-8-6 home record, 11-5-4 road record, Pacific – 4th, Conference – 8th, League – 14th.
The record is a big difference, with nine fewer wins at this point from last season. However, only a nine-point difference. That’s the benefit of the loser point, considering the Canucks have over three times the amount of overtime losses they had at this point last year.
The road record remains similar, but if you’ve been following the club this season, you know how poorly the team has played on home ice. They had double the number of wins last year but have doubled the number of losses this season. If they want any chance to hold onto their playoff spot, they’ll have to figure out their home woes.
Speaking of playoffs, the fact that this team is still holding on to a playoff spot despite all of their troubles this season should give Canucks fans at least some hope. They’ve yet to ice their full-time roster. In what was such a healthy season for the Canucks last year, with most of their key players suiting up for 80+ games, this year has gone the opposite.
All five of their top point scorers last season (JT Miller, Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Filip Hronek) have all missed time at some point this season. Dakota Joshua, a big role player for this team, has missed time and is currently on his second stint out of the Canucks lineup. And let’s not forget Thatcher Demko, who has also missed a significant portion of the season while he battles to try and get back to game form.
So, all things considered, if they can stay afloat, as they have been, the club holds the destiny in their own hands.
Team Stats
2023/24: Goals For – 3.9 (1st), Goals Against – 2.59 (29th), Shots For – 28.3 (28th), Shots Against – 30.0 (19th), Power Play % – 23.1% (11th), Penalty Kill % – 77.5% (23rd).2024/25: Goals For – 2.93 (18th), Goals Against – 3.15 (21st), Shots For – 25.4 (31st), Shots Against – 27.4 (10th), Power Play % – 22.2% (14th), Penalty Kill % – 81% (13th).
In what was your ideal first half of the season in terms of goal-scoring and keeping the puck out of the net last year, it has regressed to the means this year. The Canucks ranked first in goals for and in the bottom five in goals against. However, this season, it’s been a struggle to find the same offence as last year, averaging nearly a goal less and over half a goal more against per game.
Now, that can be credited to the real lack of depth scoring they’ve been getting. Conor Garland has been great, but he’s been needed higher in the lineup, so the connection he and Joshua had on the third line hasn’t been there. Nils Höglander was a fourth line scoring machine, but this year has just four goals.
The power play and penalty kill are clicking at around the same pace as last season, but what is the real problem for this team is their shot share. The Canucks haven’t been a high-shot volume team under Rick Tocchet, but they had such a high shooting percentage last year that it was bound to regress. However, the way to limit that regression would be to increase the volume, but that has just not been the case this season.
Coming off their first 30-shot game in nearly a month, they followed that up with their lowest performance of the season, posting just 14 shots on goal against the Carolina Hurricanes. It’s tough to be a successful team offensively when you aren’t generating many shots on goal and scoring chances the other way.
But that’s just Tocchet’s system. They like to play low-event hockey. Is that the way to succeed in today’s NHL, however? It just seems like something’s got to change in Tocchet’s system to help the team generate more shots and scoring chances.
Player Stats
JT Miller2023/24: 41 games played, 19 goals, 36 assists, 55 points, plus-21, 22 power play points, 90 shots on goal.2024/25: 31 games played, 8 goals, 21 assists, 29 points, minus-4, 10 power play points, 63 shots on goal.
It’s hard to fault Miller too much for his dip in production. He missed 10 games after his leave of absence, but the dip is quite large. He’s scored less than half the goals he had last season and is on an 82-game pace of 77 points, which is 26 points fewer than the 103 points he finished with the previous season.
There’s been a lot of things going against Miller this season, not just his leave. This season, he has spent time without his regular lineup, Boeser, and has had to deal with all the noise surrounding him and Pettersson. However, it is only half the season, so a strong second half from Miller can completely turn his season around.
Elias Pettersson2023/24: 41 games played, 20 goals, 33 assists, 53 points, plus-17, 18 power play points, 113 shots on goal.2024/25: 35 games played, 10 goals, 18 assists, 28 points, minus-4, 9 power play points, 67 shots on goal.
Pettersson has missed just six games this season but hasn’t fully played up to the big extension he signed in the offseason. He has half the goals, half the points, and half the power play points as he had last season, with a massive 21 plus/minus swing from where he was last season.
During the offseason, the club’s main focus was to find himself a top-six scoring winger. And they did that with Jake DeBrusk. However, the two didn’t fully find chemistry until a 15-game stretch in November/December, where he scored 21 points. He’s proven this season he can be that $11.6 million player that earned him that hefty contract. He’s on an 82-game pace for a 66-point season, which would tie his lowest since his rookie and sophomore season.
Brock Boeser2023/24: 41 games played, 25 goals, 19 assists, 44 points, plus-20, 12 power play points, 113 shots on goal.2024/25: 34 games played, 14 goals, 12 assists, 26 points, minus-8, 10 power play points, 65 shots on goal.
It hasn’t exactly been the contract year production Boeser was hoping for coming into the season, but injuries have played a factor. He and Miller have missed time, resulting in Boeser having to play with new linemates, but you would have hoped for more for the former 40-goal scorer.
Boeser is on an 82-game pace to score 34 goals and 63 points, which would still be his second-highest goal and point totals of his career. However, if the Canucks are going to commit long-term to him, they’re going to need to see more production. Also, his shot totals are surprisingly low for a sniper. That’s his bread and butter. He’s got the shot, but he’ll need to use it more if he wants to cash in this summer.
Conor Garland2023/24: 41 games played, 5 goals, 15 assists, 20 points, plus-12, 1 power play point, 89 shots on goal.2024/25: 41 games played, 11 goals, 19 assists, 30 points, minus-4, 10 power play points, 92 shots on goal.
Garland is the only one of this group that has actually outproduced his totals from last season. Garland has more goals, assists, points, power play points and shots on goal than last season. It’s safe to say he has probably been the best and most consistent forward this season.
Now, a lot of this has to do with his deployment. He’s now getting opportunities in the top six, playing with either Miller or Pettersson and earning himself a spot on the team’s top power play unit. Do we miss the third line production from Garland a little bit more? Absolutely, but can’t really fault him after the season he’s having. Garland is on an 82-game pace for 22 goals and 60 points, which would tie his career high in goals and beat his points by four.
Quinn Hughes2023/24: 41 games played, 11 goals, 40 assists, 51 points, plus-32, 19 power play points, 100 shots on goal.2024/25: 37 games played, 8 goals, 37 assists, 45 points, plus-12, 18 power play points, 113 shots on goal.
There’s not much to say about Hughes. He’s the straw that stirs the drink for this team. We’ve seen what it looks like to have him out of the lineup, and it’s just uninspiring at best. It didn’t look possible, but Hughes might even be having a better season than his Norris-trophy-winning season last year.
Hughes is on an 82-game pace of 18 goals and 100 points, which would be the first 100-point defenceman since Erik Karlsson in 2022-23. The Canucks captain has also seen an uptick in shots on goal; despite missing four games, he has 13 more shots to this point of the season than he had last year. If he can help lead his team to the playoffs, he should seriously draw Hart Trophy consideration.
Thatcher Demko2023/24: 29 games played, 20 wins, 8 losses, 1 overtime loss, three shutouts, 2.54 goals against average, .916% save percentage.2024/25: 8 games played, 2 wins, 2 losses, 3 overtime losses, 0 shutouts, 3.17 goals against average, .883% save percentage.
Now, it’s tough to really criticize Demko for his play this season. He has been battling back from his Popliteus injury and missed a few games due to back spasms. However, the numbers are vastly different, given the smaller sample size.
He has just two wins on the season and has averaged more than 0.6 goals against per game, with a dip of 0.33 to his save percentage. Nobody really should have expected Demko to return to form after having to find a completely new way of playing with his annoyance in his knee. Plus, the defence corps in front of him hasn’t helped him much, either. But thankfully, Kevin Lankinen has helped smooth the waters for the Canucks.
Overall feel
We touched on this at the top, but it’s just a completely different feel for this team in the 2024-25 season than where we were at 2023-24. But here is why that’s okay.
Coming into last year, the Canucks were playoff hopefuls. The team hadn’t made the playoffs since the 2020 bubble season; before that was 2015. Their blistering start was so exciting for this market. And it was encouraging to have them turn it into some playoff success and a Game 7 second-round exit.
However, success comes with expectations.
Imagine we flip the seasons. If the Canucks were having struggles offensively while having their top players all miss time but were still managing to hold onto a playoff spot last season, everybody would be excited. But now that it’s coming after such an improved season, the feel of this team is that they just don’t have it this year, which can be true. But at least we’ve seen them do it. And who really knows what the 2024-25 Canucks will look like when they’re fully healthy?
Now, we would be remiss if we didn’t bring up the team defence. That has been the massive struggle point of the year.
It’s a problem. There are no two ways about it. The guys they chose to replace their departures have just not been enough. This would have been fine had Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers regained last year’s form, but that hasn’t been the case either.
Can adding a top-four defenceman at this stage of the season help turn the year around? Perhaps. They’ve got half the season left. But it’s still going to take a few games for said defenceman to get acclimated to the new system and team.
While the team currently controls their own destiny in the last playoff spot, they’re going to need to make some adjustments to try and turn their season around and build off last season’s success.
What do you think, Canucks fans? What’s your overall feel for the team after comparing last year’s stats to this season?
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