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Flashback: Remembering the 2016-17 Canucks and the last time a season truly slipped away
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Photo credit: © Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
Jeff Paterson
Apr 8, 2026, 14:26 EDT
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In all my years covering the Vancouver Canucks, I didn’t think I’d see darker days than the final few weeks of the 2016-17 season.
As a refresher, that version of the hockey club won just two of its final 17 games in what — at the time — seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime death spiral. After a 4-2 victory in Minnesota in Brock Boeser’s NHL debut, the club proceeded to lose its final eight games of the season, scoring a grand total of 11 goals along the way.
One look at the lineup from the final night of that season still produces an involuntary recoil all these years. For starters, the Canucks went with the remarkably odd 10 forwards and eight defencemen configuration for a 5-2 loss in Edmonton. Beyond that, the forward group consisted of Boeser, Daniel, and Henrik Sedin, Bo Horvat and Brandon Sutter. It also included Michael Chaput, who trailed only Sutter and Horvat in ice time among forwards that night, Jayson Megna, Reid Boucher and Nikolay Goldobin. The other forward was Drew Shore, who signed with the Canucks after his Swiss league season ended, and suited up for 14 meaningless games down the stretch. Shore played just four NHL games after that, signing with the Carolina Hurricanes the following season before calling it a career.
If the forward group for the final game of that 2016-17 season was an eclectic bunch, the defence corps left plenty to be desired as well. Familiar names Alex Edler and Chris Tanev were front and centre. Ben Hutton and Troy Stetcher were both trying to establish themselves as everyday NHLers. Luca Sbisa and Alex Biega both played regular shifts that night. And Nikita Tryamkin and Philip Larsen rounded out the octet. In fact, Tryamkin scored the last one of his three NHL goals that night, and Larsen is still playing professionally in Denmark at the age of 36. That night was the final NHL game for both of them.
To put a bow on the dismal month of hockey, poor Richard Bachman faced 44 shots in the Canucks net and surrendered five goals. The scratches for the Canucks that night included: Jack Skille, Griffen Molino, Joseph Cramarossa and Yan-Pavel LaPlante. 
Over the course of that 17-game stretch, the Canucks were shutout three times and held to one goal on six other occasions. A 5-2 loss to McDavid, Draisaitl, and the playoff-bound Oilers was actually a solid performance at the end of a lost season.
Fast-forward nine years, and the current version of the Canucks is giving that 2016-17 team a run for its money. Following Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, these Canucks have lost three in a row and have one win in their last 10. Beyond that, however, this group has just four victories in 23 games since January 31st (4-16-3).
As dire as the situation was nearly a decade ago, Willie Desjardins still managed to guide that group to 30 wins and 69 points (30-43-9). 
With five games still to go on the schedule starting Thursday in Los Angeles, it remains to be seen what the final tally will be for this season. But with a record of 22-47-8, this much is clear – the 2025-26 Vancouver Canucks won’t come close to touching that 2016-17 team. And that’s pretty remarkable given how the final month of the season slipped away back then.
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