Happy New Year mailbaggers! We put out the call for the first CanucksArmy Monday mailbag of 2025 and you responded. We don’t profess to have all the answers to the many questions surrounding this hockey club these days, but we will do our best to answer some of the questions on your mind and submitted via social media this week.
I think it’s twofold. I believe management would love to see what this team looks like when all of its stars are healthy and in the line-up together. However, that may simply be a pipe dream at this point. There is no guarantee that as injured players return to the line-up others won’t be sidelined with new injuries. That’s simply a fact of life in a contact sport like hockey. The other reason is that this front office has diligently accrued cap space all season to maximize its ability to take a big swing nearer the trade deadline. Acting now – while perhaps necessary – won’t allow them to land as significant a piece as they would closer to the trade deadline due to cap constraints.
I’d advise them to flip that switch right about now. This five game road trip offers stiff challenges across the board. And even when they come off the road, they will see division mates in Los Angeles and Edmonton. The 10 game stretch between now and January 25th absolutely feels like crunch time. Eight of their next 10 opponents currently sit in the top 11 in the NHL standings. That’s a tall order for these Canucks. Can they grind out 10 points from these next 10 games? That would feel like a smashing success.
Last season, just about everything went right for the Canucks. This season has been the polar opposite. So what if the truth about this team lies somewhere in the middle? If that’s the case, what are the Canucks? They’re an organization with one of the top six or seven players in the league in Quinn Hughes and beyond that a team with a number of question marks. Without Hughes (and to a lesser degree Elias Pettersson) of late, they have looked an awful lot like many of the teams Travis Green had to work with. And we know those squads weren’t good enough.
It’s not enough to say the Canucks have a bunch of All Stars. They did last season when those players played like All Stars and deserved the honour of representing the organization in the league’s mid-season showcase. Outside of Hughes, none of those All Stars – the coach included – has been able to get anywhere close to the level they were at last season. The reasons for it are varied and well-documented, but the bottom line is this team can’t gain traction until its best players all elevate their games. And that hasn’t happened nearly enough so far this season.
This is a good question. The owner has been remarkably quiet through the many twists and turns this season has offered up. We used to hear from him on social media. That hasn’t happened for a while now. But he hasn’t been seen much around the rink either. That’s not to say he’s not around the front office, but he has managed to keep a low profile this season. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Let the hockey people run the hockey club and see if they can’t get this all sorted out. The current state of the Canucks can’t be sitting well with ownership, but we don’t know that for sure since we don’t hear from the Aquilinis except on the rarest of occasions.
I have to admit I would be all for a parallel universe where Patrik Allvin pulls off one of the greatest heists in hockey history by pulling off an Elias Pettersson switcheroo. I think someone at NHL Central Registry would get to the bottom of it all, but it would be fun to see the Canucks give it a whirl. 
Brian Burke only had to land one brother, you’re asking the Canucks to go out and get two others. So first things first, the chore is twice as difficult. Beyond that, New Jersey seems pretty happy with both Jack and Luke. If there is a scenario that sees the brothers united on one team, sorry to say it’s likely that Quinn leaves in free agency. But this is not to suggest that will happen. I truly believe Quinn wants to win in Vancouver. That’s why it’s so important that the club find a way to maximize the remaining years of his value contract. I just don’t see the brothers suiting up in Vancouver at any stage of their careers. But I could be wrong. I am told I am wrong all the time.
Why is that a grenade? Ultimately, I think the reduced media that covers this team hurts the fans – especially when the team is on the road. It means fewer people there to ask questions of the coach and players. It means fewer storylines are explored and fewer stories are written by a smaller number of journalists. The interest in this team is always high. That’s just the nature of the market. As for the club’s PR situation, nothing helps that more than wins. That is simply the bottom line.
If top players are playing like top players and the team is winning more than it’s losing, it’s amazing how the storylines will reflect that. If the Canucks don’t believe that, they ought to test the theory and see what happens. Also, it’s important to note the reduced level of media covering the team means far fewer requests for individual players. Some top level players will go a week between media requests. That certainly didn’t happen during the team’s 2011 hey day and it pours cold water on the theory that too much is demanded of players in a Canadian market.
This topic was discussed in the press box at the last home game. Do the Canucks miss the veteran leadership of a player like Ian Cole on and off the ice? Yeah, quite likely. Oh, and with 11 assists this season in Utah, Cole just happens to have more points than any Canuck defender not named Quinn Hughes. And Nikita Zadorov may not have a Stanley Cup ring, but he brought swagger to this group that feels like it’s in short supply these days. With his big frame and bigger personality, he also commanded a lot of attention in that locker room. The Canucks brought in a number of veterans this off-season: Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen, Derek Forbort, Kevin Lankinen, so I’m not so sure it’s a lack of veterans that is the issue. It’s more about the kinds of players that may be missing from that locker room that could help keep everyone grounded and on the same page.
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