The offseason is officially upon us. Last season, the Vancouver Canucks played until the May long weekend. This time around, they didn’t even make it to Easter. It means we will all have a little too much time on our hands for the next four and a half months.
FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS? Hopefully, the Monday mailbag will help you pass a few of those idle moments. Obviously, people’s attention is turning to what’s ahead. And there is no question management has plenty on its plate to get this team back into the post-season. We will continue to field you queries over the weeks and months to come. The mailbag may get scaled back at some point over the summer, but until then, if you continue to submit questions, we’ll do our best each week to answer them. So let’s jump right in.
There are plenty of former Canucks vying for the Stanley Cup: Travis Green, Nolan Baumgartner, Mike Yeo, Adam Gaudette, Matthew Highmore and Travis Hamonic in Ottawa. Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson in Toronto. Jacob Markstrom, Curtis Lazar, Justin Dowling, and Daniel Sprong in New Jersey. Jalen Chatfield and Riley Stillman in Carolina. Nic Dowd, Anthony Beauvillier, and Ethan Bear in Washington. Nate Schmidt and Jonah Gadjovich in Florida.
Luke Schenn in Winnipeg. Casey DeSmtih in Dallas. Andrei Kuzmenko and Kyle Burroughs in Los Angeles. Tanner Pearson and Ben Hutton in Vegas. Jimmy Vesey in Colorado. Troy Stecher and Vasily Podkolzin in Edmonton. If I’ve done my homework, Tampa, Montreal, St. Louis and Minnesota are the only teams without former Canucks on their playoff playing rosters.
I still think Tom Willander will sign with the Canucks and be with the team at training camp. Clearly this saga has taken a few twists and turns since Willander’s college season ended. But I still think the two sides will find a way to bridge whatever gaps have arisen in contract talks.
I will say this is one of the topics I’m most anticipating Patrik Allvin to address at his year-end media availability on Monday morning. At that point, I hope we’ll all have a better sense of where things stand and where they’re headed with the team’s 2023 first rounder.
Based on Rick Tocchet’s comments on Friday, it certainly sounds like he’s open to change. Of course, it’s still possible that Tocchet himself is the change. However, if Tocchet returns then his review of Sergei Gonchar’s part time arrangement didn’t sound like it was likely to continue. Now perhaps Gonchar will be offered a full time position. Or maybe the club will have to look elsewhere for more help. But after a disappointing season like this one, it feels like there ought to be a new voice or two introduced to the mix.
I don’t think ownership gets a pass at all. Certainly not in the circles I travel. There is plenty of blame for a lost season like this one and ownership can’t escape the finger pointing. I heard and saw plenty of pushback to the announced ticket price increases. Fans deserve far more for their hard-earned money than 17 home wins in 41 games.
The owners here have always been willing to spend to the cap and for that they should be commended. But the ongoing practice facility saga is an ownership issue as is the team’s track record over the past decade. We used to hear from ownership in a letter to season ticket members and on social media. That communication seems to have ceased. Now fans are just expected to buck up without any indication of what the owners are thinking or feeling.
I’d imagine they can’t be thrilled with the sunk season that didn’t yield playoff home dates. But I don’t know that for sure because no one ever hears from ownership directly any more. As for the second part of the question, it didn’t sound like a season fraught with direct ownership interference. But standing pat and holding on to pending free agents at the trade deadline doesn’t look good on anyone and if that was done with an eye to a playoff push, then it’s fair to ask what role the owners had in that decision.
This year’s Masterton nominee gets a degree of grace for the hurdles he had to clear just to play this season. But Joshua, himself, wasn’t looking for any kind of free pass. Although he showed some signs of his former self down the stretch, he needs to put this season in the past and come back better than ever.
He’s one of the team’s biggest forwards and the Canucks need him to use his size effectively. He’s an affable guy, but sometimes seems to play the game that way, too. I’d like to see him develop a little more snarl. With 18 goals in 63 games to earn a new contract last summer, he showed he can be a 20-goal guy at this level. But so much of it starts with consistency.
Guys like Kiefer Sherwood and Conor Garland bring the same effort level every night. Joshua needs to find a way to raise his baseline so that his quiet games are louder and his loud games allow him to be a difference maker. He certainly has more to give and with a clean bill of health and full summer to train, hopefully Dakota Joshua returns to the form he displayed for much of the previous season.
No scoops at all here. I haven’t heard a thing about uniforms or logos. I think the franchise likes the base colours of blue, green, and white. But I also think the organization has listened to the fans and served up a steady diet of the black skate jersey. I am not expecting that to change in the near future. I just don’t want to see any more of that Canucks/Grizzlies mashup. Whoever came up with that monstrosity should be repositioned in the organization.
I’m ready for a summer of patio beers after a round of golf – maybe the best beer there is. But if we’re talking true cocktails, then pour me an Old Fashioned and I’ll be happy.

PRESENTED BY WHISTLER GOLF CLUB

This article is a presentation of the Arnold Palmer designed Whistler Golf Club.  Spring preparations are underway with opening day on May 9th.  Whistler Golf Club is now accepting online bookings for the entire 2025 season, so no need to wait to get those times locked in.  If you have a group of 12 or more, get those times on hold now as prime times are filling up fast.  For more information, head to https://www.whistlergolf.com/