Tomorrow is April Fool’s Day, but the weekly Monday mailbag is no joke. We take this assignment seriously. Vancouver Canucks fans have plenty of questions about this hockey club and we do our best each week to answer an assortment of them. Friday’s crazy 7-6 shootout loss in Columbus left many in the fan base with more questions than answers. Sunday’s 3-1 loss in Winnipeg wasn’t nearly as entertaining or unpredictable. With eight games remaining in the regular season, the attention of many is now turning to the offseason and how the Canucks will approach roster construction for the 2025-26 season. Before they can cross that bridge, however, they need to finish up this season’s schedule. And we need to get down to the business of answering those questions from our loyal readers.
There have been three ‘epic’ collapses for the Canucks this season. Opening night against Calgary when they built leads of 3-0 and 4-1 and lost 6-5 in overtime. On December 28th, they let a 4-1 lead slip away with less than five minutes to play and lost 5-4 in overtime. And on Friday leads of 3-0 in the first period and 5-3 in the third went by the wayside in a 7-6 shootout loss in Columbus. What’s amazing about those three games is that three different goalies were on the hook. Silovs against the Flames, Demko versus the Kraken and Lankinen against CBJ. The obvious through line is that the team needed a few more saves along the way.
Beyond that, the Canucks were soft in coverage and abandoned Rick Tocchet’s defensive staples. Anytime sizeable leads get away there is a composure factor at play, as well. You’d like to believe the Canucks had the veterans required to lock down those leads, but clearly they got spooked. There were other games that stand out, as well, like a 2-0 third period lead in Utah before Christmas that ended in a 3-2 overtime setback and a 3-1 lead midway through a January game in Montreal that resulted in a 5-4 overtime loss. Those are all massive points that the team flushed – points that would have served them well in the chase for a wild card spot.
It’s hard to know what ownership thinks about anything these days. We never hear from anyone in the ownership group anymore. We used to get occasional social posts, but those have disappeared. President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford is 76 now and he was brought in to build the club into a championship contender. I can’t imagine he wants to let too many years go by without playoff hockey.
So I think there will be internal pressure to get things headed in the right direction as soon as possible. But the Canucks also have to be realists. They need to figure out a way to bolster this roster with elite offensive talent. The short-term goal should be to get back into the playoffs next year and the longer range plan has to be to get Quinn Hughes extended at all costs and then try to build around him over the years that follow. 
Beyond Tom Willander, whose Boston University team is headed to the Frozen Four April 10th to 12th in St. Louis, it’s been awfully quiet on the college watch for the Canucks this spring. That doesn’t mean they won’t add to their stable from the NCAA ranks, but they haven’t been linked to any players in particular. The team has five open contract slots, so there is some flexibility to get some business done. But as other teams lay claim to the cream of this year’s college free agent crop, any player the Canucks sign at this point would seem like a depth piece at best. 
I’m saying Anaheim. The Ducks have a core of talented young defenders that they are building around and Mason McTavish is already a 20-goal and 45-point handful at the age of 22. He leads the Ducks with six power play goals and it feels like he is merely scratching the surface of what he’s capable of. The Canucks could certainly use a player of McTavish’s stature, but those types of prospects are usually only found at the top of the draft – and that’s exactly where Anaheim landed McTavish with the third overall pick in 2021. I don’t see the Ducks interested in moving him and if they did, they’d surely hold an auction to see just how high teams around the league were willing to go with their bidding.
All aboard the A-Train! Abbotsford ran it AHL win streak to nine over the weekend with a sweep of games in San Jose. It’s a remarkable story given the fact that five of the farm team’s top scorers are up with the big club. So credit to the remaining players and to first year head coach Manny Malhotra for finding ways to keep that streak alive.
As for systems, it sounds like the big league team and the minor league squad are aligned in the way they approach games to help ease the transition when players get recalled. Most of the call-ups are forwards right now and that’s allowed Abbotsford to ice a solid defence corps with the likes of Christian Wolanin, Jett Woo, Akito Hirose, Cole McWard, and Guillaume Brisebois. So that core has been intact through this current streak. And behind that blueline, Nikita Tolopilo has found his groove in net allowing just five goals in his last four starts.
Well, pretty clearly the Canucks would win. Okay that was too easy. There are a lot of conditions at play here, so I’m going to add one of my own and that is that all of the NHL Canucks players are healthy for this hypothetical showdown. If that’s the case, I’m guessing Vancouver would beat Abbotsford. I’ll take the team that has Thatcher Demko, Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, centre Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk, Pius Suter and the rest of the crew. The guys from Abbotsford have done a terrific job in both the AHL and NHL this season, but I’m siding with the big leaguers. And now I kind of want to see this game happen.
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