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Canucks summer face off: Which is more likely – DeBrusk 30 goals or O’Connor 20 goals?
Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Aug 20, 2026, 16:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 20, 2026, 15:52 EDT
For the third straight year, we are conducting a late-summer thought exercise. Over the next week, we will present a pair of options and ask you which is more likely to occur this coming season. Without the benefit of a crystal ball, of course, it’s impossible to know how things will go. So we will present cases for both scenarios, and we’re looking for your gut reaction to which one is more likely to happen by the end of the upcoming Vancouver Canucks season.
Which is more likely: Jake DeBrusk scores 30 goals, or Drew O’Connor scores 20 goals?
Jake DeBrusk
If everything comes together, the idea of Jake DeBrusk scoring 30 goals in a National Hockey League season isn’t out of the realm of possibility. He scored a career-best 28 just two seasons ago before taking a step back to 23 on a last place last season. Four times in his career, the 29-year-old has reached the 25-goal plateau. So getting over the 30-goal hump certainly feels like something that could happen. But this season? On this team? That’s a different set of circumstances entirely. While he will likely be the team’s top left winger and be a featured part of the club’s top power play unit, a lot would still have to go DeBrusk’s way to get to 30 goals. He’d need to continue to be a power play ace (league-wide, only Wyatt Johnston and Pavel Dorofeyev scored more than DeBrusk’s 19 goals with the man-advantage last season). In the past two seasons, the Edmonton native has notched 14 and 19 power play goals and probably needs to be somewhere in that range again to contribute significantly in his quest for 30 goals. Of course, he’ll need considerably more than the four even-strength goals he scuffled to score last season to reach the new benchmark. On top of it all, DeBrusk’s future in Vancouver remains in flux. Will he play the full season in Canucks colours? Or will he get his wish and be moved to a playoff-bound team? If the trade winds blow, that will almost surely limit the streaky scorer’s chances of getting to 30 goals in Vancouver this season.
Drew O’Connor
Does anyone have Drew O’Connor pencilled in to score 20 goals for the Canucks this season? It would best his career-high set last season by three goals. O’Connor rode the wave of a career-best 12.5% shooting percentage, too, last season. So he got some bounces. But in 2023-24, O’Connor scored 16 goals on 160 shots (10% shooting). If he’d converted at last season’s pace, he would have scored 20 goals on those 160 shots. So he’s been on the radar as a 20-goal scorer at the NHL level. Last season, he fired 136 shots on goal. He probably needs to bump that total much closer to the 160 shot mark. It should be noted that none of O’Connor’s 17 goals last season came on the power play. A little second power play unit time could aid O’Connor’s bid for a 20-goal season. There’s also the question of where the Chatham, NJ native will slot in the lineup and who he will play with. Those will both be huge factors in his goal-scoring prowess. There’s also a question about his long-term future with the hockey club. On an expiring contract, O’Connor could quite likely prove to be trade bait at the deadline. Like Jake DeBrusk, if O’Connor is dealt, then he in all likelihood isn’t getting to 20 goals in Vancouver this season.
Which is more likely to happen?
The trade speculation looms heavily in this discussion. On the surface, Jake DeBrusk scoring 30 goals wouldn’t be a shock. It may surprise some, but based on his goal-scoring history, reaching 30 isn’t out of the question. But a lot would have to go right for him to get there. However, based on the opportunities he’ll have at the top of the lineup as long as he’s here, DeBrusk is going to be looked to as one of the team’s go-to guys in the goal-scoring department.
On the other hand, Drew O’Connor is a bit of a wild card based on his spot on the depth chart and how Manny Malhotra uses him. It’s a contract year, and that should serve as motivation. But if O’Connor is used as a third liner and penalty killer, his goal total will likely be in the 14 to 17 range as it has been in two of the past three seasons.
Verdict
Expecting Jake DeBrusk to get traded at some point, I’m going to say Drew O’Connor scoring 20 goals as a Canuck next season is the more likely of these two scenarios. There is a world in which O’Connor is extended by the Canucks and plays not only this entire season, but the next couple of years in Vancouver. The reason he’d get a new deal here is he’s picked up where he left off last season and has shown growth in his all-around game. Getting 20 goals will be a stretch, but it’s more plausible in my mind than DeBrusk remaining with the Canucks for the entire season and hitting the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career.
What do you think, Canucks fans? Which is more likely – DeBrusk scoring 30 goals, or O’Connor potting 20? Let us know in the comments below!
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