Welcome back to WDYTT, the only hockey column on the internet that gives you a final say every week.
Speaking of finality, there’s a real sense of it surrounding the Vancouver Canucks right now. When you’ve got the President of Hockey Operations, Jim Rutherford, straight-up saying that “it certainly appears like there’s not a good solution” to the Elias Pettersson/JT Miller feud, it sure sounds like the end of…something. If not an era, then at least a moment.
We’ve been holding off on this somewhat obvious WDYTT question for a while now because we didn’t think it was fair to ask you to go on the record regarding a subject with so much uncertainty around it. But Rutherford’s comments would seem to remove most of that uncertainty, and we can now say with some confidence that it is the Canucks’ plan – their public plan, anyway – to trade at least one of Miller or Pettersson at some point in the near future.
You can probably guess where this is going, so no more beating around the bush.
This week, we’re asking:

If you could only keep one of Elias Pettersson or JT Miller on the Canucks, which one would you keep?

Let it be known in the comment section.
(Consider any factors you choose, but keep it civil and avoid the personal, lest your comments go unpublished.)

Who is the Canucks’ Unsung Hero of the 2024/25 season to this point?

You answered below!
Magic Head:
  1. Lankinen
  2. Lankinen
  3. Lankinen
  4. Lankinen
He doesn’t get enough credit for preventing the Canucks from being in last place in the league.
Six wins is what separates the Canucks from the last place San Jose Sharks. Lankinen has stolen at least a dozen games for the Canucks this season.
Jimmy:
OEL is still on the Canucks’ payroll, he won a Stanley Cup, and is playing solid hockey. I believe he would be the hero.
Kearnsie:
Unsung hero is Sherwood, although his play has tailed off since getting moved off Pettersson’s wing.
Speaking of Pettersson, considering how much abuse he has taken from the fan base, and considering his commitment to defence and playing the Selke life; there’s a case to be made for Pettersson as the unsung hero!
Commenters will discuss amongst themselves…
kanucked:
The two that come to mind are Lankinen and Sherwood. Both have received some recognition for their contributions, but I’m going with Myers. His tenure with the team has been littered with big mistakes.
This year he’s been solid defensively and has even provided some aggressiveness.
Chris the Curmudgeon:
(Winner of the author’s weekly award for eloquence)
To answer this question correctly, it is necessary to unpack the notion of “unsung hero” a little bit. In hockey parlance, it usually refers to someone who outplays their contract or rises above their station on the roster. However, the term actually classically refers to someone who doesn’t get enough credit or praise for their contributions. In a season such as this one, where most of the non-#43 wearing players have underachieved, and in a world where every statistic and analytic metric is pored over by dozens of writers and bloggers, the praise for some of the nominal “lesser lights” has not been lacking by any means. So while I would never dispute that Kevin Lankinen and Kiefer Sherwood would lead any list of players who have provided the highest value for their cap hits and have admirably filled the void left by underperformance higher up the depth chart, both have been showered with recognition from all sides all season long. So, can either really be called “unsung”, considering how frequently the media and fans “sing” their praises?
I would submit that a truly unsung hero on the team is Teddy Blueger. The guy is our best penalty killing forward, and no other forward starts a higher proportion of his shifts in the defensive zone. He is our second best faceoff guy by wins and win frequency after Miller (who also takes a far higher percentage of his in the attacking zone). He’s frequently tasked with matchups against tough opponents, and does this with a revolving cast of linemates but almost never the two (Garland and Joshua) with whom he saw the best chemistry with last season. Despite all of that, he is only a point or two off last season’s scoring pace, which he achieves with basically zero power play time. And yet, you hear very little praise for Blueger. I would argue that for getting out there and forechecking hard, killing penalties and generally doing yeoman’s work, shift in, shift out and being a generally gritty, hard-working bottom-six grinder who earns his coach’s trust and never takes a shift off, Blueger is my unsung hero.
bruce donice:
Heinen would be my pick. He gets dumped on by posters here, but gets the job done. Those who thought he was going to be a top-six player were led by media that he was going to be successful with Miller and Brock.
Heinen just gets the job done, he’s not flashy, but gets his job done.
Jibsys:
Well, I know I will have my dissenters, but I am going with the big man Tyler Myers. He takes a lot of flack, but we overlook the positives.
Myers is a bona fide leader on this team, when he speaks everyone listens, and that has been well documented.
The other thing is when Myers is playing, he provides a great physical presence.
The negatives are a bit unfounded, in my opinion. Myers can play perfectly with the toughest matchups but it seems that everyone gets drawn to a five-second gaffe whereby a highly-skilled opponent makes a great play and makes him look bad. We often forget that Myers plays against the best and they are good players, too. The big man is a warrior when it comes to shutting them down and frustrating them.
BeerCan Boyd:
A backup goalie that we signed just before the season started for almost league minimum, and who has stolen at least half a dozen games, should be the unanimous choice here.
Kootenaydude:
The guy in charge of hockey sticks.
CraigCoxe:
Tyler Myers.
People are rough on TM, me included, but he has logged pretty big minutes this year with all the injuries on the back end, especially to Hronek. He is also a glue guy in the dressing room, although he can seemingly only do so much.
He has been as inconsistent as the rest of the team, but I would hate to see where they would be without him.
54 years on…..?:
With expectations being so high (unrealistically?) and the results being so tepid, I am not sure there can even be an unsung hero. That implies some sort of victory and its hard to see such a thing in what has become a ruinous season. The negative repercussions from this year may echo for a few years.
Longtimelurker:
Myers!
Ryan B:
If not Conor “The Pest” Garland, then Kiefer Sherwood.