Welcome back to WDYTT, the only hockey column on the internet to never need an alternate writer.

Speaking of alternates, the Vancouver Canucks have two of the captain variety in JT Miller and Elias Pettersson, with each of them backing up the one, true captain in Quinn Hughes. It’s a leadership group made up of the team’s best players and seems like one that is bound to stick together for a while…which has been a rarity in Vancouver of late.

Everyone seems happy with the current arrangement. But nothing stays the same forever. Maybe it’s a long-term injury, maybe it’s a surprise trade, maybe it’s just a desire to shake things up. It doesn’t even have to involve anyone losing a letter. The Canucks have, in the past, simply added alternates to their current group in an effort to spread the burden of leadership around.

It happens.

We don’t really think it’s going to happen anytime soon. Head coach Rick Tocchet seems like a classic ‘one captain, two alternates’ sort of fellow, and there’s ample reason to be satisfied with Hughes-Miller-Pettersson’s 2023/24 debut as a captaincy trio.

But this is WDYTT, where idle speculation rules the day. And we do have the opportunity to raise a fairly interesting hypothetical here. A ‘what if,’ if you will.

First, imagine that, for whatever reason, the Canucks had to add a new alternate captain to the mix for the 2024/25 campaign. Then ask yourself…whom?

This week, we’re asking:

Let it be known in the comment section.

You answered below!

Garland. He’s articulate, plays smart, and knows the value of hard work.

I choose Conor Garland and Quinn Hughes.

Both are small players who had to learn to play against bigger players. To be effective, both had to learn the game at a deeper level in order to be successful. Both players are very smart.

I think Conor Garland will be a good coach for teaching players how to be relentless and for the finer aspects of the game.

Quinn Hughes (and brothers) was coached by both parents. I think that was a life-defining situation for him, and could easily see him wanting to pass his knowledge onto the next generation too.

Maybe a bit in left field but I am going with Christian Wolanin.

Reason being that, Tocchet excluded, it seems that most of the best coaches have been guys who bounce around a lot in the minor leagues and learn the craft by having many different coaches throughout their careers. They are able to learn a lot about systems and see what works and what doesn’t and develop their own style based on this.

Wolanin comes across as a mature intelligent guy who may be able to be impactful to young players. His conversation with Faber and Quadrelli from October 2023 speaks volumes to this, based on Wolanin’s observations of Gary Agnew and how he has coached since 1988 and has been able to learn and adapt as a coach.

Quinn Hughes.

That family pedigree…

This might be a bit obvious, but I think JT Miller would be great. Huge desire to win, really intense.

It’ll be a fourth liner or third-pairing guy or someone on the Abbotsford Canucks. Not many superstars, after pocketing $100M lifetime earnings, will slog away as an assistant coach for years to become a head coach one day.

I think someone like PDG could be good. Knows what’s needed to perform even if he hasn’t achieved it. Has played up and down the line up. Plays hard and is no slouch on the defensive side of things.

I am going with Brock Boeser because he has been around the game his whole life. It is a part of his family and connection to his Dad. I don’t see him walking away from the game at the end of his playing career. I would also go out on a limb and say that he is the type of player that will age out earlier than most, which seems to be a theme among coaches. They still have the fire, but not the foot speed.

Really, you can probably look at anyone on the roster and find some positive traits that would lend themselves well to becoming a coach. After all, they’re probably a lot of the same traits that helped these players make it to the big leagues in the first place.

If asked to pick just one, a strong consideration should be the player who is best described as Rick Tocchet’s protégé, and that’s Dakota Joshua. It’s true that Joshua is nowhere near the player Tocchet once was, but there are some similarities there, and Joshua has responded extremely well to the lessons that Tocchet has imparted upon him. Maybe one day, he’ll pass those lessons on down to the next generation.

His difficult, non-traditional path to the NHL is, as others have pointed out, another bonus when it comes to the coaching journey.

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