Vancouver Canucks defenceman Carson Soucy enjoyed his busy offseason away from the rink. But speaking to reporters at the Jake Milford Charity Invitational Golf Tournament on Monday, he’s excited to be back in Vancouver ahead of training camp and getting the new NHL season underway.

“It’s always good to see the guys, especially to come back to a team where you’re familiar with the coaching staff,” Soucy said. “You definitely get more excited just to see teammates and friends that you built over last season.”

During the team’s informal skates this week, Soucy met some of his new teammates, like Jake DeBrusk and Daniel Sprong, and the early reviews were positive. “I think we made some great moves, obviously great in the locker room too, getting to know a couple [of] guys over just this past week and a half. I think they’re going to be a good fit.”

Soucy’s first season with the Canucks was a roller coaster, to say the least. When healthy, Soucy provided some of the Canucks’ best shutdown defence. But rotten injury luck threw a wrench into his otherwise solid campaign, and a one-game suspension for a crosscheck on Connor McDavid during the playoffs robbed him of some positive momentum.

But the team’s success set the blueprint for the veteran defenceman and his teammates entering Year 2. In Soucy’s eyes, a second-round exit isn’t going to be good enough this time around.

“We’re hungry. We have high expectations,” Soucy said.

“It shows that we have to expect as a team, individually and as a group, to not just be happy we made the playoffs last year. There’s got to be a point of emphasis on building and improving and hopefully taking that next step to the next round.”

But even with all the added pressure on the Canucks this time around, Soucy doesn’t believe the adjustment from underdogs to contenders will change the team’s mindset in the tough Pacific Division. If anything, they want to take the exact same approach to opening 2024-25 that they had last year: getting off to a fast start and improving as a group as they go.

“I wouldn’t think we would look at it as [having a target on their back]. I think we look at it as coming in, doing the same thing we did last year, have a good start, put ourselves in a good spot and then keep improving and building our game for the playoffs.”