Ca-Nuckle heads, year in review

[yave1964]

PRESEASON OUTLOOK Depending on who you asked. Some folks thought that they were a bonafide playoff contender, others wanted Jim Benning tarred and feathered and ran out of town on a rail. 

 

FINAL RECORD 40-30-12 92 points, 5th in the pacific

 

LOW POINT OF THE SEASON after trading wins and losses for the seasons first two weeks thge Canucks went into a serious tailspin, Beggining on October 26th with a 2-1 loss to the Wild the Canucks fell apart, they ent 4-12-1 over the next 17 games seeming to find new and original ways to lose almost every night. The fans were screaming for the heads of Benning Coach Travis Green. The shoe finally fell with HOFer Jimmy Rutherford taking over the GM slot and Bruce boudreau coming in behind the bench on December 6th with the season shot to hell.

 

HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR  BRUCE THERE IT IS!! He took over behind the bench and the Canucks started winning. And winning. They won their first 7 in a row under Bruce, then kind of leveled off around .500 for a bit then caught fire. down the stretch to the end of the season the Canucks went 19-9-6 but ran out of runway and missed the playoffs. Still, anyone who saw the team after their horrible start realzes this is not the same team. At all. 

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT JT Miller had 99 points and was an absolute beast with 38 power play points. Elias Pettersson started slow and was rumored to be traded but instead he played at a point a game pace under Boudreau. Garland came over from the Coyotes and had a great year. Hughes was a power play monster on the back end. Horvat may be the best two way center in the game and how he never gets any votes for the Selke is beyond me. Boesser chipped in 23 goals. Secondary scoring really came alive under Boudreau, nine forwards scored in double digits. The biggest change in someone post Boudreau was Demko who finished 33-22-7 with a 2.72 goals against.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG Halak didnt cut it as the backup goalie and is likely done. Hamonic and Richardson  kind of same thing, their career is toast.  The biggest bomb was Oliver ekman Larsson who they gave up the ninth pick in the draft for which turned out to be future stud Dylan Guenther. OEL is signed forever, if you watch him carefully you can actually see his career erode right before his eyes. They are likely stuck with him for the next four or five years.

 

FREE AGENTS Richardson, Hunt, Halak, Chiasson are all free agents. Hunt and Chiasson in limited roles performed adequately and will be asked back. They have no second rounder so they need to hit on the first.

 

TOP PROSPECTS Honestly, Benning sucked at drafting, they really have very little in the pipeline. DiPietro is a meh prospect and may stick as a backup goalie, Rathbone is likely to be around as a 6/7 defender with meh skill. They have nothing in the pipeline for the next two or three years, so what they ahve is what they got.

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR With two or less days off they were very average, 26-23-9, but with over two days off between games they were rested and beat up on teams,  going 14-7-3. I think a lot of that is Demko was ran out so often that he was gassed most nights, when well rested he performed at a much higher level. 

 

OFFSEASON QUESTIONS Boudreau took his option and will be coaching next year so that is that. They need an influx of talent, Miller is an UFA at the end of next year and might be dealt for three or four pieces, Boesser is rumored to be on the block as well. This is a huge year for Rutherford, they missed the playoffs but overall it was a win season for them, they need to restock and retool at the same time which is kind of like drawing to an inside straight but never bet against Rutherford and Boudreau. Still, as an organization the duo took over close to a scortched Earth. There is nothing coming and what they have wasnt quite good enough. They may need to make a couple of bold stroke moves to reset. IMHO nobody should be off limits excepting Demko. 

Edited May 14, 2022 by yave1964