NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, three important questions facing the Vancouver Canucks.
1. Can Thatcher Demko make it through the season healthy?
Demko was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the League’s best goalie last season, finishing second in voting to Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets after setting NHL career bests in wins (35), shutouts (five) and save percentage (.918) despite being limited to 51 games by a late-season knee injury.
It’s the third straight season since becoming a starter that Demko has missed time with a lower-body injury.
The 28-year-old was out from March 9 to April 16 and, while he made it back to start the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Demko injured the same knee in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round against the Nashville Predators. He was close to returning when the Canucks were eliminated in Game 7 of the second round by the Edmonton Oilers, but there is now uncertainty about whether he’ll be 100 percent at the start of training camp in September.
“Our hope is that he will be up and running and ready for the season,” Vancouver GM Patrik Allvin said.
2. Which Elias Pettersson will they get?
Pettersson was eighth in NHL scoring at the end of January with 64 points in 49 games, but barely cracked the top 100 over the final 2 1/2 months of the regular season, ranking 95th over that stretch with 25 points in 33 games, and continued to struggle offensively throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He finished the postseason with one goal and five assists in 13 games and said in his year-end press conference he had been dealing with a worsening knee injury, which coach Rick Tocchet later described as tendonitis, since January.
Pettersson is heading into the first season of an eight-year, $92.8 million contract signed March 3, and Vancouver’s free agency focus this offseason included finding better options to play wing with the 25-year-old center. Now the pressure is on to perform like he did the first two-thirds of last season and through most of a six-year NHL career that includes 412 points (170 goals, 242 assists) in 407 games since Vancouver picked Pettersson fifth in the 2017 NHL Draft.
3. Can Rick Tocchet find the right balance again?
Tocchet won the Jack Adams Award as “the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success” in his first full season with the Canucks, adding structure and accountability that helped them get back to the playoffs for first time in four years.
The challenge now is to build on that success after adding four new forwards, at least two of which appear destined to play on the top two lines, and a new third pair on defense, while also trying to generate more offense off the rush without sacrificing the strong defensive play that defined last season’s turnaround.
Allvin believes he’s given Tocchet enough of the right pieces and trusts the coach and his staff to figure out how best to fit them together.
“‘Tocc’ has made it clear a lot of times when he's been talking to you guys, that he is a puzzle guy, that he's looking for different combinations,” Allvin said. “I think Rick is one of the better coaches at in-game adjustments and bench management too, so you can never have enough good players for him to work with.”
