NHL Season Recap - Vancouver Canucks

Vancouver Canucks

2016-17 season: 30-43-9 Did not qualify for playoffs	Head Coach: Fired - Willie Desjardins (2014)
7th Place Pacific Division	General Manager: Jim Benning (2014)
13th  Place Western Conference	AHL Affiliate: Utica Comets ECHL Affiliate: Alaska Aces
Draft Position: Will have the second greatest odds in the NHL Draft Lottery

Top Forwards

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
C	21	Bo Horvat	52	20	32	-7	48.2
C	36	Henrik Sedin	51	15	36	-27	50.5
LW	36	Daniel Sedin	44	15	29	-16	50.6
LW	24	Sven Baertschi	35	18	17	-6	46.3
C	27	Brandon Sutter	34	17	17	-20	46.2
C	23	Markus Granlund	32	19	13	-19	51.1
LW	31	Loui Eriksson	24	11	13	-9	50.5
RW	35	Alexander Burrows	20	9	11	-3	48.7
RW	30	Jannik Hansen	13	6	7	2	48.0
RW	29	Jack Skille	9	5	4	0	48.8

Top Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
D	22	Troy Stecher	24	3	21	-16	49.4
D	30	Alexander Edler	21	6	15	-20	49.3
D	23	Ben Hutton	19	5	14	-22	48.4
D	27	Luca Sbisa	13	2	11	-1	45.7
D	27	Chris Tanev	10	2	8	3	47.3

Top Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Games Started	W/L Record	Shutouts	GAA	Save %
G	36	Ryan Miller	54	18-29-6	3	2.80	.914
G	27	Jacob Markstrom	23	10-11-3	0	2.63	.910
G	29	Richard Bachman	5	2-3-0	0	2.64	.920

Trades Made During the Season

What They Acquired	Team They Traded With	In Exchange For
LW Jonathan Dahlen	Ottawa Senators	LW Alexandre Burrows
RW Nikolay Goldobin Conditional 2017 4th RD Draft Pick	San Jose Sharks	RW Jannik Hansen

Impending Free Agents

POS	Age	Name	2016-17 Cap Hit
G	36	Ryan Miller	$6,000,000
D	27	Philip Larsen	$1,025,000
LW	30	Jack Skille	$700,000
D	27	Chad Billins	$600,000
LW	25	Alexander Grenier	$600,000
RW	25	Borna Rendulic	$575,000

Draft Needs

• The Canucks have six draft picks in the upcoming draft, including two fourth rounders, one of which is conditional upon whether or not the Sharks win the Stanley Cup.  If they do, that fourth round pick becomes a first rounder.  The Canucks have the second best odds to win the NHL Draft Lottery and will most likely draft in the top five.  If Vancouver gets the second overall draft pick like their record says they should, they must take whoever is available between Nico Hischier and Nolan Patrick.  The Canucks, like virtually every team, could use a potential number one center and, even though neither are generational, both can help jumpstart the franchise's future.  Beyond that pick, the Canucks need everything and drafting a potential game-changer at any of the positions is helpful.  A couple of the mock drafts I have looked at have them taking several defensemen with their picks, which would be smart moves since their current defense group is older.  They also need to address their goaltending situation but I don't know if that's worth addressing until the team is closer to competing.

What I Said About Them Before the Season

• I thought that the Canucks would actually be much worse than they ended up being, as their roster group is very unexciting and just not very talented.  I questioned the signing of Loui Eriksson since he is as old as he is and will be old when his contract is up.  I questioned the team's direction in net as Ryan Miller is 36 years old and is a free agent this offseason and no one really knows if Jakob Markstrom has the ability to be a starting goaltender in the NHL or not.  I actually thought that head coach Willie Desjardins would be fired during the season and that Vancouver was going to be the worst team in the league this season.

Success/Failure

• Failure - This is another franchise that isn't trying to fail and yet are terrible.  The front office spent money last offseason to bring in veteran winger Loui Eriksson, a move that shows that they are invested in winning immediately.  Instead, they finished with the second fewest points in the league and have no real direction for the future.  They don't have a great farm system, overall, but have some help coming at the top of their system.  They did get a great offensive output from Bo Horvat in his second full season in the NHL, leading the team in scoring and was their representative at the All-Star Game.  Beyond that, they got very little production from the rest of their forwards.  Their defensemen weren't much better and are a very mediore group in its entirety.  Troy Stecher and Ben Hutton seem to be the team's future at the position but need to develop more as none of their defensive had a positive Corsi.  Finally, in net, Ryan Miller actually played quite well but was unable to convert many of his performances into victories.  His backup goaltenders were good in limited roles leading me to believe that a big reason for the team's struggles were on offense and their issues on defense.

Offseason Needs

• The Canucks' NHL roster is an older group that is nearly a full year older than the league average.  They are led by franchise favorites, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who are now 36 years old.  They also brought in veteran winger Loui Eriksson last offseason on a six year deal and he only contributed 11 goals and 24 points this season.  At the opposite end of that, however, they have Bo Horvat, Jake Virtanen, and Brock Boeser, all of whom figure to be key players for the team going forward.  The team needs to build around this young core and recognize that the Sedin era of the Canucks is over and that they won't be able to win a Stanley Cup with them. The team has to try and trade their veterans, including the Sedins, which would require the Canucks absorbing a large percentage of their contracts since no team has the cap space available to take on two $7 million contracts for aging forwards.  It would be nice to see Vancouver do the twins a solid by moving them to a Cup contender.  Moving Eriksson may not be possible, however, since he has $30 million left on his contract and is coming off a down season.  They may be stuck with him for a few more seasons before they are able to move him. The front office made a mistake at the trade deadline by not moving Ryan Miller, who probably would have yielded the Canucks a solid return since he actually had a good year.  Vancouver has avoided a teardown and rebuild of this roster group for several seasons now but now is the time to pursue said plan.  It's the only way for them to be good again anytime in the near future.

*All stats and information came from hockey-reference.com, rosterresource.com, spotrac.com, NHL.com, hockeydb.com, capfriendly.com, and eliteprospects.com*