EA SPORTS NHL 17: Vancouver Canucks Player Ratings

Goalies

Ryan Miller: 85
Jacob Markstrom is the starter of the near future, but Ryan Miller can still play — especially when he’s rested. Miller and Markstrom will likely split the season without a clear No. 1 and No. 2. Miller is mostly there to mentor Markstrom until the Swede is ready to take on the starting role full-time. An 85 rating seems high, but anything under 85 is already considered low in the NHL series, and Miller deserves this rating.

Jacob Markstrom: 85
As said, Markstrom is the goalie of the near future, with Thatcher Demko in the pipeline to take the starting job eventually. Markstrom used the 2015-16 season, his first full NHL campaign, to prove he can be an NHL goalie, so he will be looking to prove he can play 50 to 60 games a year. Jim Benning said the better goalie will play, meaning whoever does better will get more starts. At this point, Markstrom and Miller are tied.

Thatcher Demko: 70
Demko is likely only No. 4 on the NHL depth chart behind veteran Richard Bachman. But as the new guy, I wanted to include him here anyway. Coming out of college, Demko has a lot to prove in order to justify a high rating, so he’ll start off with 70. He will get every chance to take the starting job in Utica and take the fast lane to the NHL, but he has to start at the bottom like everyone else. A rating of 70 with elite potential sounds about right.

Next: Defensemen

Defensemen

Chris Tanev: 86
Chris Tanev is without a doubt Vancouver’s top defenseman, but he isn’t considered elite, nor is he seen as a top defenseman by fans around the league. The IIHF world champion doesn’t do much to drive the attack, but he defends extremely well and gets the puck out of his own zone. A defensive defenseman, Tanev deserves to be an 86.

Alex Edler: 84
Next up is Tanev’s D-partner Alex Edler. Once rated 87, Edler is on the decline and there is no doubt about it. Canucks fans are starting to bash him at every chance, but I believe that is mostly due to the fact that they remember Edler being elite, and he won’t get back to that standing. He is, however, still a good player, and 84 is definitely fair.

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Erik Gudbranson: 83
We are all hoping for Erik Gudbranson to be a force on Vancouver’s blue line. Speaking in NHL 17 terms, we are all hoping for him to be an 86 or so. But he isn’t — at least not yet. Gudbranson’s biggest asset is his size and physicality, but he doesn’t look like much of a possession player.

Ben Hutton: 82
Sophomore defenseman Ben Hutton was without a doubt the biggest surprise of the 2015-16 season. He surprised everyone by making the NHL club out of training camp and followed that up with an outstanding rookie campaign. By the end of the year, he played top-pairing minutes with Tanev when Edler and Dan Hamhuis were injured. But we don’t want to give him a star rathing just yet.

Luca Sbisa: 81
Luca Sbisa has really fallen out of favor with Vancouver Canucks fans. He seems to mess up every once in a while, but so do others. The reason why he gets criticized so much is that he is in his prime and likely won’t get much better, while making top-four money. Still, an 81 rating is fair.

Nikita Tryamkin: 78
Fans are more hopeful for Nikita Tryamkin, but he is the perfect player to talk about following Sbisa. Tryamkin is a good skater who has all the tools to be successful, but he did struggle mightily in his first 13 games. He just isn’t criticized very much because he is “the new guy” who’s played all of his career in Russia. People even praise him as the next star defenseman, but he is far from that. A 78 for now with potential to go as high as 82 by the end of the season.

Philip Larsen: 78
Like Tryamkin, Philip Larsen is joining the Canucks out of the KHL. He did a decent job in his last NHL stint but he, too, has a lot to prove. Larsen is supposed to improve the power play, but he wasn’t an outstanding player on the man advantage in Edmonton. A 78 for now with potential to go higher as the season progresses.

Alex Biega: 76
If the Canucks decide to go with seven defensemen, the list likely finds its end before Alex Biega. If they decide to roll with eight, meaning two healthy scratches each game, Biega has a chance to stick around. He played 51 NHL games last season but likely would have seen more AHL time if it hadn’t been for Vancouver’s many injuries. A 76 seems fair at this point.

Next: Left Wingers

Left Wingers

Daniel Sedin: 87
The Sedin twins are still the club’s best players, there is no doubt about that. Daniel isn’t the 100-point player he once was, but he still led the team in goals (28) and points (61) last season. Here’s to hoping he can play at that level for a few more years.

Sven Baertschi: 82
No. 2 on the left-wing depth chart is Sven Baertschi, who is going into his second full NHL season this year. He is making great progress, especially regarding his two-way game, but 15 goals and 28 points aren’t enough to justify more than an 82 rating at this point. The 2016-17 season will give us an idea for how good Baertschi can really be and how high his ceiling is.

Alex Burrows: 82
What?! Alex Burrows the same as Baertschi? Yes. Yes, he is. Burrows isn’t the player he was in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals run, but he is a leader and a good two-way player. He still has enough in him to surpass his 2015-16 total of 22 points and, at the very least, he will bring strong defensive play and excellent speed to the bottom six.

Emerson Etem: 81
Next up is Emerson Etem, who is still struggling to make a name for himself in the NHL. Well, he does have 193 NHL games under his belt, including 23 in the playoffs, but it is still hard to say what kind of player he can be. Some nights, he shows flashes of speed and skill that make you think he’ll be a great second liner. Other nights, you wonder why we could ever call him anything other than a fourth liner. An 81 with top-six potential but low potential accuracy.

Brendan Gaunce: 75
Can Brendan Gaunce make the team this year? He will definitely need a strong training camp to do so. Having played 20 NHL games last season, he is closer to his goal than ever — but can he stick around? A goal and no assists isn’t enough to justify a high rating, but as a 75, he is just good enough to gain NHL experience.

Next: Centers

Centers

Henrik Sedin: 87
You probably guessed this one after seeing Henrik’s twin brother Daniel. Henrik is obviously an 87 again. Both Daniel and Henrik recorded .74 points per game last season which isn’t elite but definitely above average. Henrik won’t score 100 points again, but he is still one of the Canucks’ top players, and they would struggle mightily if they didn’t have him anymore.

Brandon Sutter: 84
Who’s the Canucks’ second-line center — Bo Horvat or Brandon Sutter? For now, we have Sutter pencilled in for the position, but they will likely get a similar amount of ice time this season. Sutter will get more defensive-zone starts and time on the penalty kill while Horvat gets to focus a little more on offense. That is why…

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Bo Horvat: 84
…both Sutter and Horvat get an 84 rating. Horvat is Vancouver’s third-best scorer and there is reason to believe he can surpass 50 points this season. If he sees a lot of ice time with Loui Eriksson, the sky is the limit.

Markus Granlund: 80
Likely the starting center on the fourth line, Markus Granlund still has a lot to prove. He is supposed to be a strong two-way center but struggles with faceoffs and only had two goals and three points in his first 16 games with the Canucks. Of course, Granlund spent most of his ice time with bottom-six players like Derek Dorsett, but that likely isn’t changing anytime soon — unless he moves to the wing. An 80 rating should be fair for now.

Jayson Megna: 78
If there is one prime candidate to be an extra forward in the NHL to start the year, it is Jayson Megna. The 26-year old likely won’t develop much more and will accept being healthy scratch with the occasional NHL appearance instead of a full-time AHL role. He is a speedy forward who can play at center or on the wing, but he likely isn’t a full-time NHL starter.

Michael Chaput: 78
Megna’s No. 1 rival for the extra forward position is Michael Chaput. The 24-year old has appeared in two more NHL games than Megna and had similar “success”. At this point, they both just want to make the NHL somehow, but they don’t deserve a higher rating than 78. Chaput likely has better potential than Megna.

Next: Right Wingers

Right Wingers

Loui Eriksson: 86
The player that has Canucks Nation most excited this season is clearly Loui Eriksson. If he gets to play on the top line with the Sedins, that is. But even if he doesn’t, Eriksson is one of the best players on the team, and he will likely be one of the top scorers at the end of the season. At 31 years old, Eriksson is showing no signs of slowing down, justifying a rating of 86.

Related Story: Eriksson Should Play with Horvat, Baertschi

Jannik Hansen: 84
Is Jannik Hansen a legitimate top-line winger? Probably not, but he is someone who can move up and down the lineup and be a complementary player to skilled guys like the Sedins when need be. A speedy and gritty winger with a scoring touch, Hansen definitely deserves to be rated 84.

Jake Virtanen: 80
There are so many questions about the Canucks. One of them is whether Jake Virtanen can build on his rookie season, solidify his position with the club and increase his scoring. If not, he might end up as a purely defensive forward. For now, Virtanen is an 80 — a strong defensive winger who provides little scoring — but there is no doubt about his top-six potential.

Derek Dorsett: 80
I’ll admit that having Virtanen and Derek Dorsett get the same rating doesn’t seem fair. However, the two have almost the same scoring rate while playing a solid defensive game. Dorsett is overpaid but he is a strong fourth-line player and a valuable part of the team.

Anton Rodin: 76
This is one of the hardest players to rate, mostly because of the huge difference between Europeans and North Americans in the NHL series. For example, German club Dusseldorfer EG has its best German players barely crack 70 while most of them are rated in the 60s. Their top player in NHL 16 was former NHL and AHL forward Drayson Bowman, who — to be fair — is their best player, but doesn’t deserve to be 12 points better than Dusseldorf’s average second liner. Long story short, Anton Rodin likely won’t be rated a 76 but he certainly deserves to be — even if he doesn’t make the team.

Next: Canucks 2016-17 Roster Outlook

The Vancouver Canucks have a strong top line, many promising youngsters who have a lot to prove, a couple of declining veterans and a bunch of wild cards. EA SPORTS NHL 17 will probably be a decent representation of that, even if my ratings are far off.

Having a top line that’s rated 87-87-86 is enough to cause excitement for the game, though. The actual ratings will soon be released. Until then, how would you rate the Canucks?