Canucks News: 2016-17 a Successful Season Despite Likely Playoff Miss
The Vancouver Canucks are likely to miss the 2017 postseason, but is it fair to call it a successful campaign nevertheless?
How would you define a successful season for the Vancouver Canucks? Does success equal playoff hockey? Or is success defined by the ability to build for the future?
Canucks management has clearly been supporting the former, but it may be time to change that approach.
Ed Willes of The Province is sure: the Canucks have been selling the wrong storyline.
A Bright Future
Ed Willes (The Province) — The Canucks Have Been Selling the Wrong Storyline
"Well, the problem with the Canucks isn’t necessarily their placement in the standings, although that invites a number of uncomfortable questions. The problem is they’re rotten storytellers. Framed the right way, 2016-17 can be regarded as a successful campaign for the Canucks, and if that sounds like an alternative fact, consider the following."
Personally, I wouldn’t call a season a real success for the Canucks unless it does some real good for the future. In other words, a season is not a success as long as the Canucks own just five draft picks for the given year, making them unable to build a deep prospect group.
Although it is impossible to predict what the roster will look like in two years, I decided to give it a shot. Simply to evaluate the current talent level.
With the Canucks expected to draft in the top five once again this season, I inserted centre Gabriel Vilardi into this lineup. Vilardi is currently ranked fifth by Future Considerations and would fit the Canucks’ needs. This is also assuming Vilardi — or whoever else gets picked by the club this year — is NHL ready in 2019.
A final note, I only included three forward lines because there will be at least three players on the roster in two years that are not in the system right now.
Sven Baertschi — Bo Horvat — Brock Boeser
Markus Granlund — Brandon Sutter — Loui Eriksson
Brendan Gaunce — Gabriel Vilardi — Jake Virtanen
Adam Gaudette
Ben Hutton — Chris Tanev
Alex Edler — Troy Stecher
Nikita Tryamkin — Olli Juolevi
Erik Gudbranson
Jacob Markstrom
Thatcher Demko
On the top line, we have Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser. Seeing what Baertschi and Horvat have been doing this season, I believe they can be a solid top-six line (at the least) very soon.
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Behind that, it’s Markus Granlund, Brandon Sutter and Loui Eriksson. An okay line, but honestly nothing more. Especially not if Eriksson regresses even more.
The third line is completely made up of prospects and we have no idea what any of them will become.
On defence, we have a similar group as this season. Olli Juolevi comes in, Luca Sbisa, Philip Larsen and the depth players were excluded assuming they will be gone in two years.
In net, it’s Jacob Markstrom and Thatcher Demko, with either one getting a chance to be the starter.
What this shows us is that the Canucks are still clearly missing elite players. I do not necessarily mean someone like Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid, but every top team has a couple of star players.
For the Canucks, those players were Henrik and Daniel Sedin for many years, but that era is just about over. As a result, they need to find someone new — soon.
Next: Benning Falling Behind in Trade Deadline
It might be Horvat or Boeser or Vilardi, it could be someone else.
But whoever it’s going to be, a season like 2016-17 will not be a success until we have some certainty about the future.