Vancouver Canucks could have five 20-goal scorers

Though scoring has been a problem yet again for the Vancouver Canucks in 2017-18, the team could actually wind up with as many as five 20-goal scorers. A look at all the guys who could possibly reach the feat.

You don’t often associate the term “20-goal scorer” with the Vancouver Canucks these days, because there haven’t been many over the last three years. Bo Horvat was the only guy to hit the milestone last year, While Daniel Sedin and Jannik Hansen were the only ones to score 20-plus in 2015-16.

Yet, the team has actually had more balanced scoring than we give them credit for. Rookie sensation Brock Boeser isn’t the only one scoring a lot of goals, and the Sedin twins aren’t anchoring the offence on their own anymore. Head coach Travis Green has found a way to get scoring from his top-six forwards. Kudos to the rookie bench boss.

The Canucks are scoring just 2.66 goals per game, which places them 25th overall, according to NHL.com. But it’s not necessarily that this team doesn’t have enough guys who can score. Maybe it’s more like their blueliners and bottom-six forwards aren’t contributing that much.

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Boeser leads all Canucks in goals with 27. At this point, the question is if he’ll hit 40. As long as he’s healthy, 30 is a given.

If Thomas Vanek either a) gets hot over the next week or b) finishes the season with the Canucks, he should hit 20 as well. He’s currently at 16 on the season.

Daniel is at 15 goals, and the 37-year-old has been getting better and better as the season progresses. If he can score five or more, No. 22 will hit 20 goals for the 11th time in his illustrious career.

Horvat missed 18 games due to a broken foot, yet he has 15 goals in 41 contests. If he didn’t miss significant time, he would have surely been close to 20 by now. Time is still on his side to reach the feat for a second consecutive year.

Then there’s Sven Baertschi, who missed 12 games after suffering a broken jaw. Nonetheless, he has 13 tallies in in 47 games thus far. It’s going to be tough, but he has 23 games to get seven-plus goals. He basically has to average one goal every three games. It’ll come down to the wire.

It’s a long shot, but Loui Eriksson has a very small chance of getting there as well. He has 10 goals on the season, so he’ll have to get hot down the stretch to reach it. Don’t count him out completely, but don’t get your hopes up too high.

You see? Even though it’s been a frustrating year in Vancouver, this team could manage to own five 20-goal scorers in 2017-18. Of course, a whole lot has to go right. Horvat, Daniel, Baertschi and Vanek have to stay healthy, and the latter will have to not get traded at the Feb. 26 trade deadline.

Even if the Canucks only finish with one-to-three 20-goal men, at least they have a handful of guys who got real close. This should only excite the fans, who can bank on better years from Jake Virtanen and perhaps Sam Gagner in 2017-18.

Next: Vancouver Canucks: Adam Gaudette's options

While some fans cheer for this team to tank in order to increase their chances of winning the draft lottery, you should also be cheering for the aforementioned players to reach 20 goals — because that would be quite impressive for a rebuilding team.