Vancouver Canucks: Where is the secondary scoring?

The Vancouver Canucks have scored 31 goals this season, with Bo Horvat and Elias Pettersson combining for 12 of those. With all this young talent and forward depth in place, where in the world is the secondary scoring?

A 6-6-0 start is something the Vancouver Canucks have to be happy with, given the rash of injuries and the fact only two players have been scoring consistently.

Future captain Bo Horvat leads the team with seven goals and two assists on the season, even though he’s had to play a bulk of the campaign without star linemate Brock Boeser. Rookie Elias Pettersson is second in team scoring with five goals and three assists, and keep in mind he missed six games with a head injury.

This isn’t to suggest the Canucks are supposed to be a scoring machine, but it’s fair to ask why the team has lacked secondary scoring, a month through the season. Brock Boeser has a mere two goals and four assists, but keep in mind he’s easing his way back from a back injury that almost ended his career. Boeser will turn it around sooner or later.

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But wasn’t Jake Virtanen supposed to finally turn a corner and score 15-20 goals this year? Yours truly thought so, but Big Jake has just two goals this year. Like last season, Virtanen is off to a sluggish start, and you wonder if he’s going to get hot at any point this season.

Nikolay Goldobin had many excited after showing flashes last season, but he appears to be in the doghouse of head coach Travis Green, and rightfully so. ‘Goldy’ only has one goal in 12 games, so why would Green give him more opportunities?

Sven Baertschi may have three goals on the season, but he’s only found the back of the net once in his last seven games.

Brandon Sutter also has three goals, but only one of those has come in the last six games. This isn’t secondary scoring, this is streaky scoring.

Loui Eriksson continues to show why he’s not worth $36 million, to put it mildly. He hasn’t scored once in 12 games. And remember when Markus Granlund almost scored 20 goals two years ago? He has one goal this season.

Brendan Leipsic had many fans excited when he tallied nine points in 14 games with the Canucks after being acquired in a trade deadline deal with the Vegas Golden Knights. He has one goal and one assist this season.

Horvat and Pettersson are producing as we expected, and it’s reasonable to expect turnaround from Boeser soon. But some of these other forwards should be producing like top-six guys; capable of scoring 20-something goals and 40-plus points.

In the last three seasons, the Canucks relied too much on Horvat and the Sedins to do the scoring. This time, it’s Horvat, Pettersson and Boeser. The likes of Goldobin, Baertschi and Virtanen should be producing more, and it’s inexcusable for Eriksson to have zero goals at this point of the season.

I’m not sure about you folks, but my optimism for 2018-19 stemmed from the belief that some of these forwards would start producing more. I predicted a 20-goal season for Virtanen, and thought Goldobin and Leipsic could threaten the mark as well.

But once again, the Canucks are asking their top line to do all the scoring. And unless that picks up, the lack of secondary offence will be a key reason why this team misses the playoffs for a fourth consecutive year.