2016-17: A glimpse into the future and Ryan Miller fights Matt Martin
2016-17 was the season in which the Canucks seemingly hit rock bottom. They had no shot at making the playoffs, and had very, very little to get excited about. This was the year that the Canucks were embracing the rebuild, and as a result, the lone memories will come from the few glimpses into the future fans got.
Most notably, fans got to see Bo Horvat reach the 20 goal mark for the first time in his career, and emerge as a young leader on a Canucks team which was quickly becoming younger and faster.
Fans also got to see Brock Boeser arrive from the University of North Dakota and play nine games with the team, in which he scored four goals and tallied one assist. With Horvat’s emergence and Boeser looking good, fans were given a quick glimpse into the promising future that lied ahead for the Canucks. But there was one more crucial piece to the puzzle added at the 2017 draft.
2016-17 marked former head coach Willie Desjardin’s final season with the team, as he was fired after the team finished with the second-worst overall record in the NHL that year. Some have given Willie the nickname “tank commander Willie” because if the Canucks hadn’t done so poorly that season, they may never have been able to draft Elias Pettersson at the draft. Thanks Willie?
A less broad memorable moment that stands out to me from this season is when former Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller dropped the gloves with Maple Leafs forward Matt Martin, who decided to jump then-rookie Troy Stecher in just his fourth NHL game, while the puck went up the ice the other way.
Stecher was down on the ice with his gloves on while Martin began to throw right hands at him. Miller saw this and immediately jumped in, which caused a line brawl. In a rather abysmal season, the Leafs Canucks rivalry, particularly this event, was rather memorable.