Vancouver Canucks: 5 bold predictions for 2019-20

5. Canucks finish top 10 in goals against

The Canucks haven’t finished as a top 10 defensive team (in terms of goals against), since the 2011-12 season. They won the Presidents’ Trophy that year after allowing just 198 goals (fourth-fewest in the league).

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The best Vancouver has finished in goals against in the past seven years? 12th overall — back in the 2012-13 season when they surrendered 121 in the 48-game lockout-shortened season. The lack of responsible play in their own end has been Vancouver’s most glaring weakness over the past seven years. No question about it.

Well, Benning finally decided to make some major changes on the back end. It was long overdue. Ben Hutton and Derrick Pouliot have moved on, and he signed Oscar Fantenberg, Jordie Benn and Tyler Myers in free agency.

Criticize the Myers signing all you want, but his toughness and decent offensive skills will be extremely useful. Benn carried a superb 53.4 Corsi For percentage last season, and he recorded 128 blocked shots along with 124 hits. That’s the ideal stay-at-home defenceman this team has needed for quite some time.

And of course, Alexander Edler and Chris Tanev will continue to eat up valuable minutes in the top four and on the penalty kill. Rookie Quinn Hughes promises to bring some much-needed offence from the blue line. Troy Stecher is coming off the best season of his career, and he should be able to build off it.

This blue line has a nice mix of reliable toughness, physicality, smarts and skill. And when all is said and done, the Vancouver’s defence will go from a perennial weakness to a major strength in 2019-20. They’ll finish top 10 in goals against this season. My educated less? They’ll allow just 232 — a nice drop from the 254 from last season.

4. Five players score 20-plus goals

Finding consistent 20-goal scorers has been a major problem for the Canucks throughout the years. They only had three in 2018-19 and 2017-18, one in 2016-17, two in 2015-16 and 2014-15 and one in 2013-14.

Well, the Canucks know that Bo Horvat (three straight 20-goal seasons), Brock Boeser (two straight 20-goal seasons) and Elias Pettersson (28 goals in his rookie year) will score 20-plus if they’re all healthy. We’ll pencil in three right there.

Jake Virtanen is a candidate after scoring 15 a year ago. Newcomer J.T. Miller has a trio of 20-goal seasons on his resume. Micheal Ferland posted 17 for the Carolina Hurricanes last season — a year after scoring a career-high 21 for the Calgary Flames.

Josh Leivo had 14 last season — 10 of them coming with the Canucks in a 49-game audition. Tanner Pearson had nine in 19 games after arriving in a trade deadline deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He hit 24 with the Los Angeles Kings in 2016-17, too.

So as you can tell, there are plenty of 20-goal candidates on the Canucks roster. You could even argue that a healthy Brandon Sutter has a chance. He did post 17 in the 2016-17 campaign, after all. Maybe Adam Gaudette, too.

The prediction here is that along with Horvat, Boeser and Pettersson, Miller and Ferland will also hit the 20-goal mark. Those two newcomers will flourish nicely in Vancouver’s top-six. Both Pettersson and Boeser will make the most of their new wingers. Look for Miller to push hard for 25, while Ferland will get something in the 20-22 range.

3. Jacob Markstrom gets traded

This is supposed to be a bold prediction, right?

This isn’t to say that Jacob Markstrom definitely will get traded, or that he should get traded. But if Thatcher Demko manages to steal the starting job from Markstrom, then Benning will have a difficult choice to make.

Markstrom is coming off the best season of his career, but Demko has long been viewed as the goalie of the future here on the west coast. Markstrom also happens to be entering the final season of his contract, and with the Seattle expansion draft just two years away, Vancouver has to be thinking about the long-term future.

The Canucks will only be able to protect one goalie for the draft, and it’s hard to envision them exposing Demko. That’s why it’s reasonable to think that unless Markstrom outplays Demko by a country mile in 2019-20, the 29-year-old could find himself being traded at the deadline.

It’s just hard to see how the Canucks will be able to continue the Markstrom-Demko tandem beyond next season, unless the former is willing to re-sign for one year — which would allow the Canucks to protect Demko from Seattle in two years. This would mean they don’t have to worry about protecting Markstrom, and he could always re-sign following the expansion draft

I strongly believe that Demko is going to take giant steps in his sophomore season, and there will be immense competition in the crease throughout the year. There will be some goalie-desperate teams at the deadline, and Benning might decide to get something for Markstrom, rather than risk losing him for nothing in free agency or in the 2021 expansion draft.

2. Quinn finishes second in Calder voting behind brother Jack

This may be the most wide open Calder Trophy race in NHL history. There are at least seven prime candidates in Quinn and Jack Hughes, Kappo Kakko, Ryan Poehling, Cale Makar, Maxime Comtois and Alexandre Texier. You can argue that there are more than a dozen candidates, however.

Now, Jack should be considered the favorite to win it — being the No. 1 pick and all. He has all the makings to be a true franchise-changing star. Of course, Kakko is entering a nice situation with the New York Rangers. Artemi Panarin will help the slick Finnish stud maximize his skill set right away. And of course, some early NHL experience will give Makar an advantage in the Calder Trophy race.

Quinn dazzled in his five games for the Canucks last season, tallying three assists while displaying phenomenal chemistry with Boeser and Pettersson. He’ll get plenty of power play minutes, and Hughes is in good position to put up 35-plus points with the Canucks. That should be enough for him to earn a Calder nomination.

But when all is said and done, Quinn will lose the friendly Calder Trophy battle to younger brother Jack (just for fun, we’ll say Kakko is the other nominee here). The New Jersey Devils rookie should put up strong numbers with 2017-18 Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall and All-Star blueliner P.K. Subban supporting him.

I’m going to guess that Hughes will put up around 30 goals and 70 points to win the Calder. Quinn will finish second after tallying 10 goals and 37 points. Kakko will finish third with 25 goals and 57 point on the season.

Thanks to Jack, the Canucks fall just short in icing back-to-back Calder Trophy winners.

1. Canucks finish 3rd in Pacific Division

The Pacific Division only iced three playoff teams last year — the Calgary Flames (107 points), the San Jose Sharks (101 points) and the Vegas Golden Knights (93 points). Calgary and San Jose, however, were the top two teams in the Western Conference — and both were top six teams in the league standings.

Vegas underachieved a little bit last season after reaching the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural 2017-18 campaign. But will they really be better this time around? Colin Miller and Erik Haula left in the offseason — and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury isn’t getting any younger (he turns 35 in November).

The Flames have kept the bulk of their core roster together, but it’s hard to trust the goalie tandem of David Rittich and Cam Talbot. No doubt that the Canucks have a more reliable and convincing tandem in Markstrom and Demko. Plus, reigning Norris Trophy winner Mark Giordano isn’t going to repeat his 74-point season.

As for the Sharks, they lost perennial 30-goal man Joe Pavelski to the Dallas Stars in free agency. They also had to move on from key offensive contributors Joonas Donskoi and Gustav Nyquist, plus blueliner Justin Braun. On top of that, goalie Martin Jones is coming off a frustrating year in which he posted a 2.94 goals against average and a save percentage of .896.

So at least two of the Pacific Division playoff teams from last year figure to slip a bit. The Canucks, meanwhile, are ready to trend up after adding secondary scoring and much-needed help on defence. And while the core players on San Jose continue to get up there in age, Vancouver’s young stars are only entering their primes.

With that all said, look for the Canucks to finish third in the Pacific Division with 96 points. For fun sake, we’ll say they finish ahead of the Sharks. Vancouver will be one of the top stories of 2019-20 as they reach the postseason for the first time in five seasons.