Vancouver Canucks: 5 bold predictions for 2019-20

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.