If the National Hockey League returns at all this year, the Vancouver Canucks roster is deep enough to withstand a long run in the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Vancouver Canucks have a roster that will greatly benefit from the current pause of NHL action, and if one thing is certain about it, it’s the fact that if and when this season does return, Elias Pettersson and company will be healthy enough to withstand an all-out war in the trenches of professional hockey.
Hands down, Jim Benning has the hottest hand at the NHL Entry Draft as of late. With three out of the park grand slams in back-to-back-to-back years in the likes Quinn Hughes, Pettersson, and Brock Boeser, GMJB has respectfully put the Canucks within striking distance of a franchise-first Stanley Cup.
On top of the team’s elite-level draft picks the organization has done a fantastic job over the last year and a half building a strong, deep, meat-and-potatoes style supporting cast. Each position is deep with competitive talent, and each major position (center, defense, goalie) is led by a 2020 All-Star.
Forwards
The Canucks’ deepest position of strength this year has got to be their depth at forward. Not only is the team thick with elite talent inside their top-six, but Benning and Travis Green have done an amazing job transitioning this roster into a top-nine scoring threat with players to spare.
The acquisitions of J.T. Miller, Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli has been ginormous for Vancouver. J.T. brings the team a new leading-scorer (but oh so much more), Pearson is the perfect linemate for Bo Horvat, and Toffoli’s Stanley Cup ring is the added experience the Canucks need this time of year.
Tack on the rise of Jake Virtanen, Adam Gaudette, and Josh Leivo into reliable 40-point players, and suddenly this team can score. The rest of the NHL needs to look out because this team is loaded with scoring capabilities at forward. They possess the potential of having seven 20-goal scorers this year in their top-nine. Surrounding those hardnosed goalscorers is another physical presence in big body players like Micheal Ferland and Zack MacEwen.
You can’t forget about their lethal power play either. The league’s fourth-best unit nearly all season long. You can’t miss it. For the first time in a while they’ve actually got two units that can provide goals. That man-advantage unit is something else entirely. It’s dangerous on a whole new level, a deep run in the playoffs kind of dangerous!
Defense and goaltending
If the Canucks have a positional weakness, the blueline is definitely it. Hughes was a huge boost to the overall look don’t get me wrong, but even his All-Star talents weren’t enough to hide the holes. Together though, this group of six main roster players did enough to keep their team in the game. And thanks to some incredible goaltending, this team actually has a chance to do some big things.
With the help of Jacob Markstrom and Thatcher Demko often standing on their heads, the Canucks were able to find wins and get points. The fact that they have two good goaltenders is also a great thing to have going into the playoffs. And who knows, sometimes the playoffs are won by the play of a hot goaltender. Markstrom’s eight stolen wins this season tells me he’s hungry to steal some games for the Canucks in the playoffs this year. He just needs the chance to do it.
What do you think Canucks fans? Does the Vancouver roster have what it takes to make a deep playoff run this year? Leave a comment below! Let us know your thoughts.