The Canucks will rely on their young core to produce offensively

Overall team success for the Vancouver Canucks will be dependant on how much the core of this team can continue to grow and take on more responsibility.

With great power comes great responsibility.

It’s safe to say that the Vancouver Canucks have one of the best young, up and coming cores in the National Hockey League. Elias Pettersson is a franchise centre. Quinn Hughes is the best defender in Canucks history. And Thatcher Demko proved he can handle the pressure of being a number one goaltender when it counts.

The people have seen that Pettersson will stop at nothing to be a better player each and every day. Hughes was a finalist to the Calder Trophy (which he could have won in my opinion), and the Vegas Golden Knights are still having nightmares about Demko’s God-like performance in goal.

But surrounding all of that talent is a promising two-way captain in Bo Horvat, a shoot-first ask questions later kind of player in Brock Boeser, and the very hard working J.T. Miller. That’s quite the cast no matter how you want to slice it up. And this group of hockey players will need to continue growing from recent success if this team wishes to continue on their path to being a Stanley Cup contender. Heck, they may have to keep trucking above expectations just to make it to the dance.

It’s no secret that Vancouver lost a lot of talent in free agency. Back-to-back team MVP Jacob Markstrom got paid by the Calgary Flames. Soon after he was joined by veteran defender Chris Tanev and depth scorer Josh Leivo. These guys create positive locker rooms and bring a lot more than just a desire to win hockey games. They were a very big reason why the 2019-20 Canucks were as good as they were.

Yes, Pettersson was still an MVP forward. Yes, Miller was better than anyone thought he would be. Yes, Hughes blew expectations out of the water. But can they continue at these crazy high rates while somehow managing to bring more to the table? It’s a great question and one that will definitely be answered next season because the Canucks really don’t have any other option.

Money is locked up in what seems to be an unmovable bottom-six and a bottom-six that really doesn’t drive much in terms of offensive production. The players that did find ways to pitch in, like Jake Virtanen and Adam Gaudette, will possibly be getting a promotion to the top-six and the bottom half of the roster will be more or less old and run down.

The 31-year-old Brandon Sutter will be in the final year of his contract still without the offensive punch he was extended for in the first place. The 35-year-old Loui Eriksson is likely to be a contributor due to his hefty contract status, and Jay Beagle (35) will be around to take face-offs and kill penalties. So where is the supporting offence going to come from?

Truth be told, the vast majority of it is going to have to come from the players who are already putting up points on a night-to-night basis. Pettersson will need to be a player producing over a point per game, Miller will need an encore to his best season to date, and Boeser must become the pure goal scorer he was back during his rookie campaign.

There will be a ton of pressure on the Canucks great young players and it’ll be interesting to see if they are ready to take on the next step of NHL responsibility. Can Pettersson and company find a way to carry this team like Sidney Crosby has done for the Pittsburgh Penguins all these years? I don’t know, but I am more than willing to find out.

What do you think Canucks Nation? Does this core have what it takes to make the next step? Can Hughes be a top NHL defender again? Can Horvat have another career year? So many questions. Let us know your thoughts below!