The Canuck Way Mailbag: Podkolzin, Boeser, Bure, prospects, more

The Vancouver Canucks continue to move through the offseason with no activity. As we inch closer and closer to training camp, let’s answer more questions!

The quiet offseason for the Vancouver Canucks and the rest of the NHL continues as we get closer to training camps.

More movement is sure to happen, but right now there isn’t much to talk about when it comes to news and chatter. But some prospects are still playing overseas and the USNDP started up this weekend, so hockey is being played somewhere.

So with all that said, let’s get to some more of your questions!

The Canucks will have a few options when it comes to filling Chris Tanev’s shoes alongside the uber-talented Quinn Hughes.

They could load up the top-pair with the newly acquired Nate Schmidt to create a smooth-skating mobile tandem, take a risk and gamble on the assumption that Tyler Myers can clean up his defensive game or go conservative and play Jordie Benn on the right side, a spot where he seems to play his best hockey.

Of all those options I think Schmidt would be the best to pair with Hughes because of the way he plays the game overall. He is probably the second best defenceman on the Canucks now and should have the hockey IQ and mobility to keep up with him.

Benn would be an interesting experiment as well, but I just don’t think he has the skill set to play the elevated minutes Hughes gets on a nightly basis. He would have to play close to 20 minutes a night and improve substantially on his performance from last season. He may play better on the right side, but I’m not sure he can fill Tanev’s shoes as his partner for an extended period of time.

Apart from the obvious choices of Brogan Rafferty, Jack Rathbone, and Nils Hoglander (who technically are not sleepers since we talk about them all the time), I think Kole Lind is going to surprise a lot of people and force his way onto the roster. He had a breakout season with the Utica Comets in 2019-20 when he posted career-highs of 14 goals and 44 points in 61 games and really looked NHL-ready at times.

After struggling in his first professional season in the AHL, Lind adjusted his game and became a real presence in his second go-around. If he can bring the same energy and enthusiasm to the NHL in 2020-21, he could force general manager Jim Benning’s hand like Adam Gaudette and Tyler Motte before him. He has good hands around the net and is strong on the forecheck, skills that could be a good fit alongside Gaudette and Hoglander on the third line.

Lind will have some work to do to usurp a veteran but considering how much he improved over an offseason last season, I would not put it past him to take another major step in his development this season.

If Tanner Pearson puts together another season as he did in 2019-20, then I think the Canucks will attempt to re-sign him. However, if they are in a position where they are out of the playoffs at the trade deadline, then Benning will probably look at trading him.

However, since head coach Travis Green likes matching Bo Horvat’s line against the best players on the other team, they will need a similar player to replace him. It may be easier to re-sign a proven commodity than to gamble on an unknown to fill the same role he had.

Ever since Pearson joined the team from the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Erik Gudbranson trade, he has meshed well with the team’s makeup. He plays a hard, sometimes quiet game from the second line, and is one of the best two-way players on the team. Not to mention that he can also kill penalties, play a matchup role, and be trusted in key situations when his team is leading in the final minutes.

We may harp on the fact that he had so many empty-net goals, but the fact that he scored them means that the Canucks eventually won the game. It also means he was efficient at the end of the game defensively and wound up burying his chances when he got an opportunity at the empty net.

That alone is a valuable skill to have on your team. So if I was in Benning’s shoes, I would try and re-sign him, unless his expected salary starts eating into Pettersson and Hughes’ contract extensions.