The Canuck Way Mailbag: Demko, Edler, defence pairings, jerseys, more

The dog days of the Vancouver Canucks’ offseason continue as we get questions about Thatcher Demko, reverse retro jerseys, ranking logos, and more.

It’s the middle of November, and everyone is missing Vancouver Canucks hockey now more than ever. COVID-19 cases continue to rise, so we could use something to take our minds off of the chaos that is going on around the world right now.

Hopefully, by the time it is back on our television screens, everything is trending in a positive direction and we can get back to our favourite Canadian pastime without worrying too much about the pandemic.

Until then, we will continue to look towards the NHL’s 2020-21 season which will most likely be played in January in an all-Canadian division. The Canucks still have questions marks in their top-six and defence pairings after free agency gutted both areas.

Fortunately, excitement abounds with the potential additions of youngsters Jack Rathbone, Olli Juolevi, and Nils Hoglander to the roster and of course, the eventual debut of 2019 top prospect Vasili Podkolzin. If all goes well, they should be able to mitigate the departures of Chris Tanev, Troy Stecher, and Tyler Toffoli.

This week we got some great questions, so without further ado, let’s get to the mailbag!

We all know that head coach Travis Green loves having his defencemen play their natural positions. In an ideal world, that would happen all the time, but with the rarity of right-handed blueliners in the NHL, he will have to make do with what he has. Currently, Vancouver only has Brogan Rafferty and Tyler Myers as right-handed options, so at least one of Nate Schmidt or Jordie Benn will have to play on his off-side in 2020-21.

Fortunately for Green, they both have experience playing there when they were members of the Vegas Golden Knights and Montreal Canadiens, respectively. Interestingly enough, Benn has performed better defensively when he was placed on his off-side in the past. As for Schmidt, he regularly played with Brayden McNabb in Vegas on the right side and never finished below the 50 percent mark in Corsi For percentage in the three seasons he was there.

So if Rafferty does not make the team, it is a definite possibility that we see both Benn and Schmidt playing the right side come opening night.

I don’t think Green will consider playing a rookie on his top pairing with Quinn Hughes. Rafferty is the only right-handed option in the three you mentioned, so he would be the only player that would even merit consideration. Juolevi and Rathbone would have to play outside their comfort zone on the right side, which I believe is a non-starter in Green’s mind.

Having said that, Green should still experiment a little with his pairings during whatever preseason we get in 2020-21. If one of them looks comfortable playing next to Hughes, then I would not be averse to having Rafferty, Juolevi or Rathbone start next to him on opening night.

However, since Green likes to use Hughes as a matchup defenceman, Schmidt or Benn would be the better choice to take up Tanev’s mantle. As much as I would love to spread out the veterans, I think it is too much of an ask to expect one of the rookies to take on such a massive responsibility in his first season.

Alex Edler is still an important member of the Canucks, and as such, probably won’t see a demotion in 2020-21. Last season, he averaged 22:37 of ice time, blocked 162 shots, and was one of their top penalty killers along with Tanev. With the loss of his long-time shot-blocking partner and the subsequent addition of Schmidt, I still think he will be relied upon to provide that same presence on the second pairing with Myers or the aforementioned Schmidt.

Unless Green decides to have Edler play with Juolevi on the bottom pairing as a mentor to the young defenceman, he will continue to have the same role as last season. But that is unlikely given that both of them are left-hand shots, and Edler has struggled in the past to adjust his game when placed anywhere other than his natural left side.

Reverse retro jerseys & ranking logos

I actually love the teased look of the Canucks new reverse retro jersey. I have always liked the style of the third jersey they wore in 2001 which featured a navy and maroon gradient. Swapping the navy and maroon for green and blue looks very sharp in my mind. If the entire jersey looks as good as the teaser photos, I probably will be ordering one next season.

Having said that, I hope that the Canucks don’t replace the black Flying Skate jersey they wore multiple times last season with this reverse retro one. In addition to how good they looked in them, they also won a lot of games wearing them, too. I hope that fact doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of these new and supposedly improved threads.

Keeping with the theme of jerseys, I will do my best to rank the logos the Canucks have had over their 50-year existence.

1. Flying Skate (1985-1997)
2. Stick-in-Rink (1970-1978)
3. Current Orca (2019-present)
4. West Coast Express (1997-2007)
5. Orca with ‘Vancouver’ wordmark (2007-2018)
6. Flying V (1978-1985)

As you could have probably guessed already, the Flying Skate comes in first as my favourite of all the logos the Canucks have had over the years. It may have presided over some dark times for the team, but it also was worn during one of the most memorable Stanley Cup runs of all time. That 1994 run was probably one of the first hockey memories I have too, so that may have come into play when I was creating these rankings.

Coming in second to last is the Orca with the ‘Vancouver’ wordmark, which I’m sure most of you would agree with. That wordmark was a useless addition to the logo, not to mention it made it look busy and crowded on the jersey. The idea was that people would not know the logo represented a team from Vancouver, so they had to slap the words above it to make it more obvious. That’s why I was so happy when they removed it for the 2019-20 season. The logo looks so much cleaner without it, and actually vaulted it up to third on my rankings. Sometimes, less is more when it comes to designing a piece of art.

Last and certainly least is the Flying V. According to colour psychologists at the time, yellow, orange, and black were supposed to create a happy and upbeat fan. However, fans and supporters came to hate the logo and jersey so much that the Canucks’ marketing department was forced to change it. Good thing too, because I can’t see myself ever wearing a jersey that had that logo on it.

That brings us to the end of another edition of The Canuck Way mailbag. Thank you again for all your questions. I would love to create more rankings, so definitely submit more of those next week. Until then, follow us @FSTheCanuckWay on Twitter and look out for the tweet announcing the next one.