Key takeaways from Canucks players’ year-end media availability

The Vancouver Canucks are officially on summer break.

After cleaning out their lockers on Sunday morning, a handful of team members took the time to address the media about the ups and downs of this year’s regular season, starting with Alex Chiasson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat.

The first question went to Horvat, who was asked about the nature of his current injury.

Horvat, who missed the final seven games of the season after blocking a shot during Vancouver’s 5-2 victory against the Arizona Coyotes on March 14th, explained that he was dealing with a broken tibia. Fortunately for the organization, it sounds like the captain does not need to undergo surgery for the damage.

The recovery procedure is also great for Horvat himself, who announced that his wife, Holly, gave birth to their daughter, Tulsa, late last week.

The media then turned their attention to Chiasson.

Chiasson, whose current one-year deal expires this offseason, was asked about his late-season offensive production, and how well he gelled in the top-six forward group with players such as Miller and Conor Garland.

Chiasson finished the year with 13 goals and nine assists in 67 games played, with 11 of those points taking place in the final 12 games of the season. Although there hasn’t been any discussion about an extension for the 31-year-old forward, he did note that it “would be an honour to come back next year”.

Chiasson has signed three separate professional tryouts in his career.

There were also a few questions for Ekman-Larsson, specifically on his relationship with defensive partner Tyler Myers.

In the past, both blueliners were often relied on to produce offence while also logging heavy minutes, but Ekman-Larsson spoke to the fact that this wasn’t necessarily the case here in Vancouver because of Quinn Hughes.

“He’s such a good skater and moves the puck and can log heavy minutes in the o-zone.”

For the most part, Ekman-Larsson and Myers were defensively sound and responsible against other teams’ top players, proving that they, indeed, were able to “do whatever we can to bring something to the table”.

Ekman-Larsson finished the season with five goals and 24 assists in 79 games.

The second group brought in Garland, Hughes, Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.

Their availability started off on an extremely emotional note, with Boeser speaking on the current health situation of his father, Duke, who was previously diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

Boeser, who was understandably choking back tears, touched on how difficult his year had been given his family challenges outside of the rink, specifically noting that Duke is now also living with dementia.

Although Boeser didn’t have the best start to his season under former head coach Travis Green, the 25-year-old Burnsville native was able to register 19 goals with Bruce Boudreau at the helm, bringing his offensive total to 46 points in 71 games.

Following Boeser’s exit from the media availability, the attention turned to Hughes, who made sure to speak on Boeser before addressing his own questions.

“We’re gonna need Brock to be really good if we want to be good. I think it’s important for him to go home to Minnesota and spend good quality time with his family and enjoy the summer and then come back ready to go. I think he’ll do that. He’s a motivated kid. And he’ll be fine. He’s going to come back and he’s gonna have a great year next year.”

Hughes was also asked about his personal accomplishments from the year but, despite breaking two franchise records, Hughes said he was most proud of his penalty kill role and drastically improved plus/minus, two areas he was able to work on under Boudreau.

The former Calder Trophy nominee also touched on his defensive partner in Luke Schenn, and how he helped Hughes stabilize his defensive zone coverage.

Schenn has one year remaining on his two-year, $1.7 million contract.

The second group’s availability ended with a heavy focus on Pettersson, who spoke on his up-and-down season. Despite rumours of a nagging wrist injury early on in the year, Pettersson made sure to be quite blunt on his poor first-half performance, admitting that his late training camp start and higher expectations affected his confidence.

Fortunately, like many of his teammates, Pettersson was able to rediscover his scoring touch under Boudreau, notching 56 of his 68 points between December 6th and April 29th.