Rating each Canucks player's 2021-22 season out of 10

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The Vancouver Canucks face an offseason of questions.

Will Bruce Boudreau come back? How are they going to create cap space? Who will they draft in the first round? Which players are going to get traded?

We will know the answers within the next few weeks or months. For now, let’s look back at the season that was for a little bit.

A lot of writers like to give letter grades to players. Let’s change things up a little. Since hockey is a game of numbers, let’s use them. Instead, let’s evaluate each Canucks player’s season by ranking them out of ten. The ten ranking system has been used by IMDB, Dancing with the Stars, soccer and now I’ll use it for this article.

I’ll give them a score out of ten and then give a couple of sentences why. I also decided to give ratings for skaters who have played a minimum of 15 games.

Apr 29, 2022; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; The Vancouver Canucks celebrate a goal by forward J.T. Miller (9) during the first period against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports /

The Forwards

Brock Boeser: 7/10: Boeser benefited from Bruce Boudreau’s arrival. However, he has been inconsistent and has gone on stretches without scoring. 23 goals isn’t bad and it matches his total from the 2020-21 season, but there needs to be more consistency. I should also note that Boeser has had a tough time off the ice over the past year as he emotionally revealed that his father Duke has dementia. All the best to Boeser and his family.

Alex Chiasson: 5/10: 10 out of Chiasson’s 13 goals came on the power play. He scored on the man advantage using his net-front presence. While he is effective on the power play, he doesn’t do a whole lot at even strength.

Jason Dickinson: 1/10: It is very safe to say Dickinson has been a disappointment. He has been poor in the faceoff circle, in the defensive zone and on the penalty kill. Overall, he hasn’t been a fit with the Canucks. Could Patrik Allvin and company find a way to trade him? Maybe, but I’m not sure there will be interest.

Conor Garland: 7/10: Garland kind of became a fan favourite in the early stages of the season. He was scoring goals, making shifty moves, spinning and getting under the skin of his opponents. However he had a quiet second half and while the effort was there, the production stopped. He did finish the year strong with 14 points in the last 12 games. Garland would have got at least an 8/10 if he was consistent all season but his good start and solid finish give him a seven.

Nils Höglander : 4/10: It looked like Höglander was a victim of the sophomore slump and 4/10 might be a bit too harsh. He was not the same skilled winger we saw in 2020-21 for most of the season. Höglander wasn’t scoring or putting up many points and he wasn’t very good on the defensive side. Hopefully, he recovers from his upper-left-leg/core muscle issue and comes back next season stronger and proves that this season was just the sophomore slump.

Bo Horvat: 8/10: Before he went down for the season with his foot injury, Horvat was leading the Canucks in goals and was the first Canuck to hit the 30-goal mark since Radim Vrbata in 2014-15. While he has had consistency issues and isn’t as good in his own end, Horvat proved he is a capable offensive centre and was good in the faceoff dot. The Canucks captain was sixth in the NHL faceoffs won among centres with 841 and his faceoff winning percentage of 57% was 14th.

Matthew Highmore: 5/10: Highmore did miss a large chunk of the season due to injuries and being in the COVID protocol. On the fourth line, he was fine. Highmore was fine. He was physical, showed some good pace and gave a good effort while occasionally providing offence. Highmore wasn’t super good or super bad but good enough in a fourth-line role.

Juho Lammikko 6/10: Lammikko was another player that benefited from Boudreau’s arrival. He wasn’t doing very well on both ends of the rink but that changed when Boudreau arrived. Lammikko was winning the battles in his defensive zone and even managed to score some goals and create plays in the offensive zone. Though he did slow down offensively after Tyler Motte got traded to the New York Rangers. I gave Lammikko gets a higher score than Highmore because I felt like Lammikko provided a bit more offensively and defensively on the fourth line.

J.T. Miller 10/10: Miller has been the engine for the Canucks this season. Despite his defensive zone turnovers, Miller drives the offensive bus. He was putting up points with ease and he managed 99 on the season which is an impressive feat. It’s fair he gets a perfect ten. Jim Rutherford has said they want to extend Miller but it won’t be easy after his impressive season in which he’ll want a big payday. Can they afford to keep him?

Tanner Pearson: 6/10: He isn’t the 20-goal scorer from 2019-20 anymore but in a middle-six role, Pearson has looked effective. Pearson displayed good forechecking abilities, especially along the boards and has scored now and then. He gets a six because he has proven he is still useful despite being overpaid.

Elias Pettersson 8/10: If the season ended in December or January, Pettersson would have gotten a one or two out of 10. But as we all know, Pettersson woke from his slumber and since the All-Star break, he had 44 points in 34 games. He was looking like the player from his first two seasons, scoring goals, deking and displaying great playmaking skills. Pettersson’s second-half play alone is a 10/10 but he only gets an eight because of his slow start but that is also because he made us forget the slow start even happened.

Brad Richardson 5/10: The Canucks claimed Brad Richardson off waivers on trade deadline day. In 17 games, he managed two goals and two assists. He didn’t really help a lot but he worked hard on the fourth line.

Apr 19, 2022; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes (43) battles with Ottawa Senators forward Alex Formenton (10) in the second period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports /

The Defence:

Kyle Burroughs: 5/10: The Langley native displayed some big hits throughout the season. While there were times when he made good plays in his own zone, he was often getting caught on the rush.

Travis Dermott: 6/10: Dermott was traded to the Canucks a day before the deadline from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a 2022 third-round pick. He has been a quiet but effective defenceman in 17 games despite the bad turnover now and then. Dermott came with a 1.5 million dollar cap hit and that will continue next season. He is decent in a bottom-four role.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson: 7/10: Ekman-Larsson for the most part, was solid defensively throughout the season. He was often giving a hard time for puck carriers to get good scoring chances. When he was given first power play unit time, he excelled. OEL finished the season with five goals and 24 assists for 29 points. Those numbers aren’t bad but at his 7.26 million dollar cap hit, there needs to be more. The Canucks have him for five more years and he isn’t getting younger.

Quinn Hughes: 10/10: After a disastrous defensive season in 2020-21, Hughes bounced back very nicely. He was much better in his own zone and his skating has looked even smoother. Hughes even managed to break Doug Lidster’s single-season points record for a Canucks defenceman by putting up 68 in 76 games. Of course, he has the chance to break his own record for years to come. Hughes has been by far the best Canucks defenceman in 2021-22.

Brad Hunt: 5/10: The Maple Ridge native is fine in a depth role but he got a lot more ice time than expected this season and even got some power play time. Three goals and 14 assists is pretty good for a guy like Hunt. Defensively, he’s been up and down.

Tucker Poolman: 1/10: Poolman is a depth defenceman but was signed to a four-year contract worth 2.5 million dollars last summer. He isn’t very good in his own end and is often coughing up the puck and lost out there. On the breakouts, he also isn’t very good. Yeah, that sums up why he gets a one. However, Poolman has missed a lot of games due to illness (non-COVID related) and injury. He was placed on LTIR late in the season as he is dealing with an injury that was a reoccurrence of a previous head injury. All the best to Poolman, health-wise.

Tyler Myers: 6/10: The “Chaos Giraffe” as dubbed by The Athletic’s Wyatt Arndt did improve a bit defensively during the Boudreau bump but has provided “chaos” throughout the season with his giveaways and poor defensive coverage. Despite that, he managed a goal and 17 assists and was the only Canuck to play 82 games. Myers looked good carrying the puck into the offensive zone and even showed off his drive to the net, which is something he is good at. Myers isn’t a bad defenceman by any means and yes, he makes a lot of mistakes but there were times when he didn’t look too bad in his own end and helped out offensively.

Luke Schenn 10/10: Ok, hear me out. No, Schenn doesn’t get a perfect 10 because he has been a wizard defensively like Hughes or been putting up the points like Miller. He gets a 10 because he exceeded expectations. Schenn was expected to be the seventh defenceman but ended up playing top minutes as Hughes’ partner and has looked very good in that role. He has looked solid in his own end, displayed some huge hits and wasn’t afraid to drop the gloves when there was a bad hit on Hughes. If you told me, Schenn would be on the top pair with Hughes and was doing well on there back in September, I would have thought you were insane.

The goaltenders

Thatcher Demko: 10/10: This one is self-explanatory. Demko has been lights out all season making big saves to keep the Canucks in the playoff race. There is a reason why he was named the team’s MVP.

Jaroslav Halak: 4/10: Yes, there were times when his defence left him to dry but there were also times when Halak couldn’t make saves when he needed to. That included him being pulled in back-to-back starts where he did not goof at all. (Especially the game in New Jersey.) Halak gets a four because he wasn’t getting it done in net but he did improve during the later stages of the season before injuring his hand against the Ottawa Senators.

Spencer Martin would get a 10 since he has played very well but he only played six games.

Next. Key quotes from Rutherford and Allvin’s year-end media availability. dark

What do you think of my Canucks player ratings? Too high? Too low? Let me know in the comment section below, in the Facebook comments or on Twitter.

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