
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.
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.