Yes, the Vancouver Canucks are a good team, and they’re playing fun hockey. And if they had goaltender Thatcher Demko in the net this entire time with Kevin Lankinen supplementing, who knows how much further ahead this team would be?
But that wasn’t the case, and the Canucks were forced to hold their own until their star goaltender returned. It was more than that, though, as this team rarely seemed to be completely healthy, so the cards were stacked against them.
Luckily, they stayed the course and the storm appears to be hitting its conclusion. But that wasn’t the case with every player in the lineup through the first two months of the season. Quite a few of them underperformed, and they’ll be the subject of our discussion today.
Nils Hoglander
I’ll never accuse Nils Hoglander of being a dynamic points producer, but after he put up 24 goals last season, I thought he’d be a fair depth scorer. Nope, that’s not happening, or at least it’s not trending as such, as Hoglander’s put up just two goals this year for a “whopping” 7.4 shooting percentage.
And I know Thatcher Demko just made his triumphant return and gave us more stability in the net, but come on, Kevin Lankinen was a decent consolation prize. That said, a minus-6 and watching 16 goals go into his team’s own net at even strength wasn’t what I had in mind for Hoglander in December when the season started back in October.
Tyler Meyers
Tyler Meyers remains a physical player who can play middle and bottom-pairing minutes well, but there’s been a drop-off in his game through the first one-third of the season. For one, he’s been way down in Corsi For at even strength this season, where it sits at just 43.9.
In case you’re wondering, it’s roughly a four percent decrease from last season, and his on-ice save percentage also hasn’t clicked. So far, it’s at 88.8, and Meyers has watched 23 goals go by this season. Not an ideal number, considering he’s played in 27 games this season.
Arturs Silovs
Thatcher Demko’s return means the Canucks can put the Arturs Silovs experiment on hold for a minute here, and preferably longer. After playing admirably not even a full year ago, I felt Silovs would come back stronger in 2024-25.
But instead, he treated everyone to a 4.11 GAA, an 0.847 save percentage, three ‘really bad starts,’ and a quality starts percentage of just 0.167.
He’s only in his age-23 season, so it would be foolish to give up on Silovs at this point and I’m sure the Canucks have no plans to. Still, it was rough watching him when they called his number. So, hopefully, Demko stays healthy, and we’ll have quite the go-to tandem from here on out.