With just four games left, and the Canucks locked into the last seed in the NHL, it has been interesting to see what has gone wrong for the team on the ice.
It is plainly obvious that on paper, the Canucks are not a competitive team and currently do not boast any star power. Their leading scorer this season is currently Elias Pettersson, who has 48 points in 70 games, and if the season ended today Pettersson’s point total would be the lowest to lead a team since Nick Bjustad’s 38 points for the Florida Panthers during the 2013-2014 season.
The current reality is that the only player on the Canucks who has performed up to normal standards production wise is Filip Hronek, with 46 points in 78 games. The only forwards on the Canucks with more than 38 points are Brock Boeser and the aforementioned Elias Pettersson, and while Linus Karlsson had a nice jump of 34 points in 75 games, including 15 goals, it will certainly take a lot more than this for the Canucks to get out of the basement of the NHL.
Some positive notes are that Marco Rossi, who began his Canucks tenure with just 2 points in 11 games, has 16 points in his last 18 games mainly after returning from a lower body injury, and Zeev Buium has a Corsi For % of 51.4% compared to Quinn Hughes’ Corsi For % of 53.2 since the trade.
On a macro level, the team stats are even worse
The Canucks have:
The worst goal differential in the NHL by 39 goals.
The second lowest xGoals% at 44.73% per Money Puck.
One player with more than 200 shots on goal.
The second highest amount of scoring chances against at 1873 per Hockey Reference.
The fourth lowest shooting percentage at 8.22% per Money Puck.
The fifth lowest Corsi % at 47.5% per Hockey Reference.
The lowest amount of goals for per 60 at 1.95 per Money Puck.
The second most Expected Goals Against at 180 per Money Puck.
Eight players with a plus minus rating of minus 20 or worse.
Zero goalies with 10 wins.
Zero goalies with a save percentage over .895.
The least amount of points in the NHL by 18.
Yes, there is more, but to spare Canucks fans the pain I will cap it here.
The Canucks have approximately $74 million committed to the cap next season, and their unrestricted free agents are Evander Kane, Teddy Blueger, Derek Forbort and Jiri Patera.
Ultimately much of the Canucks future will depend on the upcoming draft, as many of the top unrestricted free agents this summer will be over 30 and will unlikely be looking to join a rebuilding team.