3 areas the Canucks are aiming to improve on in 2024-25

As Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said during his end of season presser, he's always looking to improve the roster, and essentially not rest on his laurels. This must be refreshing for fans to hear, even after the team is coming over a season where they totalled the third-most points in franchise history and won their first division title since 2012-13.

This ongoing effort to improve the team extends to an offence which had the sixth-most goals in the NHL during the 2023-24 regular season. And this will prove to be a focus during the Canucks' upcoming three-day summit in Vancouver.

As per The Athletic's Thomas Dance (subscription required), the summit will be run by head coach Rick Tocchet and involve his coaching staff, as they aim to find ways to improve the team, while also building up stronger relationships among themselves. Here is a look at three areas in particular, which the coaching staff will be aiming to improve for the season ahead:

1) Getting the power play back on track

The Cancucks' power play was decent enough during the 2023-24 regular season, as evidenced by ranking tied-10th with the Minnesota Wild at 22.7 percent efficiency. Interestingly, this was the exact same percent efficiency as the season before, when the Canucks ranked 11th in the NHL.

However, where concern comes in, is how the efficiency of the Canucks' power play decreased during the playoffs. While taking into account the obvious fact that not everyone played the same number of games, they dropped all the way down to 13.9 percent efficiency and ranked just 12th out of the 16 playoff teams.

This included an efficiency of just 13.0 percent versus the Edmonton Oilers specifically, during an intense second round matchup which went the full seven games. What was really concerning for the Canucks though, was how their power play became completely ineffective as the season progressed.

In the first three games of the series, the Canucks had a 33.3 percent efficiency after scoring three goals on nine power play opportunities. As a knock-on effect, they took a 2-1 series lead against the Oilers.

After this however it all fell apart, as the Canucks went a shocking 0-for-14 during the remaining four games. The Oilers won three of those four games, and advanced to the Western Conference Final.

As a result, Rick Tocchet is going to be running the power play himself, working closely with assistant coach Jaroslav Švejkovský. As per Dance, this is unusual for an NHL head coach, but also alludes to how this is arguably the most important part of the three-day summit.