3 areas the Canucks are aiming to improve on in 2024-25
As the Canucks coaching staff prepares for their three-day summit later on this month, a look at three areas the team wants to be better in this coming season.
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.
2) Helping Hughes and Hroenk be more effective
On a peripheral level, It is understandable if people wonder why any focus on improving the offence needs a deeper look at Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek. After all, they both enjoyed their best respective seasons yet in the NHL, highlighted by having the best two +/- ratings on the team, at +38 and +33 respectively.
For Quinn, his 92 points led all defencemen and were a career high, as he took home the Norris Memorial Trophy. For Hronek, his 48 points were also a career high, as he played well enough to earn an eight-year, $58 million extension to remain in Vancouver.
However, what was also noticeable was that opposing teams gradually worked out that the Canucks' offence was being run from the back through Hughes and Hronek. As per Dance, this resulted in the two blueliners being checked high in the zone more and more, as the 2023-24 season progressed.
Unsurprisingly, all of this resulted in the duo not being quite as effective offensively, during the second half of the regular season. Hughes went from 62 points and a +34 rating during 49 games in October to January, to 30 points and a +4 rating during 33 games between February and April.
As for Hronek, he went from 36 points and a +33 rating in 49 games during October to January, to 12 points and a 0 rating in 32 games between February and April. In fairness to the 26-year-old though, even though he denies it, speculation is he was playing with an injury during the second half of the season.
Moving forward, the way opposing teams dealt with Hughes and Hronek will provide Tocchet and the Canucks with the opportunity to adjust and expand their plan of attack more effectively. However, still expect them to find ways to heavily involve Hughes and Hronek again, given their respective offensive talents.
3) Faceoff plays
As we wrote back in June, Henrik and Daniel Sedin are now more involved in day-to-day coaching activities for the organisation at both the NHL and AHL level. This makes a lot of sense, given the success the two Canucks legends enjoyed on the ice.
At the time of making the announcement about the Sedin twins' increased involvement, Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said: "Including the Sedins more in our day-to-day coaching duties will be hugely beneficial to our group both on and off the ice. Both Daniel and Henrik bring a very unique perspective and competitive mind set to our staff."
As per Dance, the Sedins will be hosting a “deep dive” presentation during the three-day summit, focusing on specialised game states. This will include a look at three-on-three and four-on-four play.
However, most interesting of all, there will be an in-depth review of faceoff plays in all three zones. This is significant, given this was an areas of speciality for the Sedins when they played, particularly Henrik.
For what it's worth the Canucks were pretty good when it came to faceoff plays in 2023-24, ranking eighth in the NHL with a 52.1 percent faceoff win percentage during the regular season, and then third at 53.1 percent in the playoffs. At the same time, it never hurts to listen to couple of Hall of Famers for some advice, as any extra advantage counts.
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N.B. All statistics are courtesy of NHL.com and hockey-reference.com
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