3 Canucks players who surprised us this season
The Vancouver Canucks had a good team on paper, but nobody expected a Presidents’ Trophy contending season. Here are three surprising players who made that possible.
The Vancouver Canucks were a surprise team this season, even if, on paper, they looked like a group that would contend for the playoffs. With names like J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, and Quinn Hughes, and that’s to name a select few, there was no reason why this team couldn’t compete.
But to contend for the Presidents’ Trophy for most of the season before a few mid-to-late-season hiccups prevented that was something even those who put all their faith in this hockey team probably didn’t see coming. But here we are, with the regular season ending, and Vancouver looks like they are on their way to a Pacific Division title.
While that may not ultimately be the case, depending on how the final few days of the regular season play out, there are more than a few reasons to be proud of this hockey team. And we can start with some players who made what has been one of the most memorable seasons in British Columbia possible.
Several surprises led to the Canucks spectacular 2023-24 season
There are way too many sensational players who performed well over expectations this season, even those whose respective performances we saw coming, like those from Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. One player we probably didn’t see making waves was Thatcher Demko, who, despite putting up some gaudy numbers in the past, took his game up another level.
In 49 games, Demko recorded a remarkable five shutouts, plus a more than respectable 2.47 GAA and a 0.917 save percentage. Demko certainly deserves an honorable mention, but there are three players whose seasons through most of the Canucks season deserve front-and-center attention.
The first is someone who has been a top-tier points scorer in the NHL. But few probably thought he would take his game up yet another level.
J.T. Miller was already a great player, but…
J.T. Miller has always been a reliable player, and you can argue he’s been the best in British Columbia starting in 2019-20. What we didn’t see happening when the Canucks season commenced in October was Miller hitting the century mark in points, which should at least grant him Hart Trophy consideration.
Heading into 2023-24’s final week, Miller scored a career-high 36 goals and logged another 66 assists, giving him 102 points. His shooting percentage was an astounding 19.0 percent as of April 15th, and Miller still wasn’t done setting new career-bests.
Through his first 80 games, Miller won 818 faceoffs, blocked 61 shots, and landed 214 body checks. He scored a lot, but let’s credit Miller’s defensive play as a catalyst for helping the Canucks maximize their scoring chances, which led to this team averaging 3.41 goals per game.
Thanks to his fantastic play since he first trekked out west, you may not think of Miller as a surprise. While his ability to be a game-changer shocked nobody, the point is, Miller’s overall production set a new standard in British Columbia. Next season, let’s not expect similar numbers, but we’ll also be disappointed if there is too much of a drop-off.
Filip Hronek just raised the bar up another level
Fans just saw a tiny sample size of Filip Hronek in 2022-23 when he played in just four games and logged an assist. But the 60 appearances he made in Detroit gave us a better look at what the blueliner could offer Vancouver.
Last season in the Motor City, Hronek saw action in 60 contests and recorded 38 points plus nine goals. He was also a rather physical player more than capable of putting up top-four minutes, and it’s something we knew was coming in his first full season with the Canucks. But Hronek gave us more than what we thought, with 48 points and five goals across 80 games as of April 15th, plus 23:29 of average total ice time.
With a points total nearing 50, we can now ask ourselves just how Hronek will parlay his performance this season after he eventually signs a new deal to stay in British Columbia. He won’t throw any more surprises at us unless the 26-year-old decides to give us a season akin to what we saw from Evan Bouchard over in Edmonton.
But with Quinn Hughes in town, that probably won’t happen, and if it does, expect this team to lead the league in goals. Either way, it’s perfectly acceptable to believe he will cross the 50-point threshold, barring an injury.
Dakota Joshua proved to be an excellent secondary asset
If Dakota Joshua played in 79 games as opposed to 61, his points total would have likely encroached the 40-point barrier, but fans should be happy with the 31 he put up, along with 17 goals and a 21.3 shooting percentage. Joshua looked more like a pure fourth-liner before the season began, and his average total ice time of 10:31 and 32 career points in 121 games further justified that.
But this year, Joshua surprised us by proving he could play middle-six minutes, even with the hard-hitting mentality of a fourth-liner. He also scored a shocking five game-winners, so he’s yet another member of this intriguing Canucks team to come up big when this team needed the go-ahead goal.
Thanks to how high-scoring a unit Vancouver can be, it’s hard to imagine Joshua continuing this upward trend in points, even if it wouldn't be so surprising if he kept it up next season. He’s earned the right for us to at least expect a serviceable level of production in 2024-25 and beyond if he remains part of this organization.
We saw no shortage of surprises throughout the 2023-24 season in Vancouver, and those listed both here and in the previous slides played major roles in seeing the Canucks take one of the higher seeds in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)