Naughty: Carson Soucy
For the second year in a row, veteran Canucks defenseman Carson Soucy is getting a big ol' lump of coal in his stocking.
In 2023-24, Soucy ranked 17th out of 23 Canucks players in on-ice expected goals percentage at 5-on-5, posting a negative mark of 49.6%, per MoneyPuck. The only Canucks defensemen who were worse were Noah Juulsen (49.5%) and botched trade acquisition Nikita Zadorov (49.5%). That was not exactly what the Canucks bargained for when they signed the analytics darling and scooped him up away from the Seattle Kraken.
Pressed into a second-pairing role again in the 2024-25 season, Soucy has actually played even worse, even after being supported by the combined efforts of Derek Forbort and Erik Brannstrom. Soucy's current on-ice expected goals percentage has sunk to 41%, otherwise known as rock-bottom.
That ranks 22nd out of 23 Canucks players; Dakota Joshua is in last place at 40.6%, but we'll cut him a break as he had to deal with testicular cancer in the offseason, and something like that, obviously, will cause a lot of mental and physical wear and tear.
Whether or not Soucy can turn things could decide how far the Canucks go in the 2024-25 season. Santa and his elves have taken notice, though, and Soucy is currently not a popular character in the North Pole.