Conor Garland has not been a household name in the NHL. The smooth skating but relatively undersized winger was completely passed over in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, and was only selected by the Arizona Coyotes in the 5th-round of the 2015 NHL Draft after leading the QMJHL and CHL in scoring with 129 points in 67 regular season games and 25 points in 16 playoff games for the Moncton Wildcats during the 2014-2015 season. It was a magical season for Garland as he won the award for MVP of the QMJHL and was named to the QMJHL First All-Star team, which he followed up with 128 points in 62 regular season games in the 2015-2016 season. Despite this, the motivated and hard working Garland found himself in the AHL playing for the Coyotes minor league affiliate for the next two and a half seasons, the Tucson Roadrunners, but after strong play in the AHL was able to finally make his debut during the 2018-2019 NHL season and has not looked back. Called up to a young and inexperienced Coyotes team coached by Rick Tocchet, who would later coach him on the Canucks, Garland displayed his scoring touch accumulating 96 points in 164 games as a Coyote, with an increase in playing time in each of his first 3 seasons. Despite his solid production and being one of the players the Coyotes protected in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft, his rights were traded to the Canucks in 2021 and he signed a five-year $24.75 million dollar contract with the team, where he has become a lineup staple. Garland has never failed to product a season below 46 points since joining the Canucks, and was rewarded with a 6-year $36 million dollar contract extension prior to the 2025-2026 season, and this season he is averaging a career high in minutes, leading the team in scoring with 9 points in 9 games, is being featured on the first line with Elias Pettersson and Evander Kane, and is playing the point on the first power play unit alongside Quinn Hughes.
Looking deeper at Garland, he is excellent at driving possession as well as on the defensive side of the puck. He is currently second on the team in shots on goal with 24 after being tied for second on the team with 171 last season, averaging over 2 per game. Throughout his career he has been very effective at driving scoring chances and shots on goal as he features a career Corsi For % of 56.2%, and 55.7% in a Canucks uniform per Hockey Reference, while also on the higher end of deployment on the Canucks against high quality of competition according to Left Wing Lock. As an effective two-way forward, he is currently second among Canucks forwards in percentage of shift starts in the defensive zone at 23.1% and leads Canucks forwards with 29 minutes of penalty kill ice time per Money Puck, and has been featured on each of the top 4 deployed penalty kill pairings by percentage for the Canucks according to Left Wing Lock. In his gameplay he also demonstrates very high end edge work, often twisting and turning away from defenders in tight areas in the offensive zone as a way to maintain possession and utilize his size and leverage to keep the puck away from larger defenders, edge work that he learned from working with former Olympic figure skater Michael Botticelli.
This unsung forward has overcome the odds time and time again in his hockey career, and now finds himself as not only a team leader, but as one of the best players on the Vancouver Canucks.