Welcome to September. We're three weeks away from the beginning of training camp in Abbotsford, which is going to be filled with new faces.
One of those new players who is bound to attract plenty of attention is Conor Garland, who in some ways was the sweetener that brought Oliver Ekman-Larsson to town.
Right now, those two, plus Thatcher Demko, form the foundation of the Canucks' future. OEL, 30, is signed through the 2026-27 season, while Demko and Garland, both 25, are under contract until the end of 2025-26.
Depending on how their contracts turn out, of course, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes could join those three as Vancouver's 'foundational players.' There have been quite a few signings around the league of the past few days, but nothing that really screams 'comparable' to Petey or Quinn.
Joel Farabee's new deal with the Flyers is interesting — six years at a $5 million cap hit. He was drafted 14th overall in 2018, seven spots behind Hughes. Like Hughes, he spent one more year in college before turning pro, but because he didn't burn that first year off his contract, his deal is an extension that will kick in for the 2022-23 season.
At first glance, Farabee's 59 points in 107 games don't seem particularly noteworthy. But on a team where nearly every player was struggling last season, Farabee managed to put together a breakout sophomore campaign, leading his club with 20 goals. He also had a shooting percentage of 16.4 percent, which may prove to be unsustainable. But Chuck Fletcher is banking on the idea that, at just 21, Farabee is still improving and the contract will end up being a Nathan MacKinnon-like bargain a few years down the road.
The fact that Farabee didn't get a single Calder Trophy vote says a lot about just how far he advanced in his second year. Despite having played fewer games than a lot of his peers, he's already sixth in scoring in his draft class, and among 2018 draftees with more than 10 games played, he's fifth in points per game, at 0.55.
At the top of that list, of course, is Quinn Hughes, with 97 points in 129 games for 0.75 points per game. And over in the 2017 draft class, you've got Elias Pettersson tied with Cale Makar for first place, at 0.93 points per game.
Though Conor Garland is four years older than Farabee, they are actually interesting comparables. They're both scoring wingers. They're both on the small-ish side — Garland's listed at 5'10" and 165 and Farabee's listed at 6'0" and 164, although I'd say that Garland plays more of a robust game in the dirty areas. And Garland, of course, signed for five years with the Canucks, one fewer than Farabee, at just slightly less money at a cap hit of $4.95 million. And his new contract takes effect this season.
Garland was a late bloomer, who spent two full seasons in the AHL before finally cracking the Arizona Coyotes' lineup midway through his third pro season. His contract slid. Then — as NorthNuck correctly pointed out — the Coyotes extended him for two years at a cap hit of $775,000 per season in February of 2019, after he had pretty much made the Coyotes for good.
His 96 points in 164 career games put him at .585 points per game, slightly ahead of Farabee with an extra half-season played. And while Garland managed just 12 goals last year on a Coyotes team that ranked 23rd in the NHL in offense (just ahead of Vancouver), he also added a career-high 27 assists. So his points per game over his first three seasons have gone from 0.38 to 0.57 to 0.80.
His possession numbers were also very good on a team that allowed about half a goal more than it scored per game last season, on average.
There's a direct correlation between Garland's ice time and his production. In his rookie season, where he played 47 games and scored 13 goals, he averaged just 12:47 per game. The following year, that number went up to 14:09. And last season, he was the Coyotes' second-most-used forward, just behind centre Christian Dvorak, averaging 17:55 per game.
Of that, 2:51 per game came on the power play, where he, Dvorak and Phil Kessel logged the most minutes among forwards. And the Coyotes' power play was decent — 13th overall, at 20.8% while the Canucks were 25th at 17.4%. They were fifth in the league at drawing penalties, with 178 chances compared to 155 for the Canucks (23rd), and were tied for eighth in the league with 37 power-play goals. Vancouver was tied for 24th, with 27.
Garland was in on 10 of those goals, scoring three and adding six primary assists and one second assist.
Also worth noting — Ekman-Larsson had 14 power-play points — two goals, six primary assists and six secondary assists. And that actually tied him for the team lead with emerging stud defenseman Jakob Chychrun, in 109:54 of power-play time compared to 154:21 for Chychrun.
I know it's been discussed that OEL won't get the same power-play opportunities in Vancouver as he had in Arizona, because he'll be behind Hughes. But he was actually behind Chychrun last season and still produced very effectively. That could really help give the Canucks two dangerous man-advantage units.
With that kind of touch, it'll be interesting to see if Garland slots in to the Canucks' PP1 — perhaps at netfront?
Pete Jensen of NHL.com speaks more generally about Garland's game when he ranks him No. 6 on his list of
fantasy sleepers for the upcoming season.
With Garland almost certainly destined for a spot in the top six, he 'gains exposure' to either Elias Pettersson or Bo Horvat, in fantasy speak. And Jensen says Garland "could have a higher gear for a much better offensive team in the Canucks" than what he was able to tap into in Arizona.
Jensen suggests that Garland could finish in the top 100 overall, and would be a better value late-round fantasy pick from the Canucks than Nils Hoglander or Vasily Podkolzin.
I'm in wait-and-see mode with Podkolzin. I think he can be impactful if he delivers that confident, physical game that we've seen from him in the past, but I'm not going to expect immediate offense. As for Hoglander, I can see how the Canucks' added depth this season is going to make it tough for him to hang onto his spot, and it's easy to imagine a guy like Garland grabbing his power-play time. But given his high motor and the fact that he really didn't wilt last season despite extremely difficult circumstances, I'm reluctant to count him out.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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