Are we all Canucks?
If you're interested in becoming part of the team, the annual job fair is on for the next three days. Trevor says you can stop by Rogers Arena between 2-5 p.m. if you want to throw your hat in the ring.
In other Canucks news, Alex Burrows is conducting his hockey school for the next two weeks out in suburban Montreal:
Now, here's something to chew on.
Over the weekend, Jeff Paterson took on a scoring projection for the Canucks for next season in
The Province.
Ryan Lambert at Puck Daddy applied some stats to the analysis, going into quite a detailed breakdown of the team's prospects. You can
click here to check that out.
The short version: Paterson's projection is wildly optimistic, based on the numbers that Lambert provides.
Paterson believes the top 10 Vancouver goalscorers next year could score as many as 182. Last year, the team’s top-10 goalscorers netted just 137. And again, the entire team only scored 186.
The only team that got less production from its top 10 scorers last season was Toronto, with 128 goals. Even New Jersey did better, with 142.
The flaw that I see in Paterson's logic is that he doesn't seem to leave room for injuries. At this time last year, no one was expecting Brandon Sutter to score just five goals—or play only 20 games.
Lambert takes exception to Paterson building off Sven Baertschi's 15 goals to project at 22-goal season. That, I think, is plausible, because Lambert doesn't account for Baertschi's growth over the course of 2015-16. Hopefully, his improved production during the second half of the season is because of improved confidence and better play—and not because opponents were playing the Canucks soft as they started their downward spiral toward the bottom of the standings.
Here's the summary of Paterson's projections:
1. Loui Eriksson - last year 30 (Boston) - next year 30
2. Daniel Sedin - last year 28 - next year 24
3. Sven Baertschi - last year 15 - next year 22
4. Brandon Sutter - last year 5 - next year 19
5. Bo Horvat - last year 16 - next year 18
6. Jannik Hansen - last year 22 - next year 18
7. Anton Rodin - last year 16 in 33 games (Sweden) - next year 15
8. Jake Virtanen - last year 7 - next year 13
9. Henrik Sedin - last year 11 - next year 12
10. Emerson Etem - last year 7 - next year 10
My guess - maybe five or six of these 10 things will happen, but some of them won't—we just don't know which ones, yet. Two or three of these players will almost certainly suffer injuries that keep them out of the lineup for significant amounts of time, and my gut feeling is that Jake Virtanen will spend some time in Utica, so 13 NHL goals would be a huge ask from him.
Paterson is projecting 10 goals or more from FIVE right wingers—Eriksson, Hansen, Rodin, Virtanen and Etem. I know there's talk that Rodin and Etem can play on the left side, but even in this post-Penguins world where teams are striving to build three lines that can score, I can't see how there's enough ice time available for all those players to thrive.
The other thing that's missing here? Goals from the blue line.
That's where I'm hoping the Canucks will be able to generate offense that didn't exist last season—especially on the power play, but also at even strength.
I'm hoping that Chris Tanev's summer with his shooting coach pays off and that he'll finally be able to get his shot through from the point with a little bit of kick to it, and that Alex Edler stays healthy enough that he can get back to a level of, say, 10 goals and 35 points. My expectations for Philip Larsen are modest, so anything that he can bring is a bonus, in my book.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»