The Vancouver Canucks went out with a whimper on Wednesday, dropping a 6-2 decision to the Calgary Flames to close out a 2020-21 season that most everybody would like to forget.
They started the year with four games in six nights, slipping into a hole with a 1-3 record.
They finished with four in five, going 2-1-1 for five of a possible eight points.
So — they ended the campaign with a record of 23-29-4 for 50 points, good for 24th place in the standings. With Seattle added into the mix, they have the ninth-best odds for a draft-lottery win, at 5.4%.
There is a tweak to the lottery this year: only the first two spots will be determined by the draw, rather than the top three.
So, according to the good folks at
Tankathon, the Canucks will land in one of five spots in the draft order:
1st: 5.4% chance
2nd: 5.8% chance
9th: 58.6% chance
10th: 28.0% chance
11th: 2.4% chance
I just ran their draft simulator five times; the Canucks didn't move out of ninth position once.
We have less than two weeks to try to conjure up some lottery luck that has evaded the Canucks in past years. The draws will take place on Wednesday, June 2.
While fans wait to see what shape the future takes, end-of-season business is grinding on for the Canucks.
Seven players spoke to the media on Thursday — Alex Edler, Brandon Sutter, Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson, Tyler Myers, Antoine Roussel and Braden Holtby.
Heading into unrestricted free agency, Edler and Sutter both said they weren't sure what their future will hold, but that they'd like to come back.
Edler made it clear that retirement is not on his radar; he wants to play next year. And he brushed off his scratch in the final game of the season, saying that Travis Green had informed all the regular defensemen that they'd get a game off near the end of the year and he picked the last one; figured if he hadn't gotten his 100th goal by then, the odds of it happening were pretty low.
Sutter shared that his season-ending injury on May 1 came when he "jammed his shoulder" on a faceoff. "Probably still a few weeks away from being kind of normal again, but shouldn't be much of a concern going forward," he said.
He also shared what I thought was a pretty profound observation — about how players are not just fighting against Father Time as their careers wind on, but also against a playing standard that keeps getting raised.
"I think you realize as you get older, it's not okay just to be be the player were three years ago because the league gets better every year," he said. "Everyone needs to raise their game and find a way to be better to ultimately have success."
Pettersson went into even greater detail describing his wrist injury.
"It happened second shift, March 1 against Winnipeg, away," he recalled. "I had the puck on the blue line, mishandled it. I'm gonna reach the puck and then my stick hit Nate Thompson's shin pad and my wrist like kind of like whipped on his shin pad, kind of like hyperextending my wrist.
"But it's getting better. Almost at 100% so no worries for next season."
After spending his time in Vancouver following the bubble playoffs in Edmonton, Pettersson said he is planning to go back to Sweden this summer. And when asked about his contract status, he was nonplussed.
"This is where I want to play, and for the contract situation, that's why I have agents," he said. "The agents are working on it, to make sure both parties are happy.
I'm not stressed to sign a contract. It'll take its time, or, I don't know, at the time when both parties are happy. So yeah, I'm actually excited to sign and just look forward for the future."
Antoine Roussel wasted no time explaining how he believed his season-ending knee injury happened because of what his body had gone through during the Covid pause.
"That was the second game back," he said. "And it's easy like to blame Covid, but to me that's the only reason.
"I was maybe weaker, like, in the way of muscle. I probably lost like five or six pounds more than I already lost from the start of the season, from, like, the crazy start to the season. So yeah, a small bump and then my MCL, like, cracks. Not a big injury, but enough. I would have been almost ready to come back right now."
And despite having a season that didn't go as he'd hoped, it was interesting to hear Braden Holtby praise goaltending coach Ian Clark.
"I think Clarkie is one of the best of the best goalie coaches in the league, if not the best," Holtby said. "And he probably deserves the ability to decide for himself where he wants to go. But I think when you have something good you don't let it go."
Even Tyler Myers chimed in to sing Clark's praises.
"The guys really like having Clarkie around," he said. "He's one of the best coaches I've had at holding guys accountable, and the way he does it, the guys really enjoy it.
"I know how highly Demmer and Holts think of think of him and how much they feel that he helps their game. You look at what he's done with them; he's proven to be a very valuable piece to the coaching staff.
"I don't work a lot with him, obviously, not being a goalie. But we know how much those guys like him as a coach, and I know they really hope he's back to work with them again."
The players who spoke on Thursday were also unanimous in their praise for Travis Green — and as of Friday morning, all signs are pointing to Green returning next season.
It seems that Clark's situation is more uncertain, but it is nice to see the wheels turning now that Benning's status has been settled.
Benning and Green are scheduled to address the media on Friday at 11 a.m.
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