How Much Help Do The Canucks Need To Rebound?

Elias Pettersson and Kevin Lankinen, Vancouver Canucks

It was a disaster in Vancouver this season as the team went from winning the Pacific Division in 2023-24 to failing to even make the playoffs this season. There were a number of trades and the team looks a lot different from the one that appeared to have raised themselves into the high end teams of the league.

So what needs to happen in order for the Canucks to rebound from such a poor season in which almost nothing went right? The first thing is the players that stay need to raise their game, other than a select few, but health is a huge thing as well.

I would say that Quinn Hughes, Kevin Lankinen, Kieffer Sherwood, and Pius Suter all exceeded expectations, but time missed by Hughes, Filip Chytil, Elias Pettersson, Dakota Joshua, Thatcher Demko, and Filip Hronek didn't help matters at all.

Pettersson is the first player that needs to step up if the Canucks have any chance of turning the ship around. He is the number one center, especially if Suter leaves in free agency. Even if he stays, Suter filled in nicely, but isn't a top line center. The problem is a number of key players on the Canucks have a little trouble staying healthy, and since there are too many of them, it is very tough for a season to go smoothly.

Injuries do help create opportunities for players to step up, like it did with Suter, but too many bog down the team and it's too tough to recover from. With Brock Boeser likely leaving in free agency, there are multiple holes that need to be filled with players who can at least contribute 50 points.

The Canucks have a superstar on defense, and with the way Pettersson played, don't have one at forward anymore. A team doesn't necessarily need multiple or even one superstar to win as the St. Louis Blues demonstrated when they won the Stanley Cup, but another repeat of injuries and failing to reach expectations will only make it worse in Vancouver moving forward.