Canucks mid-season report: This is not what anyone expected

VANCOUVER — Hands up everyone who had Dec. 12 in the Quinn Hughes trade pool? Exactly. Nobody.

The trade of the best player in Vancouver Canucks’ history — around whom the franchise determinedly built its plans for a massive rebound season — is indicative of how shockingly off-course the team strayed in the opening months of the National Hockey League campaign.

The Canucks peaked in Game 6, a game over .500 and up 3-0 against the Washington Capitals before two of their three proven NHL centres, Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger, were injured on Oct. 19. The injury crisis quickly mushroomed to 10 players out, and the results under these circumstances have been about what you would expect from a team without much margin of error if it wanted to return to the playoffs.

Only two months in, the Canucks made a massive pivot by trading Hughes for three young players and the Minnesota Wild’s first-round pick, and are now embracing what general manager Patrik Allvin has called a “hybrid” rebuild as they endeavour to get younger and better without liquidating all of their veteran players.

Besides the ongoing absences of Chytil and Blueger, which forced the team to use Toronto Maple Leaf castoff David Kampf as its second-line centre for an extended period, the Canucks have already played without key veterans Thatcher Demko, Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland for multiple games, while Brock Boeser missed two games and soldiered through many others.

“I mean, we’re hanging in there … with some of the injuries,” first-year head coach Adam Foote said after Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 41. “You just don’t want the playoffs out of reach. It’s still there, you know? The youth that we have is getting a lot of games played, a lot of minutes. You hope they keep continuing to grow and get better. 

“We just have to keep rolling. I just think the guys are resilient, and we’ve got to hang in there until we start getting these wins here.”

There is some momentum — at least in terms of roster renewal. The defence features a pair of promising 20-year-olds in Tom Willander and Zeev Buium, the most valuable piece acquired from Minnesota, as well as rugged 21-year-old Elias Pettersson (“Junior”). And a bunch of talented, young forwards — Linus Karlsson, Max Sasson, Liam Ohgren, Aatu Raty — have shown promise as they work to become NHL regulars.

Still, it’s not what anyone expected.

Key statistics

Record: 16-20-5 (last in the Pacific Division, 31^st in the NHL)

Goals per game: 2.76 (24^th in the NHL)

Goals against per game: 3.46 (30^th in NHL)

Power play: 22.3 per cent (14^th in NHL)

Penalty killing: 73.9 per cent (30^th in NHL)

Best surprise

Yes, there have been a few amid all the bleakness and disappointment. We’ll say the best surprise is rookie defenceman Willander, who after spending all of five games in the American Hockey League following his departure from Boston University, was recalled by the Canucks in October and hasn’t been out of the lineup since.

An 11th-overall pick who skates beautifully and thinks the game on a high level, Willander is naturally predisposed to defending. But the Swede is showing far more offensive upside than was expected at this stage of his development, contributing a dozen points in 31 games and lately running the Canucks’ first-unit power play with confidence. Expected to spend most of this season learning to play pro hockey in the minors, Willander looks like he can become a franchise cornerstone.

Honorable mentions in this category include Kiefer Sherwood following his breakthrough 19-goal season with 17 more in the first half of this one, AHL graduate Karlsson scoring 10 goals from the fourth line and second-unit power play, and veteran depth winger Drew O’Connor also scoring 10 times, putting himself on pace for a career season.

And although it’s not really a surprise, veteran defenceman Filip Hronek has been a beast and team leader since his friend and blue-line partner Hughes was traded.

See, there is some good stuff, too.

Biggest disappointment

This is like trying to find the rainiest day in a Vancouver winter. The choices are numerous. Beyond the obvious ones, like the Canucks are in 31st place and that Hughes is no longer on the team and key acquisition Evander Kane is on pace for 12 goals — we’ll go with goaltending (and feel a little guilty about it).

It wouldn’t be easy for anyone to play behind this depleted team, with a new coach and as many as six or seven prospects in the lineup on any given night. But the pricey combination of Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen was supposed to be the Canucks’ safety net, a hedge against falling to the bottom of the standings. Instead, Vancouver ranks 30th in goals against (3.46) and 19th in team save percentage (89.3).

After a nightmare of injuries last season, Demko was off to an outstanding start — until he hurt his groin on Nov. 11 and missed a month. He’s still having a good season, with a save rate of .906, but Demko must stay healthy. Eighteen games out of 41 are not enough.

After a breakthrough season last year as Demko’s fill-in, Lankinen struggled from the start. He has been dealing with a personal issue that required a brief leave of absence in November, and had a 10-game spell when he won only once. Lankinen has two wins and a loser point from his last three starts, and his .885 save rate is at least trending upward.

Big question for the second half

Who’s here at the end?

The Hughes trade was the biggest in franchise history, but it won’t be the last one this season. We know from president Jim Rutherford’s public confirmation that the Canucks informed other teams in November that their UFA-eligible players, headlined by buzzsaw winger and leading goal-scorer Sherwood, are for sale. But inquiries to Rutherford and GM Allvin have been more wide-ranging, and it’s possible another veteran or two could be on the move.

Without trade protection this season (after signing extensions that start next year), winger Garland and goalie Demko are both assets who feature in a lot of trade conjecture. But the Canucks actually like these players. The bigger name not much mentioned is the original Elias Pettersson, the $92.8-million conundrum who was actually building a solid rebound season before he was injured on Dec. 5. His injury was soon considered day-to-day, but managed to linger through the entirety of a six-game, pre-Christmas road trip that included a week in New York.

The Canucks considered trading Pettersson last season — before and after the deadline — and if there is ever a time to move on from the perplexing, reluctant star it is during this period of great transition.

A lot has happened. A lot more could.