The best and worst of the 2021 Vancouver Canucks season

VANCOUVER — These year-end review columns are sometimes called “Best and Worst,” but for the Vancouver Canucks it seems it should be “Best of the Worst.” Or maybe “Least Bad of Terrible Things and Worst.”

So much went wrong for the Canucks in the pandemic season as they regressed by an 82-game equivalent of 20 points that it’s impossible to see a glass half full – especially since the glass felt empty until someone dropped and broke it. And then you stepped on the shrapnel in your socks, got a chunk of glass stuck in the vacuum hose and never did find that last shard until the dog did.

Even a lot of the good stuff had bad stuff in it, like general manager Jim Benning’s declaration on Friday that the organization would be aggressive in the off-season trying to add speed, skill and depth to a lineup that didn’t have enough of any in 2021.

We like the idea of aggressiveness. Captain Bo Horvat is already 26 years old, and he and J.T. Miller (see best AND worst below) are two years away from unrestricted free agency, which pretty much defines the immediate window to win. Brock Boeser will be going into his fifth season next fall, Elias Pettersson his fourth and Quinn Hughes his third. With the expected arrival of Vasili Podkolzin and expected return of Jack Rathbone, all of the Canucks’ best prospects will soon be in the National Hockey League. So, darn right, the Canucks better get after it and do everything they can to earn a ticket back to the playoffs in 2022 without wasting another year.

But then we remember Benning’s previous attempts to be aggressive in free agency, the organization’s spotty record in trades, the salary-cap hell that only now is starting to cool in Vancouver, and wonder if maybe it would be safer to be careful and patient and wait a 52nd year before going for that first Stanley Cup.

One thing we can guarantee: it won’t be dull.

BEST AND WORST OF 2021 CANUCKS

Best: Thatcher Demko. The most important individual development of Vancouver’s season was the emergence of Demko as a No. 1 goalie to replace Jacob Markstrom. Demko struggled at the start of the season and again after he emerged from the COVID-19 crisis, but still finished with a .915 save rate that was a full percentage point better than his rookie year in 2019-20. Evolving-Hockey rated Demko No. 8 among NHL starters (30+ games) with 8.03 goals saved above expectation.

Worst: Braden Holtby. Except for an inspired four-game stretch after the COVID break when Holtby helped carry the Canucks, the former Washington Capital was a major disappointment in his first season in Vancouver. He wasn’t close to winning the starting job against Demko and finished the season with an .889 save percentage, deflated at the end by allowing 25 goals in his final five starts, that was 61st among 67 goalies who played at least 10 games. Holtby’s contract, two years at an average of $4.3 million, looks like another the Canucks will have to survive.

Best: Nils Hoglander. The rookie dynamo not only made the NHL team as a 20-year-old, he grabbed a top-six spot that he never surrendered. The Swede’s effort was relentless, and after a mid-season lull, played some of his best hockey at the end. He finished with 13 goals and 27 points – 26 of them at even-strength – and led Canucks regulars in play-driving with a 50.4 per cent Corsi-for. When he scored in the Canucks’ season-opening win in Edmonton, which was pretty much the team’s peak, Sportsnet’s national host, Jeff Marek, asked wryly: “Really, Vancouver? Another one?” Yes, Hoglander looks like another core piece.

Almost the best: Jack Rathbone. Going a year without playing after leaving Harvard, Rathbone was fast-tracked to the Canucks from the American Hockey League and instantly looked like a fit in the NHL. The mobile, 22-year-old defenceman was assertive and confident, saw his role increase over the eight games he played and even made it on to Travis Green’s power play as the shooter alongside friend and landlord Quinn Hughes. Rathbone contributed three points in his eight games, during which he was among the top half-dozen Canucks in most advanced stats.

Worst: Adam Gaudette (and, no, of course not because of COVID). A player who had been viewed near the top of the second tier of Canuck prospects, a potential third-line centre for years to come, Gaudette crashed and burned and was traded. A frequent scratch during last summer’s playoff run, Gaudette lost his spot at centre before the season, then scored just four times in 33 games before the team moved on.

Best: Travis Green. The head coach deserved before the season the contract extension he waited for until last week, having spent 56 games buffeted like underwear on a clothesline. During a hurricane. Even when it looked late in the year like he’d be coaching elsewhere next season, Green did some of his best work to keep his decimated team engaged and believing. Not every Canucks player likes him, but they all respect him and everyone who was asked wanted him back.

Worst or best: Ian Clark. We’re still waiting to see if Khrushchev’s missiles make a U-turn before Cuba, crisis is averted and one of the best goaltending coaches in the world remains with the Canucks. As with Green, the team should have been proactive in locking down the goalie whisperer whose brilliant work was evident in the rise of both Demko and Markstrom, but here we are. Please, for the sake of Canucks Twitter, let there be peace.

Worst: Those greeny reverse retro Canucks jerseys that looked like pajamas pirated by a manufacturer without NHL merchandising rights.

Best: New No. 1 anthem singer Marie Hui, who never mailed it in despite singing to an audience of 40 players who had heard it all before.

Worst: COVID-19 outbreak. And honestly, nothing else was close to as bad as this.

Best: All the Canucks who got sick recovered well enough to finish the season and, with a summer to rest and train, hopefully will be back to 100 per cent as players next fall.

Best: Brock Boeser. The winger a lot of people seemed in a hurry to trade after his 16-goal season last year had a bounceback season and looked again like an elite finisher, scoring 23 goals and 49 points that over a full-season calibrates to 34 goals and 72 points. People want to praise his 200-foot game, but Boeser’s job is to score. Hindered by injuries his first three seasons, Boeser stayed healthy this year and got his fastball back, which is great news long term.

Worst: Elias Pettersson. One of the most talented 22-year-olds on Earth had an explicably erratic start and was playing his way back into elite form when his season ended on March 3, two days after he hyper-extended his wrist in an innocuous-looking collision in Winnipeg. The franchise cornerstone was badly missed, and his absence over the final two and a half months feels ominous heading into the off-season. The centre fully expects to be fit for next season. He has to be for the Canucks to have a chance at returning to the playoffs.

Best AND worst: J.T. Miller. Like Ryan Kesler and Todd Bertuzzi, earlier Canuck power-forwards with the skill and visceral emotion to change games, Miller was an unpredictable thrill ride in the coronavirus season. Without any fans to yell as loudly as he does, Miller’s frustration was as evident as his supreme skill. With Pettersson injured and the team reeling, the winger tried to do too much — we hope that’s what it was — and became an exasperating, stick-smacking, F-bomb dropping, turnover machine in some games. But he also led from the front every night, battled until the end and still finished with 46 points in 53 games.

Worst: The schedule. Starting with 13 games in 21 nights, four sets of back-to-backs and more games and less rest (you can’t have fewer than zero practices) compared to all others in the division, Vancouver’s schedule was a joke. Then came COVID and 19 games in 32 nights to finish.

Best: It’s over. And next year will be better. It will be better, right?

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