'Hockey in Canada is different': Greatest hits from Canucks' end-of-season media

Though the Vancouver Canucks' season ended with the disappointment of a Round 2, Game 7 elimination, the players were ready to provide some insight into their season, the playoffs and the future on Thursday morning.

From introspection on post-season play, to updates on the many pending free agents, to taking shots at Alberta teams, the Canucks provided plenty of worthwhile quotes at their end-of-season meeting with the media.

Here's a look at some of the greatest hits:

Nikita Zadorov, quote machine

"How much do you think I should be making? I don't know where you get those numbers from, trees? Yeah, I don't know. You gotta stop listening to Edmonton reporters." — Zadorov, on what his next contract may look like.

"Hockey in Canada is different. I can compare it to Calgary, but I feel like the Vancouver fanbase is way bigger. Calgary's not even the No. 1 team in Alberta." — Zadorov, on playing in Canada.

He did walk it back a tad, saying, "There's more Edmonton fans because they have a bigger history through the years."

Goalies, goalies, goalies

The Canucks played three different goaltenders throughout the playoffs, relying on Casey DeSmith, then Arturs Silovs after Thatcher Demko suffered an injury in Game 1.

"I can't say enough about both of them, stepping in like that," Demko said. "Obviously Arty was fantastic, you know, played his ass off for this group. I tried to talk to him as much as I could, I didn't want to get in his way or be overbearing. It's a lot on his plate, but I felt like I was able to chat with him here and there."

Silovs, who played from Game 4 of the second round onwards, relished in the opportunity to prove his abilities at the NHL level and, importantly, in high-leverage situations.

"It was a great opportunity for me. Just being from a third goalie, getting all the games after Game 3, it was phenomenal. Getting all the experience... every single day, you put so much work in and try to accomplish by winning the games. It's a great feeling to have and a great time to do it," Silovs said.

"There's always things to improve, but at the end you understand, especially for a goalie, it's more mental game. So, just being calm, composed, like, helps a lot to make your game much easier."

Latest on pending free agents

With a laundry list of pending free agents on the Canucks' roster, let's check in on their thoughts ahead of the off-season:

Elias Lindholm: "Next couple days, probably talk to my agent and go from there. It's still pretty fresh and I haven't really put a thought into it."

Tyler Myers: "I'd love to (return to Vancouver). What we've been able to build here the last year and a half, I think it's really special to be a part of. It's an unbelievable city, the fans were quite amazing in the playoffs, it was something special stepping out for every game and I would love to be back."

Dakota Joshua: "Obviously, I want to stay. I want to be here and build off what just happened. Obviously there's more things that go into it that are out of my control, but yeah, I want to be here."

General manager Patrik Allvin: "The players expressed their interest to stay. We all know we have a salary cap, so we want to be a competitive team moving forward. There's only so much I can pay certain individuals and hopefully we can find ways to keep a lot of players, because I do think a lot of them have a chance to, with the coaches here, take their game to the next level."

Captain Quinn Hughes reflects on the post-season

"Again, it's so quick and it's so abrupt. It's been, you know, two days and I haven't really wanted to think about hockey up to this point, to be honest," Hughes said.

"I liked my game in the playoffs, to be honest. I thought I played pretty solid. It would have been nice to pitch in a little bit more offensively and I think the main thing would be the power play and how we struggled there at the end. For the most part, I liked my game. I thought I was really solid defensively, didn't give much up and as far as the physical abuse (from opponents), that's just something that everyone's going to have to deal with. For me, I think it's just continue to be mentally tough, and learn about yourself in these situations and grow from them."

Elias Pettersson on his off-season

The 25-year-old Swede revealed pretty early in Thursday's media availability that he was playing with a knee injury from January onwards — an explanation as to why his production took a stark downturn in the latter half of the season.

With his contract signed and the season over, he's looking forward to taking a bit of a break from all the noise.

"It will be nice to get a break from everything. Obviously it's been a very noisy season in terms of contract and how (expletive) I've been the last three months. So it'll be nice to just get a break from that, but I'm just excited to get a little break here and get back on the horse again."

Job is not done yet

Though the Canucks, by all metrics, exceeded outside expectations, Allvin is not satisfied with just a second-round appearance — he wants to push for more.

"I'm not happy sitting here today. Definitely not satisfied. We lost our last game and it was only in Round 2," Allvin said.

"We're not satisfied at all. You don't know how many chances you're going to have to play in Game 7, and my message to the players is that this is something that's going to bear with you the entire summer. We lost our last game and it was only in Round 2 — it's just going to get harder."