New Canucks lines revealed on first day of training camp

The Vancouver Canucks hit the ice for Day 1 of the 2023-24 season in Victoria on Thursday.

The first day is always a day of optimism, and this year is no different. The Canucks are hopeful that they can be a playoff team this season, with many new defensive-minded offseason additions in the fold.

Following a summer of fans and media theorizing line combinations, head coach Rick Tocchet showed off his own lines at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

The big winner was Nils Höglander, who appears to be getting a massive opportunity on the top line with Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko.

Similarly, Vasily Podkolzin skated on a line with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser.

On defence, Filip Hronek was paired with newcomer Ian Cole, which has the look of a top-four pairing.

Tocchet told the media on Wednesday not to read too much into his line combinations, which is something that nearly every NHL coach says at this time of year. And there were certainly a few line combinations and defence pairings that probably aren’t an indication of what we’ll see on opening night.

New captain Quinn Hughes, for instance, was paired with Noah Juulsen, who is tough and reliable but not someone that many have pegged as a top-four blueliner.

Tocchet spoke about duos with regard to his forward lines, and perhaps that’s what we should focus on most. In that respect, centre Pius Suter and winger Conor Garland skated on a line with Arshdeep Bains, who could be a placeholder for someone like Ilya Mikheyev, who left camp for “personal reasons” today.

The Canucks were split up into three groups, with Group A and B having all the players with a chance to crack the opening night lineup. Here’s how they looked:

Canucks lines and defence pairs (Group A)

Kuzmenko-Pettersson-Höglander
Di Giuseppe-Blueger-Beauvillier
Räty-Dries-Studnicka
McDonough-Sasson-Klimovich

Cole-Hronek
Brisebois-Myers
Wolanin-Woo
Mynio-Brzustewicz

Canucks lines and defence pairs (Group B)

Podkolzin-Miller-Boeser
Bains-Suter-Garland
Joshua-Aman-Karlsson
Nielsen-Wouters-Bloom

Hughes-Juulsen
Soucy-McWard
Rathbone-Irwin
Hirose-Johansson

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