PatDown: Canucks need wingers to step up to be a playoff team
Thereâs been plenty of talk in the market through the off-season and again this week about the Vancouver Canucks starting the season with J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, and Bo Horvat all lining up at centre, giving the team significant depth down the middle.
Not only will this strategy ensure there is offensive power on the top three lines, but will give Bruce Boudreau flexibility to play the match-up game, and it will most certainly give opposing coaches something to think about when trying to counter what the Canucks can roll out.
But itâs also important to note that Miller, Pettersson, and Horvat were the top three goal-scoring forwards on the Vancouver Canucks last season, and by loading up down the middle, Boudreau is putting his puck-scoring eggs in the middle-of-the-ice basket. The head coach is going to need at least a few of his wingers to step up if the Canucks are going to be a playoff team.
Now, winger depth is an area the hockey club thinks it has made strides here this summer with the additions of Ilya Mikheyev and Andrei Kuzmenko, plus the internal growth of Vasily Podkolzin. But the fact of the matter is the Canucks have just two wingers that cracked the 20-goal mark last season.
Mikheyev did it in Toronto, while Brock Boeser was the best of the bunch among those that wore Canuck colours last season.
After those two, youâre looking at Conor Garland, Vasily Podkolzin, Tanner Pearson, and Nils Höglander, who all tallied somewhere between 10 and 19 goals, and that doesnât include Alex Chiasson who netted 13 goals last season.
Boeser, Garland, and Mikheyev are all now being paid like goal-scorers, and as such, expectations have to be in place that all three of those guys will have productive seasons.
Boeser needs to get to 30 for the first time in his career, I donât think there is much doubt about that, while garland should be looked to for 25 in his second season in Vancouver. And Mikheyev needs to score at least 20.
Itâs impossible to know what exactly to expect from Andrei Kuzmenko, but certainly the organization is banking on the fact that his goal-scoring exploits in the KHL will translate to goals in his first season in the NHL.
And by playing the big three down the middle, the hope has to be that such deployment will put the teamâs wingers in the best position to succeed.
The Canucks appear to be a better team on paper than they were last season, but itâs September, and itâs time to see what they look like on the ice.
The centre position seems solidified with Horvat, Pettersson, and Miller down the middle, but there are questions that require answers about just what the Canucks have waiting in the wings.
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