Canucks season ticket campaign reveals a new five-player core

For the first time in a long time, Bo Horvat is not be featured on Vancouver Canucks season ticket ads.

The former Canucks captain was dealt to the New York Islanders in January, of course. Also absent from the new ad: Brock Boeser.

Once part of the Canucks’ “core four,” Horvat and Boeser used to be featured prominently on a giant image outside Rogers Arena, along with Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson.

The old Canucks core (Google Maps)

The image was taken down not long after Horvat was traded, and a replacement picture has not yet been installed.

There goes Bo pic.twitter.com/tXshuESgkK

— Karin Larsen (@CBCLarsen) February 7, 2023

Given the team is trying to trade him, perhaps it should be no surprise that Boeser is no longer a player the team uses to try to sell tickets.

So who is? Well, it appears to be the new core.

It’s not exactly “unfinished business,” but the Canucks kicked off their 2023-24 season ticket membership campaign with the message, “next season starts now.”

The players featured? Pettersson, Hughes, Thatcher Demko, J.T. Miller, and, for the first time, Andrei Kuzmenko.

Vancouver Canucks

Canucks GM Patrik Allvin name-checked five players as being part of his team’s core back in September, but didn’t mention Boeser.

While Boeser’s goal totals (15) have dried up more this season than ever before, he has put up a respectable 49 points in 65 games. The 26-year-old winger has set a career-high in assists (34) and has nine games left to surpass his career-high in points (56).

Time will tell if the team will have trouble selling tickets next season, given all the PR hits they’ve taken since October.

But after toiling near the NHL’s basement in January and early February, the Canucks have been red-hot since February 18, compiling a 13-4-1 record since then.

They have a .500 record again, much to the dismay of many Canucks fans, who are eyeing a top draft pick. The way the Canucks have won under new head coach Rick Tocchet has provided some hope for the future though. Vancouver is no longer a tire fire defensively, and have given up the fourth-fewest goals against since February 18.

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