Welcome Matt: 4 pieces the Canucks are missing before they can become a contender

We are talking the Vancouver Canucks and Stanley Cup contention this week on Sekeres and Price — if that’s not oxymoronic — and the big picture involves improving personnel.

The good news is they already have the biggest and most difficult pieces in first-line centre (Elias Pettersson), No. 1 defenceman (Quinn Hughes) and starting goalie (Thatcher Demko). They also have a utility forward (J.T. Miller) and a top-4, right-shot defenceman (Filip Hronek).

What’s missing? For my money, the Canucks are four players away from contending (not in order of importance, but working back from forward to defence):

1. Second-line centre

Wait, you say, they have Miller. True, but he serves the club best as a winger and emergency top-six centre. Playing wing allows him to get in on the forecheck more readily and mask his defensive deficiencies.

2. Third-line centre

It would take mighty improvement from Nils Aman or Dakota Joshua to lock down this role. Free-agent Teddy Blueger ain’t it. They have two prospects that could figure here: Aatu Räty or Max Sasson. Both will need time. But they’re also lefties and the Canucks most need a right-handed, penalty-killing centre.

3. A defence partner for Hughes

Free agents Carson Soucy or Ian Cole might moonlight here as the right-side defenceman on the top pair. Soucy has an outside chance of being that permanent partner for Hughes but he’s better cast down the lineup. Ideally, the Canucks need a big, heavy, defensive defenceman with more puck skills than Soucy. 2023 first-round pick Tom Willander isn’t all of these things, but he’s most of these things and the likely candidate a couple of years down the road.

4. A top-4 left-side defenceman to play with Hronek

The ideal skill-set is similar to the righty needed for Hughes. A sizeable, minute-munching penalty killer who will allow Hronek to explore offence, protect leads and play in end-of-game situations. Not sure this player is currently in the organization unless Soucy is it or one of the young defencemen — the other Elias Pettersson? Akito Hirose? — blossoms.

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