Since the first day of free agency on July 1, the Vancouver Canucks have been relatively quiet. They have taken care of some in-house business re-signing Nils Hoglander and Akito Hirose, but other than that, they have stayed out of the spotlight when it comes to news.
As of Aug. 4, the Canucks are still $4,267,917 over the cap, but that doesn’t include probable long-term injury reserve inclusions Tanner Pearson ($3.25 million) and Tucker Poolman ($2.5 million). With those two added, they will have $1,482,083 in cap space. So, technically, they don’t need to make any moves before the start of the season to remain cap compliant. However, if Pearson is on the road to recovery, as Patrik Allvin stated at the beginning of July, things will get dicey in that department.
Pearson is just one of many wild cards going into the 2023-24 season that could help the Canucks’ pursuit of their first real playoff berth since Bo Horvat’s rookie campaign in 2014-15. Let’s take a look at a few more.
Akito Hirose
Along with Jake Livingston, Hirose was one of the more popular NCAA free agents last season. The Canucks were in on Livingston too but were unable to convince the Creston, BC native to join the Canucks. They did sign Hirose though, and some would argue they got the better of the two defencemen. Time will tell on that, but in the small sample size that was five games for Livingston and seven games for Hirose, the latter looked way more comfortable in the NHL than the former.
The former Salmon Arm Silverback was solid in his first NHL game against the Los Angeles Kings on April 2 and only got better as time went on. He only played 14:01 in his debut but progressively received more ice time from head coach Rick Tocchet in his next six games. His peak performance came on April 6 against the Chicago Blackhawks where he played 20:30 and recorded his first multipoint game in the NHL. All in all, he finished with three assists, one of them being a beautiful pass to Andrei Kuzmenko against the Anaheim Ducks that showcased his hockey IQ and vision.
Going into 2023-24, Hirose will battle for the final two spots on the blue line, either alongside Tyler Myers or as the seventh defenceman. With the amount of poise and confidence he showed in the NHL last season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him become a regular this season. The Canucks’ defense will already be stronger with the additions of Carson Soucy, Ian Cole, and a healthy Filip Hronek, but Hirose could put it over the top. If he can provide the same Chris Tanev-esque game he displayed in the small seven-game sample size for an entire campaign, the defence corps could actually be a strength instead of a weakness.
Nils Hoglander
Hoglander burst onto the NHL scene during the COVID-19-shortened 2020-21 season. After a solid 14 points in 23 games with Rogle BK of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), he surprised everyone in training camp and earned a spot on the second line with Bo Horvat on opening night. His speed, creativity, and most of all, work ethic and tenacity made him a favorite of then-head coach Travis Green as he played him an average of 15:27 a night with 1:25 on the power play.
Hoglander ended up playing most of the season on the captain’s hip alongside Pearson and finished with 13 goals and 27 points in 56 games. He even received some Calder Trophy love (one third-place; four fourth-place; seven fifth-place) and finished eighth overall in the voting. Needless to say, the excitement was at a fever pitch for what he could do in his sophomore season.
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Unfortunately, after a coaching change that saw Green be replaced with Bruce Boudreau in December 2021, his game took a turn for the worse as Boudreau criticized his defensive game and cut his ice time. He did finish with a solid 10 goals and 18 points but saw his ice time drop to an average of 12:10 and his production to only five goals and eight points in 35 games after starting the season with five goals and 10 points in 25 games. His plus/minus also took a dive from a plus-2 to a minus-8.
“He’s got some scoring potential, but he needs to learn how to play the game,” Boudreau said. “He’s still a young kid, quite frankly, and I don’t know, someday he might score 40 goals, but if you’re going to hover around the 20-goal mark, you better learn to play both ends of the ice.”
After being a favorite of Green’s, Hoglander ended up in the dog house when it came to Boudreau. And it didn’t stop in 2022-23 either as he was a controversial healthy scratch early in the season and was eventually dispatched to the American Hockey League (AHL) after a solid stretch where he scored two goals and six points in 10 games. He never saw the NHL after that and spent the rest of the season in Abbotsford.
On the bright side, Hoglander became one of head coach Jeremy Colliton’s best players and finished his first stint in the AHL with 14 goals and 32 points in 45 games and three goals and six points in the playoffs. The hope now is that he has become a better two-way version of the player fans saw in 2020-21 when he was garnering headlines as one of the NHL’s young guns. This season, he will be competing with a glut of wingers for a spot in the top-nine, possibly alongside Teddy Blueger and Conor Garland on the third line. He will have to convince another new coach in Tocchet that he has the defensive chops to play a regular shift in the NHL, but if all goes well, he could be one of the Canucks’ breakout stars at the end of the season.
Ilya Mikheyev
Throughout his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ilya Mikheyev showcased elite speed and an ability to play on the penalty kill. He was even a threat to score shorthanded, notching four shorthanded goals in 2021-22. After a career-high 21 goals and 32 points in 53 games, he took his services to the Canucks signing a four-year, $19 million contract on the first day of free agency in 2022.
Mikheyev was on pace to shatter those numbers in his first go-around in Vancouver, but unfortunately, an injury derailed that pursuit as he was shut down in December for season-ending ACL surgery. Surprisingly, he was dealing with the ailment since training camp but still put up a solid 13 goals and 28 points in 46 games. If that’s what he could do under 100 percent, then what does he have in store for 2023-24?
A lot of line projections are placing Mikheyev on the top unit with uber producers Elias Pettersson (39 goals, 102 points) and Andrei Kuzmenko (39 goals, 74 points) for the 2023-24 season. His agent, Dan Milstein, stated on July 28 that his client had started skating and that he would be ready for training camp, which is exciting considering that trio was one of the Canucks’ best at the beginning of last season. In 197:30 of ice time together, they put up 17 goals and generated 47 high-danger chances and 99 overall scoring chances. Over a full campaign, they could have arguably been one of the Canucks’ all-time top lines. So, it kinda goes without saying that Mikheyev is a massive wild card going into this season.
Canucks Have Other Wild Cards in 2023-24
These are just three of the Canucks’ wild cards heading into 2023-24. I already mentioned Pearson, who is luckily on the mend after a hand injury threatened to end his career and alter his lifestyle. If he can return to form, he could be a massive difference-maker in the bottom-six or at the very least bring back an asset at the trade deadline. Apart from him, there is the wild card of another new coach in Tocchet (hopefully) riding out an entire season and leading the Canucks to a playoff berth.
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Finally, there’s the potential of Vasily Podkolzin bouncing back after a lackluster 2022-23 where he split time between Vancouver and Abbotsford and only recorded four goals and seven points after 14 goals and 26 points in his rookie season. Tocchet wants him to be more “reckless” this season and show more signs of the player that scouts loved during his draft year in 2019. If he can do that, along with Hoglander taking a step forward, the Canucks could have a lethal bottom-six to fall back on when their top-six isn’t scoring. And as we saw with the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken in the playoffs last year, that’s exactly what brings teams to the big stage rather than sitting on the sidelines waiting for the draft lottery.
All in all, it’s going to be an interesting season to follow for Canucks fans. It all gets started with their first preseason game against Jonathan Huberdeau and the Calgary Flames on Sept. 24 before the regular season kicks off on Oct. 11 versus Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.
