On today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal welcomed NHL insider Frank Seravalli to discuss the latest trade rumours surrounding the Vancouver Canucks as they head into Friday’s NHL Trade Deadline.
Brock Boeser’s Future in Vancouver
Seravalli started by breaking down the likelihood of Brock Boeser staying in Vancouver past the deadline.
“I would say 40% chance they extend him, 25% chance they keep him as a rental—so 65% chance Brock Boeser is a Vancouver Canuck past Friday at noon, and a 35% chance of him being traded,” said Frank.
He emphasized that the decision on Boeser ties directly into Vancouver’s overall direction.
“It’s a philosophical conversation: do we need to vastly re-tool this team, and is Pettersson moving, whether it’s now or before the draft? Miller’s gone. If Pettersson is gone and if you remove Boeser, you have zero chance. Pack it in for the next three-plus years. I don’t care what kind of magic Quinn Hughes can create—you don’t have a chance to compete. No team is going to give back assets that could be used in a competitive fashion for the now. The only teams trading for Boeser are teams in contender mode.”
The Canucks are at a crossroad, and management will have to make the tough choice of whether it makes sense to lock Boeser into a long-term deal with the future uncertain.
“At one point, Brock was supposed to be the key secondary scoring piece for a team that was going to contend for a Stanley Cup, and now we’re not only potentially missing the playoffs this year, but if things go haywire with Pettersson and we have to step back for a couple years, does it make sense to have Boeser extended on a six-year deal if it’s going to take us three years to compete again?”
The Risk of Losing Leverage in a Pettersson Trade
The conversation then shifted to Elias Pettersson and the Canucks’ looming decision on his future.
“This decision is critically important. The last thing you can allow is for Pettersson to have any leverage in the process. You can’t be held hostage by a guy you don’t want there and who isn’t productive on a massive contract,” Seravalli said.
“A recent real-world example: Seth Jones gave the Blackhawks two teams to which he would accept a trade—Dallas and Florida. The Stars have so many young players to pay, starting with Wyatt Johnston, that they wouldn’t get involved at all. So suddenly, the Panthers were the only team left Jones was willing to accept a deal to. If Florida found that out, they could have leveraged the hell out of the Blackhawks, but instead, Chicago got a deal that worked out for them.”
The Canucks cannot afford to let Pettersson dictate terms on a potential trade.
“The last thing you want is Pettersson telling your team he’s only going to accept a trade to X team. He can do and say whatever he wants,” Seravalli continued. “You can’t let it get to that point. And when you talk about him maybe rebounding and being your best chance at a number one centre, I understand that thought process. But I’m going to side with 16 months of evidence that not only is Pettersson broken, but he’s especially broken in Vancouver. If we were going to see him put the pieces back together, we would’ve started to see it at the 4 Nations or after the Miller trade.
“He was around his countrymen, speaking his own language, getting a shot of confidence, playing with talented players he knows and likes—but all it did for me was remove every excuse possible for him. You’re making this much money; you have to produce and be a driver.”
Has Pettersson’s Trade Value Already Plummeted?
Seravalli believes Pettersson’s value has already declined significantly, making a potential trade even more complicated.
“There’s not one team in the league that could acquire Elias Pettersson right now and feel good about it,” said Seravalli. “At least right now, there’s some mystique—teams thinking, ‘We believe we could be the one to unlock that 100-point player we once saw.’ But the longer this goes on, the more we see, the less likely someone is going to buy on that. And not only that, I think we’re already at the point where his value has plummeted so much that I don’t know that there is a return for him.”
With a long-term contract in place, the financial commitment alone makes a trade difficult.
“You’re asking for someone to take on 80+ million dollars. I don’t know how you could extract a return on top of that with the risk someone will be taking. He’s basically at the point in time where he’s looking at a million dollars per goal. You can find a team—with the cap increasing the way it is—that might be willing to take the risk. But the risk is heavy enough alone, and the acquisition cost on top of it is too much.”
“If you’re the Canucks, you have to focus on what’s the bigger risk—losing him for less than ideal value and watching his play bounce back, or being stuck with this contract for the next seven years and significantly impacting our ability to build a team?”
With the trade deadline just days away, the Canucks have some major decisions to make regarding both Boeser and Pettersson. Whether they choose to retool around Hughes or commit to a longer rebuild could shape the team’s trajectory for years to come.
You can watch the full segment below:
Get ready, hockey fans! The Daily Faceoff Deadline is happening on March 7th from 11 AM to 4 PM Eastern, and you won’t want to miss it. We’ll be LIVE, breaking down every trade and big move as it happens, with instant reactions and expert analysis from the Daily Faceoff crew. Plus, we’ve got special guests lined up throughout the show, offering exclusive insights from some of the biggest names in the game. From blockbuster trades to surprise moves, we’re covering it all. Tune in to the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel and follow Daily Faceoff socials on March 7th to catch all the action!
A former member of the Vancouver Cancuks’ blue line is on the move again.
On Wednesday, the San Jose Sharks acquired defenceman Vincent Desharnais from the Pittsburgh Penguins for a fifth-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft.
It’s the second time in a little over a month that the 28-year-old is on the move. Desharnais started the season in Vancouver. On Feb. 1, just hours after the Canucks sent J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers, Desharnais, along with Danton Heinen and prospect Melvin Fernstrom were traded to the Penguins for defenceman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor.
Desharnais came to Vancouver after two seasons with the Edmonton Oilers. The Laval, Quebec native signed a two-year contract with the Canucks wth an AAV of $2 million.
In 34 games in Vancouver, Desharnais notched three assists, posting a plus/minus of -5 while averaging just under 16 minutes of ice time. He only ended up playing 10 games with Pittsburgh before being sent to San Jose, not registering a point while skating over 14 minutes of ice time per game, with a -4 rating.
Desharnais certainly struggled during his tenure in Vancouver. He was a healthy scratch multiple times and didn’t perform well enough to knock guys like Derek Forbort out of the lineup. It’s hard to say he received a fair shake with a struggling team in Pittsburgh. Now, with the plum-last Sharks, Desharnais should get plenty of ice time to get a rhythm in the everyday lineup.
The 6-foot-7 rearguard earned his deal after having a coming-out season last year in Edmonton. In 78 games, Desharnais scored a goal and 10 assists for 11 points, posting a +3 rating while averaging 15:44 of ice time.
In 158 career NHL games, Desharnais has scored a goal and 18 assists for 19 points. He also posted three assists in 28 Stanley Cup Playoff games with the Oilers.
The Sharks (17-37-9) have the NHL’s worst record, two points behind the Chicago Blackhawks. The Penguins (24-30-10) are last in the Metropolitan Division, eight points back of the last Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Get ready, hockey fans! The Daily Faceoff Deadline is happening on March 7th from 11 AM to 4 PM Eastern, and you won’t want to miss it. We’ll be LIVE, breaking down every trade and big move as it happens, with instant reactions and expert analysis from the Daily Faceoff crew. Plus, we’ve got special guests lined up throughout the show, offering exclusive insights from some of the biggest names in the game. From blockbuster trades to surprise moves, we’re covering it all. Tune in to the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel and follow Daily Faceoff socials on March 7th to catch all the action!
The Vancouver Canucks haven’t had much of the best anything throughout the 2024/25 season. But they might just have the best rental centre available in the entire NHL at the 2025 Trade Deadline, and that’s something that might just matter.
That rental centre is, of course, Pius Suter.
We know that Suter has played all three forward positions for Vancouver during his two-year tenure, but he’s been a full-time centre ever since JT Miller was shipped out of town, and on Wednesday’s matchup against the Anaheim Ducks – the Canucks’ last before the deadline – Suter lined up as the 2C on a line with Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser.
He’s, at the very least, more of a centre than a lot of the other pending UFAs who happen to be listed as centres on NHL.com or Puckpedia.
And being an actual centre is something that really counts when it comes to determining Trade Deadline value.
The centre position is one that virtually any playoff-bound will try to reinforce if they can. Like defensive depth, one can never really have too many centres. Any centre can always be converted to the wing – and Suter especially so – but only a handful of wings every successfully convert to centre. It’s a position with some very specific value, is what we’re saying, and one at which it could prove very lucrative to be leading the market.
Which is where the Canucks possibly find themselves heading into Friday.
As of this writing, Suter technically ranks 11th overall in scoring amongst centres who are set to become unrestricted free agents this summer. But we have to say ‘technically,’ because many of the players listed ahead of him aren’t really centres. Mikko Rantanen, the top-scoring ‘centre’ this year, has only ever performed short stints in the middle, and is far more typically thought of as a winger. The same definitely goes for Ryan Donato and Brad Marchand, both of whom are confusingly listed as pivots on most sites.
The rest of the actual UFA centres who are outscoring Suter at the moment can mostly be sorted into the ‘not available’ category. Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund (post-trade) play for the Dallas Stars, a team well on its way to a meaningful playoff run. John Tavares won’t be leaving Toronto anytime soon. Claude Giroux seems entrenched in Ottawa (and is also more of a winger these days.) And Sam Bennett definitely won’t be going anywhere quite yet (though we do think he’s an excellent summer signing target for the Canucks, but more on that after the Trade Deadline.)
No, the only other UFA centres to both outscore Suter and potentially be available at the 2025 Trade Deadline are Brock Nelson and Jack Roslovic. And both of them come with caveats.
We’ve heard conflicting reports about Nelson’s availability. Some think he’ll be traded for a haul, and others think GM Lou Lamoriello is leaning toward re-signing him. The Islanders, just four points back of a playoff spot as of this writing, could also be considering the ol’ self-rental route with Nelson.
Suffice it to say that if Nelson does hit the trade block, he’ll be the best rental centre available, and by a pretty long shot. But if he doesn’t…
Then we’re pretty much down to Suter and Roslovic. And on that note, we’ve got to mention that Roslovic – a player the Canucks reportedly had some interest in earlier in the season – is also far more of a winger these days than he is a centre, though like Suter, he’s comfortable at any position.
We’ll also note that Roslovic is outscoring Suter by a single point (29 to 28) with one more game played (61 to 60), so offensively-speaking, they’re virtually identical.
In other parts of the game, Suter is also probably the more well-rounded. He’s almost always had better defensive stats, and even in this 2024/25 season, in which Roslovic has played for a much stronger team than has Suter, their rate of expected goals are quite similar, with Roslovic slightly edging out Suter to the tune of 51.27% to 50.43%. And that’s with Suter taking on tougher matchups (tougher than league average), in general, and definitely more matchups at the actual centre position.
There’s an argument to be made on either side here, but for our money, Suter would be the much more impactful acquisition for a playoff-bound team.
And beyond those two? Then we really hit the bottom of the centre barrel. Past Suter and Roslovic, the next-best UFA centre available might be San Jose’s Luke Kunin, or maybe St. Louis’ Radek Faksa. Or maybe our old friend, New Jersey’s Curtis Lazar.
There’s a steep drop-off, is what we’re saying, from the likes of a middle-six player like Suter and the clearly bottom-line centre talents that make up the rest of the field.
That’s just a terrific market position for the Canucks to find themselves in as they look to move Suter between now and noon on Friday.
Another prominent UFA centre, Seattle’s Yanni Gourde, just got traded to Tampa Bay as part of a truly massive package. Now, there was another Kraken, Oliver Bjokstrand, involved, and he probably made up a larger portion of the value in the overall deal. But that value included two first round picks and a second rounder, and Gourde must have made for at least the equivalent of one of those two firsts.
Gourde, for what it’s worth, has scored at the exact same rate as Suter this season in more limited games. He’s almost certainly considered the more well-rounded centre between the two, even if his game hasn’t aged particularly well.
We’re not here to argue that Suter is more valuable, overall, than Gourde. But the value Gourde returned could be seen as an indication of what teams might be willing to pay for centre depth at this Trade Deadline. And with Gourde now off the market and back with the Lightning, that’s one fewer centre – out of an already miniscule pool – that Suter is ‘competing’ with for the top ranking as a rental centre.
Like we said at the outset, it hasn’t been a season of ‘bests’ for the Vancouver Canucks. But heading into Friday with the best rental centre available is still worth something, and that something is almost certainly a useful future asset or two.
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According to Elite Prospect’s Cam Robinson, the Vancouver Canucks are again listening on offers on forward Elias Pettersson:
The report came Thursday afternoon, just under 21 hours until the NHL Trade Deadline. Robinson further highlighted more of what he’s hearing:
It became evident that one of JT Miller and Elias Pettersson needed to be traded, and when the club decided to move on from Miller, they believed that Pettersson would turn his game around. However, that hasn’t happened. Pettersson has just three assists in 11 games.
Despite the trade, Pettersson remained on Frank Seravalli’s Trade Targets board. But shortly after, Robinson again reported that the Canucks had officially taken Pettersson off the market. The belief around the league was that the Canucks were going to allow Pettersson to ride out the remainder of the season, evaluate his play, and make a decision on his future in the offseason.
But these reports now indicate that the club is back to listening to offers on their freshly signed $11.6 million player.
Robinson later mentioned that neutral parties have wondered if the Canucks are floating Pettersson’s name to the Carolina Hurricanes in an attempt to trade for recently-acquired Mikko Rantanen.
The Hurricanes acquired Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche – one week before the Miller trade – in exchange for forward Martin Necas, Jack Drury, a 2025 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick.
There was earnest belief that the Hurricanes would acquire Pettersson in a similar package, but ultimately decided to trade for Rantanen.
However, now that the Hurricanes are having trouble coming to an agreement with Rantanen on an extension, Carolina is listening to offers to re-flip him.
Another team has entered the mix as a potential Pettersson destination: the New Jersey Devils.
Pete Blackburn joined the What Chaos Podcast and shared that a little birdie told him that the Devils were looking into Pettersson:
Pete Blackburn on the What Chaos Podcast said that "a little birdie" told him in his ear to not be surprised if the New Jersey Devils are cooking something up with the Vancouver Canucks and Elias Pettersson."
— Yegor Sharangovich replaced Breadman (@FierySharky) March 6, 2025
The Devils were rumoured to be interested in acquiring a centre at this year’s deadline. However, that need became even more of a necessity after star centreman and brother of Quinn Hughes, Jack Hughes, suffered a season-ending shoulder injury earlier this week.
The Canucks have just over 18 hours at the time of this writing before the NHL Trade Deadline, and the team might not be done dealing after sending Carson Soucy to the New York Rangers in exchange for a third-round pick. Not only is Pettersson’s name out there, but general manager Patrik Allvin also have to decide on pending UFAs Brock Boeser, Pius Suter and Derek Forbort.
We have reached the NHL trade deadline day, with the actual deadline just over three hours at the time of this writing. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman joined Halford & Brough on Sportsnet 650 Friday morning to share some news on Vancouver Canucks sniper, Brock Boeser:
Boeser is in the final year of his three-year deal that pays him $6.65 million annually. Following his career-high 40-goal, 73-point campaign in 2023-2024, Boeser has underperformed. After suffering a concussion after receiving a shot to the head from Tanner Jeannot, Boeser has mounted just 18 goals and 19 assists for 37 points in 54 games. That puts him on pace for 24 goals and 26 assists for 50 points in 73 games.
Reports came out that the Canucks offered Boeser a five-year, $8 million per season contract earlier in the season. Boeser rejected the offer. Further reports came out that the club would make one more offer toward Boeser ahead of the trade deadline, but there has been no word on that.
The Canucks have also showed comfortability in keeping Boeser through the trade deadline, using him as their “own rental” if they can’t find a trade or extend him by the trade deadline.
Friedman further touched on what the Canucks plans are before noon’s trade deadline:
The top-six centre market is dwindling, as it appears Dylan Cozens and Josh Norris have been traded for each other.
The Canucks will have their handful of decisions no only with Brock Boeser, but with their other pending unrestricted free agents, Pius Suter and Derek Forbort.
For more up-to-date trades, check out our live blog here!
Get ready, hockey fans! The Daily Faceoff Deadline is happening on March 7th from 11 AM to 4 PM Eastern, and you won’t want to miss it. We’ll be LIVE, breaking down every trade and big move as it happens, with instant reactions and expert analysis from the Daily Faceoff crew. Plus, we’ve got special guests lined up throughout the show, offering exclusive insights from some of the biggest names in the game. From blockbuster trades to surprise moves, we’re covering it all. Tune in to the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel and follow Daily Faceoff socials on March 7th to catch all the action!
Welcome back to Instant Reaction, the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Vancouver Canucks game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
The Canucks started this game fine, but the Wild began to stack shifts in the offensive zone and had the Canucks running around in a bit of a track meet early.
Kevin Lankinen made some key saves, Elias Pettersson (the forward) had a big shot block, and Tyler Myers dove to stop what likely would have been a sure goal.
Tyler Myers gets his stick on the puck at the last second preventing a Minnesota goal.
: Sportsnet | NHL#Canucks | #mnwild pic.twitter.com/Z5avCmyB0g
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 8, 2025
The Canucks got the game’s first power play when Drew O’Connor was hauled down at the Minnesota line. The Canucks’ first unit was about as loaded up as it could have been, but it was obviously still missing Quinn Hughes. They did not score.
The Canucks got a second power play chance, and this time, Pettersson built upon his strong game against the Ducks, letting go of a vintage Pettersson one timer to give the Canucks the game’s first lead.
CANUCKS GOAL
Elias Pettersson blasts a one timer to the back of the net to open the scoring!
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 8, 2025
1-0 Canucks.
Where has that been?
The Canucks entered the second period up by a goal.
The second opened with Elias Pettersson blasting another one-timer, only this one — at 91 miles per hour — missed the net wide. The Pettersson line again came close to bolstering the Canucks lead, with a solid zone entry from Kiefer Sherwood followed by a near miss from Pettersson, who had a nose for the net early in this one.
Elias Pettersson makes a couple nice moves. Somehow the puck stays out of the Minnesota net.
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 8, 2025
The middle frame was defined by sloppy play from both sides, leading to relatively low-event hockey. Victor Mancini, making his Rogers Arena debut, made a sharp defensive play to sweep a trickling puck out of the Canucks’ goal crease with his skate.
Things started to tighten up a but after this. Late in the period, Yakov Trenin slashed Marcus Pettersson’s stick, giving the Canucks their third power play of the game and a prime chance to push their lead to two.
Filip Hronek and Pettersson played catch before Pettersson fed the puck down low to DeBrusk, who found Garland for a tap-in that Filip Gustavsson made a huge save on.
Jake DeBrusk makes a nice pass to Conor Garland open at the side of the net but he can't beat the Minnesota goaltender.
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 8, 2025
The Canucks power play didn’t stop there, generating more quality looks to close out the period. Again though, Gustavsson stood tall.
As a result, the Canucks entered the third up by just a single goal.
Filip Hronek was called for tripping, giving the Wild their second power play of the game early in the third. Lankinen made some phenomenal saves after an unfortunate stick break for Tyler Myers extended the Wild’s zone time. Eventually, the Canucks broke, as Brock Faber tied this one up after far too much east-west movement.
Brock Faber ties this game up on the power play.
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 8, 2025
1-1.
The Wild really hunkered down on defence, limiting what the Canucks were able to create as soon as they hit the neutral zone. As a result, the Canucks fell behind on the shot chart, iced the puck a bunch, and did their best to bend but not break.
The Canucks went against the run of play, after some solid work from Nils Höglander to extend the Canucks’ zone time. Filip Hronek found Kiefer Sherwood, who made no mistake.
KIEFER SHERWOOD PUTS THE CANUCKS UP BY ONE!
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 8, 2025
Multi-point game for Hronek. 2-1 Canucks.
Teddy Blueger added an empty net goal to put the finishing touches on this one.
3-1 Canucks final.
Some more takeaways from tonight:
-Funny enough, I know he scored a goal in this game and that it is certainly another building block for him to turn his game around, but I thought Pettersson was better against Anaheim than he was tonight. Go figure that he didn’t get a point in that game but opened the scoring in convincing fashion tonight. Two strong games in a row for Pettersson. Now let’s raise the bar and see games like this become the norm for him, as they once were.
-A very strong start for Kevin Lankinen, who has had some great games since signing his extension.
-Victor Mancini and Jonathan Lekkerimäki both strike me as a bit raw, but they’re no-doubt gaining valuable experience in these games.
-Elias Pettersson (the defenceman) is looking better and better. He’s holding his own playing alongside Filip Hronek on the top pair.
-Another great game for Hronek, who is picking up the slack in Hughes’s absence.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!
And be sure to tune into the Rink Wide Vancouver post game show LIVE on YouTube moments after the final horn!
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There’s getting goalied, and then whatever that was last night.
The Vancouver Canucks topped the Minnesota Wild 3-1 last night at home, in what could only be described as a truly Wild affair. Minnesota was all over Vancouver in every sense and regard, dominating the game in every measurable statistical category. And yet, it was the Canucks who prevailed, thanks to the sheer brilliance by Kevin Lankinen between the pipes to hold the Wild at bay. Seriously — the numbers are not good, but a win is a win, right?
Here’s the win, by the numbers.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.
Game Flow
The game flow paints a pretty accurate picture of how last night went. Vancouver posted a 44.74 CF% in both the first and second periods, while their xGF% of 35.49 jumped to 48.23 between the two frames. However, come the third period, the Wild really pushed their weight around and left the Canucks almost entirely on the back foot. Both goals were wildly against the flow of play as Vancouver was reeling, recording a 21.43 CF% and 11.50 xGF%. In total, their xGF in the third stood at 0.19 – compare that to Minnesota, who tallied 1.5 xGF in the final frame alone to try and even this game up.
Heat Map
Going along with the game flow, the heat map does not paint a complimentary picture for the Canucks either. While the Wild’s 27-18 scoring chance lead at 5v5 doesn’t sound awful right off the bat, consider that the high-danger chances were at 16-4 in favour of the visitors. Yes, that’s right, Minnesota managed to create four times the amount of high-danger chances than Vancouver, nearly equaling the Canucks’ entire scoring chance output at 5v5 play. Again, it’s characteristic of the Canucks team and shows just how much they rely on some brilliant goaltending to carry them to victories – because seriously, there is no way that this sustainable, nor a good way to be getting wins.
Individual Advanced Stats
Corsi Champ: Pius Suter was tossed out primarily against the Matt Boldy line, but somehow resulted in him posting the team’s best CF% last night with a 55.00. While Suter’s 26.01 xGF% doesn’t look good on paper, consider that number was merely -5.67 xGF% rel to team average, a byproduct of just how badly the Canucks were outplayed in that statistical category. The most impressive part about the numbers from last night was that Suter was only on ice for one high-danger chance against.
Corsi Chump: Elias Pettersson the forward finds himself trailing the team in CF%, tacking on 26.47 while splitting his offensive zone shift and faceoff starts evenly at 50%. Now granted, he’s playing top 6 minutes, meaning that Pettersson was thrown out against a Wild team that was definitely outplaying the Canucks overall. The Swede finished with a 30.05 xGF%, just barely below team average, while posting the team’s 4th-best xGF of 0.52. It was that kind of night for everyone, but at the very least, we got to see Pettersson one-time a goal home on the powerplay. How long has it been since he did that?
Elias Pettersson blasts a one timer to the back of the net to open the scoring!
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 8, 2025
xGF: These ones aren’t going to be looking very pretty. The man to lead the way in xGF% was Conor Garland’s 50.36, splitting evenly at 0.39 in both xGF and xGA. That genuinely was as good as it got, with Garland not even being on ice for a single high-danger chance against, 3 high-danger chances coming against the Canucks during that same span. Raw xGF saw Filip Hronek lead the team with a 1.07, but also recording a 2-10 differential in high-danger chances to finish with a team-worst 1.79 xGA. It was just how the numbers shaped up last night.
Jake DeBrusk makes a nice pass to Conor Garland open at the side of the net but he can't beat the Minnesota goaltender.
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 8, 2025
GSAx: My goodness Kevin Lankinen. The Finn was on another level last night to help the Canucks secure the win, because there was nothing in front of him that suggested the team earned this victory. Facing down a massive 4.13 xGF across all situations, Lankinen only gave up a single middle-danger goal against to finish with a 3.13 GSAx. Guess what – he saved more expected goals than the Canucks scored as run support for him last night. There’s no telling how badly Vancouver would’ve gotten buried had Lankinen not turned in this kind of performance.
Statistical Musings
Giving up possession for offence: Getting back a little to Pettersson last night, he once again found himself between Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland for the game. While their CF% of 38.89 was not the most impressive, sitting at second-last amongst all forward lines, they were the only forward line to crack 50.00 xGF%. In fact, Joshua-Pettersson-Garland were sitting at 70.77 xGF%, recording a team-best 0.16 despite giving up 3 high-danger chances against. While the DOC-Chytil-Lekkerimaki unit were producing the best xGF of 0.42, the Joshua-Pettersson-Garland line came in a close second at 0.38 xGF with better defensive numbers.
Elias Pettersson makes a couple nice moves. Somehow the puck stays out of the Minnesota net.
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 8, 2025
Interesting numbers: Victor Mancini probably has gone under the radar for many Canuck fans in the lineup, but his numbers alongside Derek Forbort are interesting. While their CF% of 21.74 and xGF% of 25.42 don’t leap off the page, surprisingly the duo were on ice for a 2-3 high-danger chance split. If you’re keeping track, that means that Forbort-Mancini were on ice for half of the high-danger chances that the Canucks got all night. While that obviously didn’t translate to anything tangible, it seems at odds with how their numbers were running all of last night.
Why the Canucks were okay with giving up Carson Soucy: The trade that sent Soucy to the New York Rangers was partly due to the fact that Elias Pettersson the defenceman played so darn well in his time with the big club. Last night, partnering Filip Hronek, the young Swede defenceman was clipping comfortably as the Canucks’ second-best defenceman by the numbers, with an xGF of 0.80 as the second-best player on the entire roster. For a rookie, it’s really good stuff, and it seems that he could be a really solid part of this back line for the future.
As a team
CF% – 40.63% HDCF% – 29.17% xGF% – 39.90%
The Canucks had Lankinen’s performance to thank for this win. They didn’t manage to figure out how to respond to the Wild turning it up a notch, which is REALLY concerning if one considers that they realistically could be an opponent if Vancouver somehow claws into the first round of the playoffs. This team still needs to figure out how to generate chances consistently and win games in a sustainable manner. But, a win is a win, and there were definite bright spots to take away from a game where they got shelled.
Vancouver hosts Tom Gaglardi’s Dallas Stars and their new shiny Mikko Rantanen tomorrow.
Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com
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I missed Friday’s Vancouver Canucks game, which means I didn’t witness one of the few games this season Elias Pettersson reached into his bag of tricks to unleash a clap bomb goal against the Minnesota Wild.
Rest assured, I had the goal described to me in vivid detail by many a fan. They had tears in their eyes as they recounted the windup, the release, and the sound of the goal horn going off in ecstasy. One fan told me he named his child “holy sh!t Elias actually shot the puck” to honour the goal, which I found quite charming, despite my concerns about their future driver’s license.
I also watched many highlights of the goal to make sure what I was seeing was real, that this actually happened. Hell, at one point in the post-game scrums, Elias Pettersson even smiled. Not the smirk he uses when he wants you to know you’ve let him down, but a real, honest-to-goodness grin. It was one of the rare times when I didn’t envision Smithers standing behind him with a gun, telling him to keep smiling.
With this in mind, I headed to the game Sunday with maybe not vim in my step, but a lot of vigor. I was excited to see the revival of Elias Pettersson continue.
Instead, what I was met with was yet another dreary defensive game that saw Elias Pettersson end the night with 16:05 of ice time, to go along with Brock Boeser’s 15:49 and Jake DeBrusk’s measly 12:45.
When asked by Daniel Wagner post-game about their lack of ice time and if that was indicative of their play on the night, Rick Tocchet cut him off, forcefully informing us that “You gotta earn your ice time around here. That’s how you win. So you guys can stir it up all you want. You have to earn your ice time. I don’t care how long you’ve been here, you gotta earn your ice time. That’s the way it works. That’s how you win Stanley Cups.”
If you listen to the audio and hear repeated pounding during this clip, that’s because Tocchet was hitting his fist on the podium to make his point. This wasn’t a coach talking about what players need to do to get better; this was a coach emphatically letting you know that he was not having it with his top guys on the night. Which means those allegations of Tocchet maybe embracing dinosaur hockey a little too much? They aren’t going away anytime soon.
We’ve talked more than enough about his coaching career being littered with teams that lacked offensive punch, so all I will say is that in a game in which you lose 4-1 and produced little offence, maybe you give your top guys some slack as the game comes to a close. Maybe there is a time and place to teach lessons to your star players when you’re in dire need of offence and battling for that sweet, sweet playoff revenue. No offence to Drew O’Connor, but maybe I have some questions that Ja Rule can’t answer.
Of course, that being said, the Dallas Stars are an extremely good hockey club, made even better with the addition of Mikko Rantanen at the trade deadline. It’s hard to watch the Canucks play a team like the Stars and think they’re anywhere close to being able to compete in a playoff series against them, Quinn Hughes or not.
So maybe the long game here for Tocchet is to teach the lessons now and hope they pay off later. Maybe you still lose this game with your top guys on the ice anyway, so why not go Dad mode on them? Tocchet wasn’t wrong in saying they weren’t playing at a top level earlier in the game, even if I didn’t think they were that awful.
And some people, hey, they like the tough love approach. If you’ve got your third and fourth liners busting their asses off, maybe you lean into that. Maybe you see Derek Forbort scores his first goal as a Canuck and suddenly anything seems possible.
It’s just, it’s a huge ask for one of your bottom roster guys to score a goal in a tight checking game, spirited effort or not. That’s where you have to go to your top guys to come through in those key moments we keep hearing about. It’s tough to step up in a key moment when you’re not on the ice.
Which means the questions about whether Rick Tocchet knows how to produce offence coaching an NHL team or not? They are not going to be going away anytime soon.
And with a battle to make the playoffs ahead of them, I can only imagine what a potential post-season run with this team will look like offensively.
Hold onto your butts, folks.
Best good enough for me
Look, for me, the Dallas Stars are a top team, which means the Canucks chances of beating them? If I run the Scott Steiner math, it’s not great.
But when you add in the fact the Dallas Stars played the night before in Edmonton, sure, maybe you feel the Canucks should have fared better.
I just keep coming back to the fact that the Dallas Stars are a ridiculously deep team. I remember many a night in which the 2011 Canucks would sleep walk through the second of a back to back game and win in the third period when Henrik Sedin would bank the puck in off of Sami Salo’s balls or whatever.
However, if you’re the type of person that lives and breathes by “get in and see what happens”, if you’re the type of person who thinks “If Brock Boeser walks in free agency that cap space saved is better than any trade deadline deal” then hey, you’re probably a little miffed with this game. Your shiny optimism won’t be broken by this game, but you’re probably a tad bit put out.
For what it’s worth, I thought the Canucks played pretty solidly considering Quinn Hughes was still out, and Brock, Jake and Elias were all being taught a valuable life lesson.
The game started off decent with Elias Pettersson actually shooting the puck with purpose, clanging a post for his efforts:
He didn’t force a pass, and he didn’t curl back and pass it off for a lethal Vittorio Mancini shot. Instead, he did what your top guys are supposed to do, and he attempted to hurt Casey DeSmith’s self-value by scoring a goal on him.
It felt like the confidence from the team was in a solid spot as you even had Vittorio dangling with the puck in his own zone before sending a floater of a pass that Boeser brought down like a young Zinedine Zidane, back heeling it for Pius Suter to skate into:
Heck, you even had Conor Garland cutting towards the middle of the ice to get a shot off:
Does Garland’s shot scare anyone? Of course not. But it’s what it represents that matters. And what it represented was a team that was well on its way to a 23 shot game, and nothing was going to get in their way of it.
Speaking of sons being punished for on-ice crimes, here was Jake DeBrusk setting up Marcus Pettersson for their lone high danger chance of the period:
Again, I understand the tough love approach; it just didn’t feel like this was a particularly egregious game from Jake, Elias and Brock.
Best new kid on the block
It helps if you just accept the fact that the Canucks power play is a rotting corpse waiting to be found in a landfill, that way you’re never really disappointed by it.
That being said, Jonathan Lekkerimäki showed a bit of juice on the second unit during a late first-period power play:
It was nothing mind-blowing, but the fact that he looked confident with the puck and continued to move around the ice to create space? Well ok maybe that is mind blowing for this Canucks power play, I take it back.
It just felt like you could see the potential in his offensive game with the way he was zipping the puck around and had no issues loading up the shot from the slot when given the chance.
He looked like a young Lonny Bohonos out there.
Best one way of looking at it
Bruce is correct in that Nils Höglander took his pound of flesh from Jason Robertson; we cannot deny that:
What Bruce fails to mention is that it was a receipt from Nils for the elbow Jason through earlier in the shift:
Look, Nils is no Cody Rhodes. He won’t take a Travis Scott shot like that and simply let it go. This is a guy who carries a list of names of people who have wronged him taped to his socks, even if I made that fact completely up. The point is, Nils is a feisty guy who has no problems going Sopranos mode when need be.
Now, the Dallas Stars ended up with the power play out of all of this, which Rick Tocchet had no problem with and accepted quite calmly.
Best lip reading
OK, maybe Rick was a little heated:
The thing about Rick is that he will never, ever say a bad word about a referee after a game. Just won’t do it. The ref could hit him with a baseball bat, and Rick could attempt to stab him in retaliation, but after the game, he will still say they’re a good group of guys over there, and they worked it out during intermission.
Best mini stick hockey approach
The Canucks almost opened the scoring with under 20 seconds left when who else but Conor Garland busted out the mini-sticks hockey approach and almost tapped in the puck at the side of the net off a Marcus Pettersson pass:
Again, for me, a 0-0 tie against this Dallas Stars team, tired or not, is probably the best this team can hope for? I certainly don’t envision Rick Tocchet utilizing a different style anytime soon, so love it or hate it, this counter-attack, defensive style hockey is what we’re in store for the rest of the year; lock it down and hope you get a bounce.
Doesn’t quite sell the tickets by providing any semblance of exciting hockey, but it’s all we’ve got right now.
Best teamwork makes the dream work
The official Natural Stat Trick stats had the Dallas Stars with 19 shots and only five high-danger chances (somehow the Canucks got 10 high-danger chances alone in the third period, which seems like a lie meant to embolden your Uncle on Facebook), which speaks to two things:
- The Canucks did play a pretty solid defensive game of hockey
- The Dallas Stars are a good team, which means it doesn’t take much for them to score when given a chance
Again, though, the Canucks were doing their best to play GOTI hockey, which means Conor Garland was the first guy to drop to the ice behind Lankinen to protect the net in this scramble:
Corolla Garland is the guy you ask to help you move, and he doesn’t even get mad when you tell him you haven’t packed yet. He just rolls up his sleeves and tells you to point him in a direction to get started.
Best shining Stars
It’s not exactly a goal brimming with skill, but Thomas Hartley managed to bank the puck in off of Marcus Pettersson for the Stars’ first goal of the night:
It was essentially a counter-attack off of a thoughts and prayers pass behind the Stars net from Conor Garland that started the rush into the Canucks zone, and after cycling the puck and causing Vancouver to chase the puck, got enough room to get a shot off that ended up getting a fortuitous bounce into the net.
Elias Pettersson was on the ice for this goal, and you can see him make a diving poke attempt at the start of the clip, and honestly? He played hard on this entire shift. In the moments before the goal, he defended the front of the net and cut off a scoring chance by tying up a stick, and then he would later chase down the puck and throw a hit along the boards. He threw in a bit of a desperation dive at the end there, but nothing about this screamed lack of effort.
All of which is to say I am still not quite sure what Elias did this game that drew the ire of his coach to the point of affecting his ice time.
Best jinx early and often
The Canucks almost scored later in the second period when Doc attempted a wraparound, which was followed up by Lekkerimäki getting a slick takeaway to keep the puck in the zone, followed up by Filip Chytil dragging the puck onto the net:
They didn’t score, but at least it was a good greasy attempt? I have to assume this is the kind of thing Tocchet is after, where you drag the puck into the crease and shave off your sideburns.
Best who is that man
With last year’s best third line in the league re-united halfway through the game, Blueger, Garland and Joshua got to participate in the once in a life time event known as a Derek Forbort goal:
Perhaps Derek realized that someone had to step up to replace the offence the team lost when they traded Carson Soucy.
Now, what is absolutely wild about this goal isn’t the fact that Derek is almost going bar down on his shot; it’s the fact that he’s running the 2-on-1 of Rick Tocchet’s dreams.
How many times have we heard Rick talk about wanting his players to move their feet and open up space on the ice like this?
Now, I don’t know how many more of these shots Forbort has in them, but the give-and-go from the point is something this team needs more of, especially with how much they feed the puck back to the blue line.
No, no, go ahead, watch that goal again, take your time. I still can’t believe it either.
Best rigged election results
After the game, Derek was informed of this child in question, to which he replied the kid needed to choose a better offensive player. Then we all laughed. But it was the laughter of people grasping on to anything that could be an uplifting moment from this night.
To which I will say that after losses this year, this team feels like it’s talking at a funeral. I don’t know how the vibes got this bad, and I get that speaking after any loss probably isn’t the most enjoyable thing, but man alive, on some nights, the team just looks right at the floor and talks like they just lost the Cup final.
Everyone except Tyler Myers. That dude refuses to let you see him bleed. 10-1 loss, he will tell you all about the positives of that first goal and how nobody in that room is down right now.
Sometimes, I want to be lied to like that.
Best false fact
In a game in which offensive chances were few and far between, Kiefer Sherwood attempting to turn into Pavel Bure certainly stood out:
That is stickhandling normally reserved for playing online hockey in an EA Sports game, sir.
The only thing missing was dropping the puck back to his skate and kicking it back up to himself. He does that; he clearly scores here.
Best failure to launch
With the period coming to an end, four things happened:
- Elias Pettersson lost a faceoff
- Tyler Myers and Derek Forbort covered the same guy
- Kevin Lankinen punched that puck like it owed him money, giving up the juiciest of rebonds
- Apparently, Rick Tocchet entered into a blood feud with his top players after this
I don’t love that rebound from Kevin; I kind of hate it, actually. Just gut punches it towards the general area of the faceoff dot, which ends up blowing up in his face because Derek Forbort, covering the right side of the ice off the draw, just makes a beeline to get back to the middle of the ice, leaving his man wide open.
The end result is Markus Mikael Granlund has himself an easy tap in, which essentially sealed the game for the Stars since the Canucks are legally not allowed to make a third period come back this year.
Best Jeff was on the case
Again, I am still not sure what the three bad sons did to have their ice time this limited, but that’s where we find ourselves.
Best from bad to worse
The Stars for real for real sealed this game away halfway through the third period when Matt Duchene found Jason Robertson alone behind the Canucks defence for the easy tap-in goal:
I am also confused by what MP3 is doing on this play. My best guess is he either overthought it or thought Garland might slide in to help cover Robertson? Or he just panicked and closed his eyes and went to his happy place, building Legos on the ranch, back in a time when dairy price agreements meant something.
To me, this is just what a good team does; they find a way to break you the second you make a mistake.
And again, for what its worth, Natural Stat Trick had the Canucks generating 10 high-danger chances in this period. I have no idea how. I have no idea when. But apparently, that happened.
In my eyes, the Canucks got shut down in the third period pretty handily.
Best possible high danger chances
The Best Third Line in the League got at least one of those high-danger chances, and it was right after the Stars’ third goal, when Teddy KGB found Dakota Joshua in all alone for a good look at Casey DeSmith:
I also assume this was another high danger chance when Pius Suter tried to thread the puck down low to Blueger in front of the Stars net:
I think the puck rolled off of Teddy’s stick at the last second, and nobody got to any of the actual rebounds to get more shots off, but hey, at least it felt dangerous? That has to count for at least four chances.
Best a few more high danger shots
got out of my seat twice for the D-Petey crossbar and the Hoglander no-goal. Probably used up our close calls for the night there#canucks
— Jisho (@glen_nelson) March 10, 2025
The defensive version of Elias Pettersson would also later hit the post on a shot that Blueger may or may not have gotten a small piece of:
And if punching the puck into the net counts as a high-danger chance, Nils Höglander got one here as well:
So the good news is that hypothetically, the Canucks could have tied this game up.
The bad news is, they didn’t.
Again, not the worst game in the world, and maybe in another universe the Canucks manage to win this one. Maybe you get a bounce or two here and there, and things go your way. I think their structure on the night was solid, even if the same problems of lack of offence reared their ugly heads in the end.
I just don’t envision this team being able to pull this off four times in four series in the playoffs.
Defensive hockey without any ability to score goals only gets you so far.
Best finish them
Here is the Stars empty-netter for posterity:
Another night, another loss, another tedious hockey game.
I honestly have no idea how this team can be jacking up the prices for next season.
Best tale of the tape
Roster problems? Coaching issues? It feels like we’ve been talking about that debate all season long.
At the end of the day, this team cannot generate offence to save its life, and the only way it’s been able to tread water is by playing the type of hockey even the 2003 Minnesota Wild think is a bit much.
See you Tuesday?
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Welcome back to Stars of the Week at CanucksArmy! Every week, we’ll be bringing you our Top Three best and brightest performers on the Vancouver Canucks that week. Disagree with our picks or have your own stars to nominate? Let us know in the comments below!
Did we all make it through trade deadline week? Well, there are a lot of players around the league who didn’t, for better or for worse.
The Canucks looked better this week – more confident with their passes, their speed, and shooting. They’re still mostly only scraping by wins with small goal margins and losing out on other games that they should probably win. They left this week with four out of a possible six points. At least it’s better than last week.
Teddy Blueger
I loved Blueger’s game this week, and I hope you did, too. He hadn’t scored in 28 games and landed himself two goals this week. It looks like the kind of centre depth we’ve been missing lately. Maybe the secret to Blueger’s game could be putting Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland back on the same line, or it could be wishful thinking. Seeing remnants of last year’s Canucks team creates a more hopeful outlook. The pieces of the puzzle are there.
Take this sequence alone – in a game that certainly didn’t end the Canucks’ way, Blueger had chemistry and the team as a whole had shots on goal – something that’s been hard to come by.
Teddy Blueger makes a perfect pass to find Dakota Joshua but he can't beat Casey DeSmith.
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 10, 2025
Filip Hronek
I seem to say this a lot this year, but Filip Hronek has done an exceptional job stepping up in Quinn Hughes’ absence. Hronek had four points this week against the Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild, but it isn’t all just about finding the scoresheet. It goes to show his abilities in isolation from Hughes and just how much he’s capable of supporting the defensive core when needed. He looks good paired with D-Petey, who provides a guiding hand to a rookie defenceman who has been needed more than ever in a chaotic year. When your captain and D-partner is down for the count, it’s nice to have other leadership in the room amongst a week – and a season – of uncertainty.
Conor Garland
For several reasons, Conor Garland looked like his scrappy self this week, which couldn’t have come at a better time.
First of all, simply for morale. Again, with Boeser the focus of both attention and the chopping block this week and Hughes still out, it might have been very easy to take the wind out of the Canucks’ sails. He looked engaged, getting to net-front, which is one of his sweet spots, not for the prettiest attempts on goal, but ones that matter nonetheless.
Secondly, he took the last few seconds of their tilt against the Anaheim Ducks to challenge Trevor Zegras to some fisticuffs. Knowing these two players, I’m sure they had some very friendly conversation going throughout the game.
With a few seconds left on the clock, the Canucks knew they had this 3-2 game signed, sealed, and delivered. This was a prime example of Conor Garland knowing when to step up on his team and providing a little entertainment value at that.
For some self-indulgent promotion, you can read my profile on him for this year’s iteration of the Botchford Project. He could not have known that this would be published this week, but it certainly was excellent timing.
Honourable Mentions
He gets a mention for somehow, whether you want him to be or not, leaving trade deadline week as a member of the Vancouver Canucks.
Will he get all the way to free agency, or will he be extended until then? Patrik Allvin does not even have the answer to that question.
He gets a mention for somehow, whether you want him to be or not, leaving trade deadline week no longer a member of the Vancouver Canucks.
Soucy scored his last goal as a Canuck against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, and was traded on Thursday, which is a fitting farewell. He could be a decent defenceman on occasion, which was maybe the issue.
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The Vancouver Canucks (29-23-11) close out a four-game homestand when they host the Montreal Canadiens (30-27-6) tonight at Rogers Arena.
It’s the start of a back to back set with the Canucks scheduled to face the Flames in a key Western Conference wild card showdown in Calgary on Wednesday.
What we saw
The club was back on the ice for a full morning skate after taking Monday off from practice. Captain Quinn Hughes joined the group in a non-contact jersey and took part in drills. However, he will miss his fourth straight game tonight.
Drew O’Connor and defenceman Elias Pettersson are both battling the flu and left the morning skate early, but both are expected to play tonight.
The Canucks will show the Habs some new looks up front. Rick Tocchet is adding O’Connor speed to the left side with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser, while Teddy Blueger looks to rekindle the success he had last season centering Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland. Leading goal-scorer Jake DeBrusk will skate with Filip Chytil and Jonathan Lekkerimäki, while Pius Suter slides to a line with Nils Höglander and Kiefer Sherwood.
Kevin Lankinen makes his fifth straight start in goal. He and the Canucks fell 4-1 to Dallas in their last outing on Sunday night. Derek Forbort scored his first goal of the season and his first goal in more than two years. The last time the stay-at-home defender put a puck in the net was February 16, 2023, when he was with Boston. Forbort will be wearing an ‘A’ as an alternate captain for the first time tonight.
The Canucks have been held to three goals or fewer in 14 straight games and 23 times in their last 24 outings. The team has a total of 32 goals in those 14 games – 30 of them in regulation time and a pair of overtime winners.
The team’s morning skate started with both power units getting in some early work ahead of the group.
Tonight marks Teddy Blueger’s 400th NHL game. Today is Conor Garland’s 29th birthday.
The opponent
The Canadiens have been off since a 1-0 loss in Calgary on Saturday night. Jakob Dobes made 23 saves in the team’s fourth shutout loss of the season.
The team had won five straight before a 3-2 overtime loss in Edmonton and the loss in Calgary to start a four-game road trip. Montreal will be in Seattle tomorrow night.
Cole Caulfield leads the Habs with 31 goals, while Nick Suzuki is their top point-getter with 65 in the season. Defenceman Lane Hutson leads all NHL rookies with 49 points, including 45 assists. He is the only first-year skater in the league to average more than 20 minutes of ice (22:23).
Former Vancouver Giant stalwart and Delta native Brendan Gallagher has 15 goals and is on pace for his best season since 2019-20 when he scored 22 times.
After serving as the backup on Saturday, Sam Montembault gets the start in goal tonight. He is 4-0-1 in his last five outings.
Montreal is in the thick of the Wild Card chase in the East. The Canadiens enter the night four points back of Columbus for the final wild card spot in that race.
The Habs beat the Canucks 5-4 in overtime on January 8th at Bell Centre. Nick Suzuki scored the winner on a 4-on-3 power play. The Canucks held a 3-1 lead halfway through the hockey game.
Tonight’s referees: Tom Chmielewski & Chris Lee
Tonight’s broadcasters: John Shorthouse & Ray Ferraro
What we heard
Rick Tocchet on the progress Quinn Hughes is making: “I don’t know about his status tomorrow, but it was a good day for him. He obviously did a little bit more than he has done, so he looked pretty good. But we didn’t have contact drills and stuff like that. So it’s hard to evaluate him. He felt really good yesterday, so we’ll go from there.”
Tocchet on players responding to his post-game comments Sunday about earning their ice time with better performances: “Well, if you want to change culture and want a winning organization, you have to earn it. That’s the way it is. You can’t hand stuff for (things) in the past. Let’s face it, we’re trying to become a winning club. Everybody has to earn their way. I hate the word entitlement. There is no entitlement around here. Listen, if we’re going to go anywhere those guys have to play. Don’t get me wrong. They’ve got to play and they’re going to get played tonight and hopefully they respond.”
Brock Boeser on team needing to find ways to score: “I think we’ve talked about that for a while now that we haven’t generated much offence and I, personally, think that when we’re getting some shots we’re not having much net front traffic and enough guys around the net getting those greasy goals we’ve talked about. That’s where a lot of the goals are scored in this league so we’ve got to get our noses a little dirty tonight.”
Boeser on adjusting to playing with others after spending past few seasons primarily with JT Miller as his centre: “It’s definitely a lot different when you play with a guy for two years, a guy to that degree of how good he is and how good a passer he is and how well he creates space. So, yeah, it’s definitely an adjustment and I feel like I’m trying to understand that it’s going to be different and that I’ve got to play a little different with other guys. I can definitely shoot the puck more and get net front and find those greasy rebounds.”
Make sure to join the Rink Wide Vancouver postgame live stream immediately following tonight’s game. Rink Wide will provide a full breakdown and comprehensive coverage of the Canucks game. When the final buzzer sounds, be sure to log onto Rink Wide and join the YouTube live chat to discuss the game with other Canucks fans. Subscribe to the Rink Wide YouTube channel and never miss an episode.
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The Vancouver Canucks will play their most important game of the season when they faceoff against the Calgary Flames Wednesday evening.
The Canucks sit one point back of the Flames for the final playoff spot, having played one more game. A regulation win in this matchup would offer a four point swing in the standings, and put the Canucks back in the driver’s seat in the playoff race.
Vancouver will be playing night two of a back-to-back and started number-one goaltender, Kevin Lankinen, in Tuesday’s matchup. They could receive a massive boost as Captain Quinn Hughes is expected to return after a four-game absence.
I’ll detail the relevant game notes, as well as outline my favourite betting angle below.
Canucks vs. Flames odds
Canucks Moneyline +133 Flames Moneyline -143 Puck Line Canucks +1.5 (-201), Flames -1.5 (+175) Total Over 5.5 (+109), Under 5.5 (-123)
Odds courtesy of Pinnacle and are subject to change. Use promo code: Puck @ sign-up.
Vancouver Canucks
While losing to the Montreal Canadiens is far from ideal, the Canucks can make amends for last night’s disappointing performance if they win this game in regulation. The Canadiens held a 4.09 to 3.09 edge in expected goals, while Vancouver held a 17-16 edge in high danger scoring chances.
We touched on it in yesterday’s guide, but it’s hard to overstate Hughes value to the Canucks right now. They have scored 2.90 goals per game with Hughes in the lineup this season, compared to 1.93 goals per game with Hughes out of the lineup. Hughes ranks 10th among all NHL skaters with 1.20 point-per-game average this season, despite being a defenceman playing on a team with nobody else sitting close to a point-per-game.
While Hughes has been incredible offensively, he also holds a +5.2 xDef rating (per EvolvingHockey). The Canucks Captain obviously won’t be at 100% if he does play in this matchup, but he’s been highly effective at other points this season while playing through injury.
At the time of writing, it is currently unclear whether head coach Rick Tocchet will opt to start Kevin Lankinen in both legs of a back-to-back, which has become almost unheard of in today’s NHL, or roll with backup Arturs Silovs. Silovs holds a -9.7 GSAx rating and .858 save percentage in nine appearances this season.
Elias Pettersson took another step in the right direction last night and offered a good example of why plus/minus can be such a flawed statistic. With Pettersson on the ice the Canucks held an 11-2 edge in scoring chances, and an 8-2 edge in high-danger scoring chances.
— CanucksArmy (@canucksarmy.bsky.social) 2025-03-12T04:31:23.176Z
Pettersson once again looked more keen to shoot the puck, as he lead all Canucks with four shots on target, and had seven shot attempts. It’s another point that has been made often, but Pettersson needs to continue being more shot-minded given the quality of both his one-timer and wrist-shot.
Over the last 10 games the Canucks hold an expected goal share of 50.24%, and have generated 3.17 xGF/60. Actual goals continue to be hard to come by, as they have scored only 2.10 goals per game in that span, which ranks 31st in the NHL.
Calgary Flames
While it seems pretty crazy to think the Canucks have hung around in the Wild Card race while scoring so few goals, they have still been better offensively than the Calgary Flames. The Flames rank 32nd with a goal per game average of 2.56 this season, yet have a good chance of stealing a playoff berth.
Dustin Wolf enters tonight’s matchup priced at +1200 to win the Calder Trophy. Based on recent data points, oddsmakers aren’t necessarily wrong to think the Flames’ goaltender won’t be named Rookie of the Year, either.
However, it seems that voters reluctance to vote a goaltender as goalie of the year, and perhaps some Eastern bias, are preventing Wolf from getting the credit he deserves. Wolf holds a +14.7 GSAx rating and holds the fifth-best save percentage in the league among goaltenders to make 20 or more appearances.
While I’m not a big believer that players need to be on playoff teams in order to be considered for individual awards, Wolf’s play has helped his team more than any other rookie this season, and if the Flames make the playoffs, that should be clear.
Betting odds are another testament to just how greatly the Flames have overachieved based on Wolf’s play. In Wolf’s starts, the Flames are 22-16 straight up and hold a +8.2% ROI. In backup Dan Vladar’s starts, the Flames are 8-17 straight up and hold a -21.2% ROI.
Given the importance of this game, it would be shocking to see Wolf not be offered the start, though he has not yet been confirmed as the starting goaltender.
Over the last 10 games, the Flames hold a 42.96% expected goal share. They have allowed 28.82 shots against per 60 in that span and allowed 3.28 xGA/60.
Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost look to be solid acquisitions for the Flames, who could raise the team’s offensive floor moving forward. Farabee enters this matchup off of his two best performances as a Flame, netting two goals, including a beauty versus the Dallas Stars.
Best bets for Canucks vs. Flames
The Flames are obviously catching the Canucks in a favourable scheduling spot here, and have offered a legitimate home ice advantage this season. If tonight’s goaltending matchup is ultimately Wolf versus Silovs, Calgary will hold a significant edge in goal.
The Flames opened at -120 favourites in this matchup and have now moved all the way to -148. There no longer looks to be any value fading the Canucks as a result, especially if Hughes is to make his return to the lineup.
There does look to be value in backing Pettersson to record over 1.5 shots on goal at -145, which is the same prop we used in yesterday’s piece. While Pettersson poured four shots on goal from seven attempts in yesterday’s game, the price is still identical. It’s been visibly apparent that Pettersson is looking to shoot more, and the stats agree, as he has 21 shot attempts over the last four games.
Best bet: Elias Pettersson Over 1.5 shots on goal -145 (Pinnacle, Play to -150)
30 tries.
It took 30 tries for the Vancouver Canucks to comeback and win a game they were losing after two periods, and it couldn’t have come at a more crucial time than Wednesday in Calgary against the Flames.
Is it a coincidence that it came on a night that I got the backup call from Wyatt, with my personal 5-1-0 Stanchies record and a 4-game winning streak on the line? I think not!
From the first time these rivals linked up on opening night in a chaotic 6-5 Canucks loss, it snowballed into a battle for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. With Calgary holding a game in hand and the Canucks reeling from a bad loss to the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday night, this game was as must win as they get.
With their backs against the wall, the Canucks did what so many strong Vancouver teams of seasons past have needed to accomplish: they clawed back from behind against the Flames – at the Saddledome, no less – and found a way to win.
Granted, they did give up an overtime point in the end, putting both teams at 71 points with the extra game for Calgary still lingering. But the character-building of a come-from-behind win, for a team that’s searched for one all season, can’t be overstated. And it came on the back of vintage performances from Elias Pettersson, who notched the late tying goal, and Quinn Hughes, returning from injury to play an absolutely pivotal 30 minutes of ice time amidst new injuries on the blue line.
That’s why this win could be nothing short of the biggest one this season. Whether or not it benefits the Canucks to go for a playoff spot and a matchup with Winnipeg or Vegas at this stage is up for debate. But let’s be honest with ourselves; taking a playoff spot away from Calgary would be one of the best possible feelings as a Canucks fan.
I say let it ride.
the plan is back on the season is saved https://t.co/IqHNTtA5fX pic.twitter.com/wvNpMKsLT7
— tatiana(@tatituzzi) March 12, 2025
If I had a nickel for every Quinn Hughes comeback game I’ve been on writing duty for, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. And thank goodness he was here because Tyler Myers was ruled out of tonight’s game after taking some stinging blocks in the Montreal game on Tuesday.
And Hughes almost immediately made stuff happen, getting to the front of the net to set up Drew O’Connor if not for an errant Flames stick.
He’s such a breath of fresh air every time he gets back on the ice. It’s like seeing an invincible hockey god amongst men.
I won’t kid you, this game was far from a fun watch early on, as more and more Canucks games seem to be. The third period got a lot more interesting, but the first 50 minutes were an exercise in sloppy play, futile scoring chances, and so, so many uncalled penalties. But that’s kind of what you get when you put two very anemic offences up against each other at the wrong time.
I won’t bore you with a bunch of failed dump-and-chase entries that both teams tried. But just know I could!
This was a nationally televised Wednesday Night Hockey game, so when the Flames broadcast crew was handed the keys to the press box, you knew people in Vancouver were going to be upset. Now I’m not going to sewer former Canucks play-by-play man Jon Abbott one bit, considering he had to call some of the most terrible games in the Jim Benning era. But this was a strange assignment to give a regional broadcast crew.
For a March game with so much on the line, the Saddledome crowd sounded a lot more library-like than you’d expect from this fanbase. Maybe it’s Flames fans not really caring about making the playoffs, or maybe it’s Sportsnet’s sound mixing consistently turning down the crowd volume at every arena in the league for some weird reason. I’m going to pretend it’s the former.
The Canucks fans in the building did make their presence known. Props to anyone who made the trip.
Elias “Junior” Pettersson brings the BOOM like he’s always grabbing chicken bakes and double chunk chocolate cookies at the Costco on Expo Boulevard. (For anyone not up to date on their TikTok personalities, don’t Google this. It’s time you’ll never get back.)
The hit Junior flattens Nazem Kadri with is a good hockey hit! It’s right through the body; no head contact is made, and it does its job of knocking Kadri off the puck. And to his credit, Kadri is already shaking it off and going back to playing right before Connor Zary decides to take an absolute cheap shot in response.
Zary drills his arm and elbow right through the side of an unsuspecting Pettersson’s head and jumps on top of the fallen Canuck rookie for good measure.
Somehow, this bush league sh!t was only worth a two-minute penalty in the moment, and it ended up cutting EP25’s night short, keeping him out of the final two periods with an obvious injury. But hopefully, it’ll take Zary out of the lineup for a lot longer once the Department of Player Safety takes a look at this replay on Thursday morning. Absolutely pathetic “retribution” for a clean hit.
Before the game, we got some excellent foreshadowing. While waiting to go out for the warm-up, Sportsnet’s cameras caught Marcus Pettersson and Pius Suter doing a little dap up in the Saddledome tunnel before heading out onto the ice.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that these two linked up for the opening goal of the game right as Zary’s penalty expired. Suter’s first shot didn’t get through the skate of Joel Hanley, but on his second attempt, he made no mistake, putting it over Dustin Wolf’s shoulder.
Suter’s insane scoring bender has been a sight to behold, and if the Canucks make the playoffs at all he’ll be a surprisingly big reason why.
Who says 28 is too late to find out you’re actually a bona fide sniper?
Oh, and JT Miller should be on Noah’s list, too, but who’s counting?
The Flames would respond before the period was out, thanks to a defensive breakdown that would put even the worst NFL defence to shame. All Rasmus Andersson had to do was wait for both Junior and Dragon to split and cover checks on either side boards, leaving all the room in the world for a pass to Nazem Kadri through the middle.
With both Petterssons’ parting for the Red ‘C’, Kadri skates right up the gut and dekes around Lankinen, who bites too hard on the poke check attempt and leaves the net wide open.
And you thought the Flames’ dirty play stopped with Zary in the first period! Oh no.
After Quinn makes a set-up pass to Kiefer Sherwood at the red line, noted villain Ryan Lomberg cross-checks him away from the puck, knocking Hughes over and getting the ref’s attention for a delayed penalty. When the whistle goes, Lomberg decides to gaslight himself into the idea that Hughes flopped, skating right over and cross-checking him in the chest.
Lomberg keeps on jawing at Hughes from the comfort of his cellblock, not knowing what a colossal mistake he’s making waking up the bear they call Huggy.
Sometimes, revenge is a dish best served quickly.
The Canucks top power play unit has struggled a lot this year, but talk about a clutch appearence in this game. With the Flames’ penalty kill collapsing back to the slot area, EP40 feeds Hughes the puck at the blue line, and he has all the time he needs to rip it. DeBrusk waits paitently in front of Wolf and gets one of the most deftly tipped goals a Canuck has scored all season and celebrates like it.
Hughes opts for an out-of-character celly approach: a fly-by past Lomberg in the penalty box, followed by some chirping with Rasmus Andersson that follows all the way to the benches.
You know how you can tell Hughes is jacked up? He actually flashed a devilish grin on the bench!
If you’d placed a pregame prop bet on Hughes getting caught smiling in this game, you’re probably already planning how to quit your job tomorrow.
Of course, these wouldn’t be the 2025 Canucks without showing us their best and worst selves in the same night. The roles of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde being played by the man advantage.
With Brayden Pachal in the penalty for running completely blatant interfence on Conor Garland, the Canucks have a chance to build on their lead. Instead, they collapse like a casino on the Vegas Strip does every couple of years when they need a new hotel theme.
After a Hughes attempt to dump the puck in gets blocked by a pair of Flames defender, the Canucks don’t pick up on the transition fast enough. As soon as the play gets turned the other way towards Kevin Rooney and a trailing Jonathan Huberdeau, Filip Chytil finds himself as the only Canuck back.
Rather than position himself for a 2-on-1, Chytil takes a flying leap at Rooney and stumbles, creating a sudden shorthanded 2-on-0 that Huberdeau buries in the back of the net with ease.
This type of defensive breakdown is usually a sign that the wheels are about to come off the bus.
Nils Åman over Jonathan Lekkerimäki was a coach’s decision. And it cost them dearly when Åman took a dumb interference penalty late in the second.
Seeing the writing on the wall, both the Flames power play and the Canucks penalty kill seemed to be going through the motions when Jonathan Huberdeau ripped a shot so hard that it got stuck in the net’s back post.
If GIFs could have audio, you’d hear Flames fans offer the most awkward, half-hearted cheer a home team’s goal has ever received. Instead, you just get to see the puck awkwardly caught on Lankinen’s water bottle.
This game – and this season – feel just about done.
Ahead of the third period, the Flames broadcast made a point to mention that the OG Elias Pettersson has a 10-game point streak going against the Flames, with a secondary assist already on the scoresheet.
Imagine if that bet paid off. Nothing would silence the haters faster!
Speaking of foreshadowing, Kevin Lankinen made a key stop on Kadri during an early third period power play that easily could’ve put the game out of reach. In another world that puck goes in, and the Canucks playoffs go with them.
Instead, we played on.
You don’t love to give opponents their flowers, but Dustin Wolf was absolutely phenomenal in the third period. At one point, the shot difference was a whopping 16-1 in favour of the Canucks, and the rookie goalie held down the fort with glove saves, scrambles in close on the power play and holding the goal line.
The Canucks power play in the third period was some of the best man advantage work they’ve done all season, but they were facing a brick wall at the worst time. There’s a reason he belongs in the Calder Trophy conversation next to Macklin Celebrini.
With 10 minutes to go, the Canucks, who haven’t come back from down a goal in what feels like a millenium, were going to have to find some magic and beat a red hot goalie all at once.
Who was willing to step up?
The Canucks needed a hero. Their season on the line, their chance at a playoff spot slipping away.
Just when you thought he was a goner, Elias freaking Pettersson rose from the ashes like a phoenix.
This goal starts with a well-placed shot on goal from Victor Mancini of all people, who, in the absence of Myers and D-Petey, is suddenly playing top-four minutes and looking extremely good doing it. With all sorts of traffic in front, Wolf finally spits out a juicy rebound, and there’s EP40 to send the puck sailing home for his third goal in four games, punctuating it with the masculine urge to say “let’s go!” after anything good happens.
As soon as that puck went in, you suddenly had the feeling of… could it be positive vibes? I thought those went extinct months ago.
The Canucks and Flames played out the stretch with neither team willing to give up the point they’d pick up if the game went to OT. They’d leave the heart attacks for extra time.
This is where Elon Musk’s terrible version of Twitter decided to poop out on embedding posts, so we don’t have any more quotes from you guys from here on out. I do promise there were lots of good ones!
First, Hughes sprung EP40 and DeBrusk on a 2-on-1 where Pettersson called his own number but just couldn’t beat the arm of Wolf.
Then it was Hughes’ turn to take a rush, getting away a good shot that Wolf managed to blocker into the netting.
After Rick Tocchet took a well-placed timeout midway through the final five, both teams got their best chances on the same shift. First went the Flames, who took advantage of a stupidly executed puck drop for a 2-0n-1 chance that Lankinen shuts down.
Then, the puck immediately turns back the other way. Filip Hronek’s shot misses the net, but Pettersson corrals it and just can’t tuck it around the post and a prone Wolf.
In the dying moments of OT, snakebitten Brock Boeser hits the post, and Conor Garland can’t get the puck around Wolf’s outstretched pad.
To a shootout we go. Just the way you want a brutal battle for playoff positioning to end, right?
This shootout was the story of three clutch Canucks.
The first is Kevin Lankinen, who stopped three of the four Flames shooters with a balance of patience and refusing to give the slightest bit of real estate in close.
The second is Elias Pettersson, who makes Wolf look completely human with a, dare I say, J.T. Miller-esque(?) shootout approach.
Guys, Petey’s never been more back.
The final act is Conor Garland’s. He didn’t have his loudest game of the season on Wednesday, but when his number was called in the shootout, he came back to the bench a conquering hero.
I’m no lip-reading expert, but during his winning celebration, Conor seems to say, “LET’S F***ING GO F***ING HOME!!”
Put that quote on a statue when the Canucks make the playoffs and inevitably go on a run we’ll remember our entire lives. That’s how legends are born.
Love how they kept pressing after the tying goal. Who is this strange team? pic.twitter.com/dQCfMYDc8F
— Aaron(@canuck5551) March 13, 2025
The third period of this game was the most fun the Canucks have looked in a long, long time. It’s not surprising that when the Tocchet-coached Canucks are forced to abandon the defence-first mindset and not rely on dump and chase hockey, they’re just so much more fun to watch. It only resulted in one goal this time around, but it’s obvious that entertaining hockey sells so much better than a low-event game does.
If every game the Canucks played were like the third period, you’d have people lined around the block to pay 20% more a year for half and full season ticket packs. You wouldn’t need to cut 11-game packs to force more people onto the ones with bigger financial commitments. And you certainly wouldn’t have people balking at the $100+ it currently requires just to attend one freaking game.
Put a fun product on the ice, and you’ll never have an empty seat again. This team did it in the final 20 minutes of their second game of a back-to-back on a different time zone.
Just imagine what they could accomplish with that kind of effort in a full season.
I sure do.
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D-Petey 
ays (@CanucksWontWin) 
43 (@Huggy_Bear43)