5 ‘Dangerous’ Canucks Preseason Predictions; Playoffs?

‘Dangerous’ for my pride. Pride shmide; here they are, VHN’s Five-Way-Too-Early-Predictions-for-the-Vancouver-Canucks.

First a review. Last season there were actually six; I threw in a bonus which I’ll do again this time.

Last preseason, same week, early September, I ended up going 2-3-and-1. Covid messed with the schedule and other elements, but here was the dealie.

1) Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson would sign by October 1st. Bingo. Officially on that day, announced the night before.

2) Canucks will go 3-2-and-1 on their opening road trip. Bingo again. Was feeling pretty good about myself after this one.

3) Oliver Ekman-Larsson will finish the season with between 35 and 40 points. WAH, WAh, Wah, wahhhhh. 29 points.

4) Conor Garland will have 12 goals by Christmas. He had 9, but there’s an * on this one, because a handful of games were cancelled and pushed beyond the holidays, including his first against his former club, the pathetic Arizona Coyotes. Could have put him down for two right there. Calling this a wash.

5) Jaroslav Halak will get to 12 wins. This blew up all over. I’m still picking up the shrapnel. Sad, because only a minority of it was his fault. Jaro’ actually had better percentages than Thatcher Demko over the first couple of months of the season, but the Canucks refused to score him any goals. He ended with four wins; he should have had five by New Year’s.

6) Canucks will make the playoffs. Buzzer. They tried.

2022-’23

Alrightee then, a new season, a new list, following a similar sort of genres, and again, they’re not necessarily for the feint of heart.

1) Bo Horvat will sign an extension by October 7th. That’s the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend.

2) Canucks will go 3-1-and-1 on their opening road trip. One of the wins will come after regulation.

3) If he’s healthy for most of it, Ilya Mikheyev will finish with between 14-and-17 goals. This depends on where he ends up playing in the line-up. I had one NHL GM tell me not to expect much more than a third liner, while others have much higher expectations.

4) Demko will be a finalist for the Vezina Trophy.

5) Tanner Pearson will be traded by the deadline. Sorry.

And the bonus question: 6) Yes, considering all of the differences, including the head coach, the Canucks will make the playoffs.

Enjoy the ride!