Hi all, this is an artical on NHL.com that talks about the newcomers and departures from our Club this offseason. What I found a little surprising was their presumtive starting lineup on opening night. No Podz. I can't say I'm too familiar with our new additions outside of Debrusk, what do you think?
https://www.nhl.com/news/vancouver-canucks-roster-changes-for-2024-25-season
by Vanrainy1
12 Comments
Lineup from article:
Nils Hoglander — J.T. Miller — Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk — Elias Pettersson — Daniel Sprong
Dakota Joshua — Teddy Blueger — Conor Garland
Danton Heinen — Pius Suter — Kiefer Sherwood
——
Quinn Hughes — Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy — Tyler Myers
Derek Forbort — Vincent Desharnais
——
Thatcher Demko
Arturs Silovs
Hoglander is in the first line.
But Juulsen and Podkolzin is nowhere to be found.
Podz is no longer waiver safe this season. He should be a shoe-in in the roster.
OOps, dam…Little edit coming up
Hoglander is on the top line in their projected lineup?
And Podkolzin not in the top 12 isn’t that far of a stretch. He’ll need to prove his worth in camp and would also be competing against PDG/Aman as 13th.
I predict Heinen and Suter will see more top 6 time than Sprong and Hoglander
I like Hoglander with Miller and Boeser. Seems like a good combo for all of them.
I don’t like Sprong on second line though, I’d move him to the 4th and replace him with Heinan. Also would switch Suter to 3C and Blueger to 4C.
Podz can be the extra man, competing with Sprong and Sherwood for playing time. Sprong rode the bench at times last year so I wouldn’t get married to him being in the top six. The fact they cite McWard as a prospect of note in the AHL shows a lack of in-depth knowledge of the franchise imo.
It’s just one guy’s guess.
The only forwards guaranteed to be in the top 6 are Petey, Miller, Boesser and Debrusk. The other two spots are up for grabs and will likely change a bunch, especially early.
Really interested to see how EP40 plays with a brand new set of wings. Could be just what he needed, if they find some early chemistry and he’s not stuck with a revolving door of sloppy seconds.
My prediction: one of either Sprong or Debrusk will click, and Hoggy will trade spots with the other guy. That, or Suter jumps back up. Either way, I’m assuming Tocchet will be playing musical bench throughout the season, trying stuff out to see what works, and to get everyone used to playing with everyone else in case of injury/trades/etc.
I swear it is like the writer did no research into the Canucks’ systems last year and just based it on how many goals each player scored. I don’t believe Tocchet would run this lineup based on how he wanted his lines to function last season.
The Canucks forecheck used 2-1-2 or 1-1-3 depending on the state of the game. All last season, Tocchet put someone on the Boeser/Miller line who had excellent puck retrieval and had enough speed to be the first forward into the zone – Di Guiseppe, Suter, and occasionally Hoglander and Mikheyev. Based on who they targetted in the offseason, it seems clear they intend Danton Heinen to be that guy for the Boeser/Miller line going into training camp. Heinen worked that role for the Bruins and got a lot of praise for it with the Pasta line last season.
Similarly, I can’t see Sprong deployed on the Pettersson line unless there are drastic changes to the Canucks’ systems. Obviously, DeBrusk was signed for Petey’s line and will the first forward in on the forecheck, and since the idea with the first two lines is to win the puck battles along the boards, that has never been Sprong’s strong suit. But it is for Hoglander. Hoglander comes to support, who retrieves the puck, and gets it to Pettersson so they can set up. If Sprong is on that line, Pettersson would have to come and support DeBrusk, which you typically don’t want your centre to do as it increases the risk of a 3-on-2 the other way. Perhaps I’m wrong, there is time and opportunity for Tocchet to get Sprong to fight along the boards more.
The 3rd line is a no-brainer.
I think the fourth line tries to emulate the success of the 3rd. Sherwood, Sprong, and Suter have similar makings to Blueger, Garland, and Joshua – an aggressive and big winger who hits, a reliable two-way centre, and a scoring winger. You could even substitute with Podkolzin or PDG if needed, and I think the Canucks want Podkolzin in one of those winger roles (more likely in Sherwood’s spot).
For the defense, I have a feeling that the Canucks will split up Hronek and Hughes for the first little bit. They need Hronek to play like a 7M defenseman, which means occasionally carrying his own pairing. The goal should be for them to elevate the games of Forbort and Desharnais rather than have one dominant pairing. This will give Desharnais a chance to show if he can handle Top-4 minutes alongside Hughes early enough in the season, once the Canucks are more comfortable with his level of play, that will help Allvin determine how desperate of a need another Top-4 defenseman is, and whether he wants a LHD or a RHD. This also allows the Canucks to limit the ice time of each pairing, which Tocchet was keen to do last season too. This is why Hughes’ minutes dropped from 25+ in 2022/2023 to ~24 ATOI in 2024, they want to manage his ice time and have some gas saved in the tank if they’re down in the 3rd.
Based on all of these factors, I think the preseason/opening night roster is expected to look like:
DeBrusk – Pettersson – Hoglander
Heinen – Miller – Boeser
Joshua – Blueger – Garland
Sherwood/Podkolzin – Suter – Sprong
Hughes – Desharnais
Soucy – Myers
Forbort – Hronek
That bottom looks really good. Heinen and Sherwood really tip the scale compared to last year. Assuming our top 6 additions perform to expectations, then this is a solid forward group. Jury is still out on Hoglander and Sprong over 82 games.
That D-core depth is thin…While large is not the fleetest of foot. I’m a little worried about it.