Though the Vancouver Canucks season ends with a loss, it can only be considered a success. One game away from reaching the Western Conference Final is farther than anyone expected. That’s true of predictions at the beginning of the year and those at the beginning of the playoffs.
Now comes the Canucks free agent list, with big decisions to be made. Canucks Season Ends Low, Fans Still on High The expectations for Vancouver have been a talking point all year – at best, a narrow third place in their division. At worst, finishing ahead of only bottom-feeders San Jose and Anaheim .
In typical Canucks fashion of late, too bad for playoffs, too good to draft local Wunderkind Macklin Celebrini. Nine months ago, President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford said the team would make the playoffs “if everything goes right.” Just about everything went right.
Not perfectly, but right. Andrei Kuzmenko only made it half the year before being moved, and Elias Pettersson ‘s “very noisy” season included public negotiations and a private injury. Phil Di Giuseppe couldn’t hold on to a top-line spot, but no one really expected him to.
Thatcher Demko ‘s injuries hurt the team’s season and post-season. Otherwise? That was a pretty darn good year. The difficulty with having what was clearly an “interim season” is showing itself now.
The Canucks, by all evidence, made several moves to improve the team’s character. That means older veteran players on short contracts who need .