The Vancouver Canucks were mystifying in October.
Even if they hadn’t been mauled 6-0 by the New Jersey Devils at Rogers Arena on Wednesday night, it must be said that the Canucks’ form in October was inconsistent.
At the very least, it’s clear their team game hasn’t quite clicked into gear through their first nine games of the season.
It hasn’t been all bad, of course. They have managed to pick up points in seven of those games. Some elements of their game have been genuinely impressive, particularly their enhanced ability to generate quality looks and improved penalty killing.
On the other hand, the expectations surrounding this team were elevated going into this season. The Canucks have struggled against quality opponents, have only won three games in regulation and have played to a negative goal differential.
It’s still early. No NHL team that successfully picks up points at the rate Vancouver has is ever defined by what it looks like in October.
Still, the turning of the calendar marks a convenient time to take stock of how the team and its players are trending.
Let’s grade every Canucks forward’s performance through the first nine games. This is an exercise we intend to conduct every month throughout this season. We’ll publish report cards for the defenders and goaltenders tomorrow.
J.T. Miller: B+
2024-25 statistics: 9 GP, 4-5-9
Miller has been assertive, scored some big, trademark power forward-type goals and been the Canucks’ demonstrative emotional leader through the first month of the season.
That Miller has continued to produce despite appearing to be operating at less than 100 percent on occasion — Miller only appeared in one preseason contest as he worked through an issue, and sustained an apparent upper-body injury in the second week of the campaign that prevented him from taking faceoffs for a couple of games — is commendable. It’s a testament to his toughness, durability and pain tolerance.
Whether it’s due to the injury or not, however, there are signs Miller hasn’t been a two-way driver to the level he was last season. Vancouver is outscoring its opponents 6-2 with Miller on the ice at five-on-five but is only outshooting them by three (62-59), and a fair bit of his positive individual goal differential appears to be percentage-driven. Moreover, most of the Canucks’ two-way edge with Miller on the ice is isolated to those five-on-five minutes in which he shares the ice with the Quinn Hughes–Filip Hronek pair.
Miller has skated this season with Hughes for 68 and a half minutes at five-on-five and has been utilized away from the Canucks captain for only 49 minutes. In those even-strength minutes in which they have shared the ice, Vancouver has outshot opponents by 21 and outscored them by an impressive 5-1. In Miller’s other five-on-five minutes, however, Vancouver has been outshot 31-13.
The Canucks’ utilization of Miller’s line as part of a five-man unit with the Hughes and Hronek pair has been wildly effective, but their inability to generate much when Miller is deployed away from Hughes strongly suggests Miller hasn’t been an individual driver the way he was in his breakthrough 2023-24 campaign.
Elias Pettersson: D-
2024-25 statistics: 9 GP, 1-3-4
Entering the first season of a mega eight-year, $92.8 million contract extension and on the heels of a disappointing end to his regular season and playoffs, the pressure on Pettersson to have a hot start was through the roof. Vancouver’s star Swede has slumped out of the gate and the noise around him will only ratchet higher the longer this drags on.
Pettersson has just one goal and three assists in nine games. He isn’t driving the high-end two-way results we’re used to seeing — the Canucks have controlled less than 50 percent of shot attempts and expected goals and have been outscored 6-4 during his five-on-five shifts. And that’s despite having Conor Garland, a play-driving ace, on his line for long stretches in the early going. It looked like Pettersson was getting back on track toward the end of the road trip — he scored points in three consecutive games and his first goal of the year against the Pittsburgh Penguins at home on Saturday night — but he’s followed that up with a pair of underwhelming performances against the Carolina Hurricanes and Devils.
Physically, Pettersson doesn’t look right. NHL Edge reveals his speed bursts over 20 miles per hour are down significantly compared to last season. The velocity of his shot is suffering, too — last year he unleashed 70 shot attempts that were clocked in between 80-100 miles per hour, which is nearly one per game. This season, he’s had just one shot attempt cross that threshold, and even that barely made the cut at 82.1 miles per hour.
Pettersson has been a shell of the game-breaking force we know he can be.
Brock Boeser: A
2024-25 statistics: 9 GP, 5-4-9
Boeser has paced the Canucks as their leading goal scorer and has been easily their most consistently dangerous offensive forward.
Through the club’s first nine games, Boeser has the second-highest five-on-five shot rate of his NHL career. He leads the team in primary points at five-on-five and in individual expected goals.
Playing on Miller’s wing in a top-of-the-lineup role, Boeser has held his own defensively. He’s also successfully built on his two-way improvement and enhanced playmaking ability and maintained his level from last season through the first month of a key contract year.
Conor Garland: A
2024-25 statistics: 9 GP, 3-4-7
Some players are always more valuable than their boxcar stats alone would indicate. Garland has long fit this criteria and has arguably been the Canucks’ best all-around forward so far this season.
The feisty pint-sized forward is tied for the team lead in five-on-five points, has the best play-driving metrics among forwards (Canucks are controlling 62.8 percent of expected goals during his five-on-five shifts) and has even earned penalty-killing time. Garland is a battle-winning machine and a smart, skilled playmaker down low and his non-stop motor always packs a ton of energy. He’s effective at transporting pucks up the ice, too. Garland’s piled up 21 shots on goal, tied with Boeser for the team lead among forwards.
The only knocks on Garland are he isn’t a high-end sniper — his shot isn’t going to scare goaltenders — and he’s unlikely to be the solution to Vancouver’s top power-play-unit woes, but you can’t fault him for either of those areas considering everything else he brings to the table.
Rick Tocchet seems to recognize Garland’s growing value because he’s averaging nearly four extra minutes per game compared to last season.
Jake DeBrusk: D
2024-25 statistics: 9 GP, 0-4-4
DeBrusk has been far too quiet in the first nine games of his Canucks career.
The club’s marquee summer free-agent signing simply hasn’t been impactful enough. It’s not just the lack of bottom-line production — DeBrusk has two five-on-five points on the season, both of which are secondary assists — although it is significant. He just isn’t really manufacturing looks at a top-six rate, either.
For example, DeBrusk has the lowest five-on-five shot rate of any regular Canucks forward aside from Nils Åman.
DeBrusk is a good player with a lengthy track record of top-six production, but through his first month as a Canuck he has already been separated from Pettersson, who he was brought in to complement, and removed from the first power-play unit. The Canucks are going to need DeBrusk to find his form.
Nils Höglander: B
2024-25 statistics: 9 GP, 2-2-4
Höglander’s lackadaisical backcheck on a Hurricanes goal resulted in a fourth-line demotion, but that shouldn’t taint what’s otherwise been a solid start to the season for him. The 23-year-old often looks like an off-brand version of Garland with his speed, tenacity and offensive skill down low.
There will continue to be learning moments and growing pains defensively, but Höglander’s underlying two-way profile has looked stellar. Vancouver’s controlled a dominant 58 percent share of scoring chances during his five-on-five minutes and his overall ice time is up by two and a half minutes compared to last season.
Höglander’s been on the ice for seven goals against at five-on-five, which is the worst mark among all Canucks forwards and likely explains why he’s been pushed down the lineup. But that’s likely just a result of some unlucky bounces — Höglander’s been on the ice for the lowest rate of scoring chances against among all Vancouver forwards and hasn’t made many egregious errors outside of his poor backcheck Monday night.
Danton Heinen: B
2024-25 statistics: 9 GP 2-2-4
Heinen’s disruptive defensive game has been key for Vancouver, both at five-on-five and on the penalty kill.
Heinen has been a useful secondary option on the penalty kill. His ability to provide pressure, both in-zone and down ice, has helped the Canucks avoid surrendering even a single power-play goal against in his 10 minutes of penalty-killing time this month.
At five-on-five, Heinen has helped boost the ability of his line to control play regardless of who he’s skating with. After starting the year with Miller and Boeser, Heinen has played regularly with Teddy Blueger and Kiefer Sherwood on a line that’s arguably been Vancouver’s most consistently reliable two-way trio at five-on-five. All five of Heinen’s regular linemates in October — minimum of 20 minutes of shared five-on-five ice time — have fared better by shot-attempt differential with Heinen than they have away from him.
Teddy Blueger: B+
2024-25 statistics: 9 GP, 2-3-5
Before training camp, Pius Suter appeared to have an edge over Blueger for the third-line center job because of the former’s more proven track record of top-nine-calibre offensive production. Aatu Räty ultimately earned the first crack at the 3C role after an impressive preseason, but Blueger has since swooped in and ran away with it.
The savvy 30-year-old centre has chipped in with five points in nine games (he’s tied with four others for the team lead in five-on-five scoring), posted above-average two-way results and has been a key driver for the Canucks’ top-10-ranked penalty kill. He has logged the second-most short-handed minutes of all Vancouver forwards and has been tagged for just one goal against.
Blueger is also driving an effective third line without relying on the help of an ace play-driver like Garland. He’s always excellently positioned to support the puck, defends responsibly, wins battles on the forecheck and has consistently generated dangerous offensive chances. He may not be the long-term answer at 3C, but he’s impressively holding the fort down for now and has been an unsung hero.
Kiefer Sherwood: B+
2024-25 statistics: 9 GP, 2-3-5
Sherwood has instantly ingratiated himself as a fan favourite in his first month in Vancouver.
Defensively reliable, quick and with a feisty edge to his game, Sherwood has been exactly what the doctor ordered for Vancouver’s bottom-six forward group. He has produced, contributed effectively on special teams and been a much-needed sparkplug.
Most importantly, Sherwood — who leads all NHL players in hits thrown by a wide margin — has played to a consistent identity, something the Canucks sorely needed last season.
Arshdeep Bains: C+
2024-25 statistics: 6 GP, 1-0-1
Bains’ emergence as an NHL regular is a heartwarming feel-good story.
The 23-year-old was undrafted in the WHL and undrafted in the NHL — he’s worked tirelessly and paid his dues at every level to move up the ranks in his career. Scoring his first NHL goal on home ice against the Penguins, which stood up as the game winner, was an incredible moment, too.
Bains has endeared himself to the coaching staff with his defensive reliability, two-way details and improved speed on the forecheck. He hasn’t looked dynamic or skilled enough to hold down a top-six role despite his auditions there, but his speed, reliability and work rate make him a decent fourth-line option. He and Daniel Sprong appeared to have some chemistry together and if it wasn’t for an offside challenge, he would have had his second career goal against the Hurricanes.
Pius Suter: B
2024-25 statistics: 8 GP, 2-1-3
Deployed through the first nine games as a fourth-line centreman, Suter has still been reasonably productive and effective, even with some tough defensive luck.
Despite carrying an on-ice save percentage south of .850 at five-on-five, Suter has helped the Canucks when they’re being buried in bottom-of-the-lineup minutes. Suter has been productive and stingy enough, in terms of what the Canucks surrender with him on the ice, that his on-ice goal differential sits at just minus-2.
Suter also leads all Canucks forwards in short-handed ice time, and his contributions to Vancouver’s new higher-pressure approach on the penalty kill have been essential to its top-10 kill rate.
Daniel Sprong: B-
2024-25 statistics: 6 GP, 1-2-3
Sprong has had an up-and-down start to his Canucks tenure. We’ve already seen flashes of the good and bad — the lethal shot (his goal in the season opener against Calgary), the failed top-six audition, the defensive zone breakdowns (he had a brutal sequence in the first game against Philadelphia), the subsequent healthy scratches and his dynamic speed off the rush since he’s been reinserted in the lineup.
Overall, the upside of his scoring potential in a bottom-of-the-lineup role outweighs the risk of his defensive warts. Vancouver’s bottom six reaches another gear offensively, especially in transition, when Sprong pounces on the counterattack. He has registered the most shots per hour of all Canucks forwards.
We also wonder if Sprong deserves an extended opportunity on the first power-play unit. Vancouver’s long struggled to find a fourth forward to round out the top unit since Bo Horvat’s departure. DeBrusk and Garland haven’t done enough to win that role and during the Canucks’ final power-play opportunity against New Jersey, Sprong got an opportunity on PP1. He may not be the permanent solution there, but could his wicked shot provide a temporary boost?
Nils Åman: C
2024-25 statistics: 4 GP, 0-2-2
Åman is a competent depth forward because of his height, positional versatility (he can play wing or centre), pace and penalty killing, but he still lacks a clear identity in his game. He’s too deficient on faceoffs and not a high-end enough penalty killer to serve as a defensive specialist, he isn’t physical or effective enough on the forecheck to be an energetic grinder, and he lacks the offensive touch to be a reliable secondary scorer.
Four games is a tiny sample size, but his underlying numbers have been slightly below par, too — Vancouver has been outshot 21-14, controlled less than 40 percent of scoring chances and has been outscored 3-2 during his five-on-five shifts.
(Top photo of Elias Pettersson: Bob Frid / Imagn Images)
