With the Vancouver Canucks not facing the kind of win-now pressure that usually hangs over this franchise, Manny Malhotra and his staff have a rare chance to get creative. That freedom should come with two clear priorities: help the young players grow, and do what they can to boost the trade value of the veterans still on the roster.
That opens the door to some unusual choices, and the Canucks should be open to all of them.
One of the biggest ones involves Elias Pettersson. Last season, the best part of his game was that he held up defensively.
The problem was the way Vancouver used him. He was buried in the league’s toughest minutes and still had Evander Kane as one of his primary wingers, which is about as rough a setup as it gets.
Among NHLers last season, Pettersson was in the 93rd percentile in terms of going up against the league’s top forwards. That’s a heavy load for anyone, and it also dragged down the offensive side of his game.
The obvious move this season would be to keep throwing him into the fire, especially with the centre depth looking thin. But the Canucks should resist that instinct.
If the goal is to get Pettersson’s offense humming again and give his value a chance to climb, the better path is to tilt his usage toward the offensive zone as much as possible. A line with Jake DeBrusk and Linus Karlsson could make sense, especially with DeBrusk set up for a rebound in his five-on-five shooting percentage.
That trio also controlled more than 60 per cent of expected goals at five-on-five last season.
The same willingness to split things up should apply on the power play. Most teams want one clear top unit. Vancouver may be better off with two groups pushing each other.
That idea comes down to balance. Filip Hronek was quietly strong on the power play last season, but the Canucks also need to make sure Zeev Buium gets enough time with the man advantage. Hronek and Marco Rossi were the drivers of the power-play success late in the year, so separating them could help both units stay dangerous.
A two-unit setup could look like this:
1A Unit
DeBrusk
Boeser - Cotter - Pettersson
Hronek
1B Unit
Karlsson
Rossi - Ohgren- Lekkerimaki/Mancini
Buium
DeBrusk and Karlsson both fit at net-front. Cotter has an underrated shot and could work in the bumper role.
And if the Canucks want to build chemistry, the Minnesota connection between Ohgren, Rossi, and Buium makes sense. If Lekkerimaki is on the NHL roster, he needs power-play minutes.
If he’s back in the AHL, Victor Mancini is another option because of his offensive touch.
On the back end, there’s also reason to think beyond the expected answer next to Tom Willander. The assumption is that Jamie Oleksiak will take the Marcus Pettersson spot, but that’s not the only route available.
Oleksiak has said before that he’s more comfortable on the right side, even though he shoots left. More importantly, Willander, Buium, and Elias Pettersson showed some off-ice chemistry last season, and all three should be around for the long haul. In a year when losses aren’t the end of the world, the Canucks should find out whether D-Petey or Buium can be a long-term fit with Willander.
Then there’s the goalie plan, which should look a lot like Project Cable Box 2.0. Jason Botchford’s old idea from the 2017-18 season was simple: give Anders Nilsson easy starts against weaker offenses to build his trade value, while Jacob Markstrom handled the tougher assignments.
That logic still works.
Thatcher Demko may not be ready to open the season, and even if he is, there’s little reason to expect he or Kevin Lankinen to move this year. That makes Nikita Tolopilo the logical candidate for softer matchups.
If he handles that role well, the Canucks could reasonably aim for a return along the lines of the Arturs Silovs trade, which brought back an AHL depth player and a fourth-round pick. The Florida Panthers got Daniil Tarasov for a fifth-round pick last offseason after he put up worse numbers than Tolopilo did last season.
If Tolopilo ends up outperforming Lankinen while Demko is still unavailable, the return might even edge a little higher than a mid-round pick. Either way, turning a European free agent signing into an asset would be a clear win for Vancouver, and it’s something the Canucks should be trying to do this season.
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