I can’t really find any other team aside from St Louis and Colorado that has a more well rounded, balanced and potential threat line up than the Canucks.
Miller, Pettersson, Horvat, that’s 90-100 goals alone down the middle. I don’t think there’s any team with that type of scoring punch down the middle. Not to mention Boeser having a down year last season due to family reasons. He’s easily good for 25 goals on the wing.
Then you have another 25, potential 30 goal scorer in Mikheyev, 50+ playmaker in Garland, Podkolzin who will definitely build from last season potting perhaps another 20-20-40pts. That’s not even mentioning Kuzmenko who could very well be another Panarin type player. Even Pearson is good for 35-40 points including 15-20+ goals.
Demko is a top 5 goaltender in the league, and there’s Hughes and OEL (albeit overpaid) are 2 elite defenseman who make their partners much better than they are (Schenn and Myers).
With the amount of team defense this team has with the additions of Lazar, Mikheyev, Joshua, and even Dickinson, having that hole on the right side is manageable. Canucks were top 5 in the league in fewest even strength goals allowed with that atrocious right side, in large part thanks to OEL and his brains. PK was the main issue on defense but that should be improved.
I just can’t really think of a more well balanced group, especially the forward group, with an average age of 25 years old.
Miller, Pettersson, Horvat, that’s 90-100 goals alone down the middle. I don’t think there’s any team with that type of scoring punch down the middle. Not to mention Boeser having a down year last season due to family reasons. He’s easily good for 25 goals on the wing.
Then you have another 25, potential 30 goal scorer in Mikheyev, 50+ playmaker in Garland, Podkolzin who will definitely build from last season potting perhaps another 20-20-40pts. That’s not even mentioning Kuzmenko who could very well be another Panarin type player. Even Pearson is good for 35-40 points including 15-20+ goals.
Demko is a top 5 goaltender in the league, and there’s Hughes and OEL (albeit overpaid) are 2 elite defenseman who make their partners much better than they are (Schenn and Myers).
With the amount of team defense this team has with the additions of Lazar, Mikheyev, Joshua, and even Dickinson, having that hole on the right side is manageable. Canucks were top 5 in the league in fewest even strength goals allowed with that atrocious right side, in large part thanks to OEL and his brains. PK was the main issue on defense but that should be improved.
I just can’t really think of a more well balanced group, especially the forward group, with an average age of 25 years old.