By points % the Canucks are currently 9th in the league, 5th in the conference, 2nd in the division. They've been doing this with key players MIA all year.
Quickly;
- Started without Joshua & Demko + a badly slumping Pettersson & DeBrusk
- Pettersson finds his game but then Boeser goes out, & then shortly after Miller
- Now DeBrusk finds his game & Boeser returns, but Hronek goes out along with Miller (and Demko)
They started kinda slow but despite the absences have put up a pretty good record at 13-7-4.
I think this team has more upside than last years team & can definitely contend, reason's being:
1) The forward group is much better this season, better depth & DeBrusk is another legit top 6 scorer they didn't have before
2) Lankinen is a much better goalie than what they had behind Demko last year, so they wont have to overplay Thatcher.
They'll need to make a big trade for a top 4 Dman, but they are starting to find their game even in this state.
I'm excited to see what they can do when healthy. I think they can play at just as high a level as they did last season, if not better with another good trade or 2.