The Vancouver Canucks are going into this season with higher expectations, both as a team and individually. They finished with their second-highest point total in franchise history, and many of their star players posted career-highs in goals and points. As such, it will be tough for everyone to replicate their success from last season. Hopefully, they don’t regress too much and Canucks fans will see the usual suspects lead the way again in 2024-25. With that said, let’s do some prognosticating for some of the major stat categories.
Goals: Brock Boeser
Brock Boeser‘s 2023-24 season couldn’t have started any better as he notched four goals in Game 1 against the Edmonton Oilers, including a natural hat trick. After that, he and the Canucks just kept on rolling, culminating in his first 40-goal campaign and a career-high 73 points. He didn’t slow down in the playoffs either, scoring a dramatic third-period hat trick in Game 4 against the Nashville Predators when he potted two goals in a matter of minutes to tie the game and send it to overtime. Elias Lindholm finished the job, but he was the catalyst, popping in his hat trick goal with just eight seconds remaining in the third period.
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Boeser, unfortunately, saw his postseason get cut short by a blood clot in his leg heading into Game 7 against the Oilers, but still finished with seven goals and 12 points. He is reportedly healthy and ready to go for training camp, so barring any setbacks during the season, he should lead the way in goals again.
Assists: Quinn Hughes
Quinn Hughes was beyond a beast last season finishing with a career-high 92 points and walking away with the Norris Trophy by a wide margin of 172 first-place votes. Roman Josi was a distant second, grabbing only 12. He is now 77 points away from passing Alex Edler for the all-time lead in points, and he’s only 24 years old. He is by far already the Canucks’ best defenceman in franchise history and will be light years ahead of Edler when he retires. He led the team in assists with 75 last season, nine ahead of second-place JT Miller, and should do so again in 2024-25.
Hughes even thinks there’s another level to his game, saying, “I felt like I missed a lot of scoring opportunities last year…And even though my goal-scoring spiked, I think…
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