BT's 2008/09 NHL Season Preview: The Vancouver Canucks

Although it’s not out of the question for Edler to improve (expect 25-30 points) and Mitchell to stay the course of his career, it’ll be the rest of the defensemen patrolling the blueline that determine the Canucks future. Will Karjicek’s shoulder hold up? How effective can Mattias Ohlund his surgically repaired knee be? Is Kevin Bieksa going to prove to be a bust, or was his injury last season just simply bad timing?

I can’t answer those questions, but I’m not expecting the Canucks’ D to jump out of the gate. And if they get hurt again, you can’t rely on just Edler, Mitchell, and Salo the entire season—Roberto Luongo or not.

Is it too late to bring back Anson Carter?

Hi my name is Pavol and it’s nice Demitra.

That’s the classic line from Jay Onrait on TSN (or Canada’s ESPN) Sportscentre during morning highlight packages.

If the Canucks expect to compete though, that phrase will have to become a daily occurrence.

For the first time since 1995/96, the Vancouver Canucks will be without Markus Naslund, and although his scoring had started to slip towards the end of last season (7 points in his last 22 games), it’ll still be strange watching the Canucks without Naslund or Trevor Linden, the longtime Canuck who retired following last season.

With that however, the reigns of the team are left to the Sedin twins. Since being drafted, Henrik has become the playmaking centre man (61 and 71 assists), while Daniel has become the freewheeling goal scorer (36 and 29 the past two seasons), and anyone who has played with them (Anson Carter) has made seemed to be the long lost Sedin.

After the Sedin’s though, there’s a long list of players that are unproven, or have fallen off the map.

In the case of Pavol Demitra however, the Canucks are just looking for the production he lost in his move to Minnesota. For his entire career, Demitra has been good for roughly 20 goals, but the Canucks will need some of his old St. Louis success to shine through, as the ‘Nuckers were only able to outscore seven teams in the NHL last season. Chances are he finds a bit of it and is able to put up 65ish points, but at nearly 34, Demitra’s most productive seasons may be behind him, Sedin’s or not.

But with those unproven secondary scorers, or sometimes fallen stars, we can find the likes of Kyle Wellwood: the play-making, injury-prone, former-Leaf hopes to have found a place where he can play and be healthy, and possibly (although I highly doubt this) remind Leaf fans of Steve Sullivan.

There’s also Ryan Kesler who could crack the 20-goal barrier once again, and Steve Bernier, a player who’s hoping to find consistency in scoring (and a team) who could provide some youthful exuberance to a fairly average group of forwards.

Unless the third and fourth lines explode for the Canucks this season and start potting 20 goals a player, then this team is in for a long year offensively.

So what does it all mean?

The Canucks are great in net, could be good on defense, and need a lot of help up front.

Although the defense could be a tad fragile with three key cogs coming off of surgery or major slumps/injury, there should be some quality games played in front of Roberto Luongo.

That’s as far as that goes however. Luongo can allow two or three goals per game all he wants, but if the Canucks can’t score goals for him, then that may be all she wrote on another season.

Last in Northwest

Unfortunately, there isn't a Community Leader available for Vancouver, so this is another one of those "audition through comment" teams.

Tomorrow, we finish up the Northwest division with the Calgary Flames.

Bryan Thiel is a Senior Writer and an NHL Community Leader for Bleacher Report. You can get in contact with Bryan through his profile, and you can also check out all of his previous work in his archives.

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