The Vancouver Canucks Championship Window Is Smaller Than You Want To Admit

First of all, I will fully acknowledge there is a chance this article will come back to bite me in the behind in the future. I can envision a world where a Stanley Cup does come to Vancouver, and if or when that day comes, I will be proven wrong, and I will have to eat my slice humble pie, even as bad as it may taste.

Now, I would make the argument the Vancouver Canucks were the biggest happy surprise of the 2023-24 NHL season. After years of being a laughing stock and a dysfunctional mess of an organization, the Canucks enjoyed their best season since the 2010-11 campaign, where Vancouver came one win short of the team's first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

The Canucks finished this season with a record of 50-23-9 (109 points), which was good enough to win the Pacific Division, nabbing the West's second overall seed, and had the 6th most points in the NHL. Many players enjoyed career seasons this year under coach of the year Rick Tocchet. Captain Quinn Hughes put up a league-leading 92 points for defenceman which will likely be good enough to win the Norris Trophy for the first time in his career, center J.T. Miller put up a career-high 103 points, and winger Brock Boeser reached the forty-goal plateau for the first time in his career just to name a few of the key players who had great seasons.

In the post-season, Vancouver took down the Nashville Predators in six games in the first round despite losing Vezina-nominated goaltender Thatcher Demko after game one. In round two, after a thrilling final-minute game-five win, the Canucks seemed poised to take down Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, but then the injury bug hit the team once again. Brock Boeser, who had been playing the best hockey of his career this year, was ruled out for the playoffs going into game seven against the Oilers as he was diagnosed with a blood clot in his leg. The Canucks were completely outmatched in the series-deciding game. Despite injuries and being able to make it a one-goal game with minutes to go, Vancouver found out it is tough to win when your best players Elias Petterson, and Quinn Hughes don't play up to their potential and salaries which will usually send you home early in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and in the Canucks case, that is exactly what happened.

All things considered, the Canucks no question should consider this season a success, as coach Tocchet said after game seven, "the players have brought the respect back to the team and the city".

You can already see a world where the Canucks are a trendy pick to come out of the Western Conference next season by many hockey fans and analysts as the team now has playoff experience, and hell, you could make the argument that if Demko and Boeser were healthy, Vancouver would be the ones who are getting ready to take on the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final this week as they had two shots at sending the Oilers home despite key players not in the lineup, and the faces of their franchise playing possibly the worst hockey of their careers thus far.

With all that in mind, the flip side to the argument that the Canucks will be a true Cup Contender next year is all the free agents they are about to have hit the open market on July 1st. In-season additions, Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadarov upped their stock with their excellent post-season showings, which will likely fetch a more than decent payday in free agency. Because of that, it is tough to imagine both of them returning to Vancouver. The Canucks will also have depth forward Dakota Joshua hitting free agency, his play in the playoffs earned him a raise, and it is already rumoured that Joshua and the Toronto Maple Leafs have mutual interest in potentially getting a deal done this off-season. The team also has key restricted free agents that they need to decide what they are going to do with new fan favourite Artur Silovs showing signs of potential throughout his time behind the net this post-season, while it has been floated out in the rumour mill that defenceman Filip Hronek is looking for a contract that would give him an AAV of around 8 million dollars per season.

It is not likely that Canucks will lose all of their key free agents this summer, Vancouver does have around 24 million dollars in cap space to play with, but the team does have to plan accordingly, as Brock Boeser is eligible for a contract extension this summer with him being a year away from unrestricted free agency, and after long contract talks, Elias Petterson's new deal 8-year deal with an AAV of 11.6 million dollars set to kick in next year.

I expect GM Patrick Allvin and President Jim Rutherford to remain aggressive to capitalize on the success of this past season, heck they are already one of the favourites to land Hurricanes forward Martin Necas, which would likely mean parting with Hronek that might be a tough pill to swallow for some in Vancouver who feel the team has enough on offence.

Going into the summer, I believe the Canucks should be considered a likely playoff team but this is the NHL at the end of the day, this Canucks team did show some similarities to last year's New Jersey Devils, and imagine telling someone at the beginning of this past season that New Jersey wouldn't even qualify for the postseason.

At the end of the day, only time will tell, but my main concern for the Canucks would be that J.T. Miller is a forward who plays a physical brand of hockey and is about to enter the latter half of his prime at 31 years old, because of this and the players Vancouver is likely about to lose this summer, I don't think the Canucks have this four-or-five year cup window that I have seen Vancouver media try to put out there, I would say Vancouver needs to capitalize in the next year or two, with Miller still being the player or close to the player he is today.

Lastly, as previously stated, a majority of players on the Canucks key players this season enjoyed career years, for the sake of the Canucks, and their fans, hopefully, this wasn't just a year where all things went right for the team with a full season under Tocchet and his leadership.

The last time the Canucks went into a season with expectations after a good playoff run was 2021, that season was a pure disappointment, and sure that season had strange circumstances, but this is a franchise that has struggled to follow up successful seasons. 2024-25 should be an exciting time for Canuck fans, but I would not be at the least surprised if next year's Canucks, are this year's Devils.

Is it early to have these discussions? Yes, of course, but let's see how this plays out.