What plagued the Canucks the most in 2024-25?
It has been an incredibly disapponting season for the Vancouver Canucks. The team went from having the best record in the Western Conference, and coming within one win of the conference final, to missing the Stanley Cup entirely.
There were many issues that led to the team’s demise. Debilitating injuries to the likes of captain Quinn Hughes and starting goaltender Thatcher Demko certainly set the team back. Also, the off-ice drama between star players Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller didn’t make things any easier.
On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Canucks Army‘s Jeff Paterson joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Colby Cohen to explain what went wrong for the Canucks this season.
Jeff Paterson: I have to look back and just think that Elias Petterson and JT Miller didn’t live up to their end of the bargain. A lot of other things went wrong, injuries and inconsistency. Their home record. … They’re 20 points lower at home this season than they were last year. I just think the many nights of terrible performances on home ice, and if they could put their finger on why they were so bad at home, I’m sure they would have addressed it and fixed it.
Ultimately, when you have warts throughout your lineup, what’s the one thing that can help you overcome it? Your star player is rising above … [Elias Petterson’s] making $11.6 million, 15 goals and 30 assists, 45 point season – for a player that was 102 point guy two years ago. So, yeah, a lot of the blame has been put at his feet, and he has to accept it. It comes from the territory of being one of the highest paid players in the National Hockey League, but he wasn’t alone.
Ultimately, if there was one thing that dragged this group down, it was the infighting between these two guys and the fact that neither one of them, Miller or Pettersson, lived up to their expectations. You head Jim Rutherford in that explosive interview in The Globe and Mail where he said it leaked in the locker room, and essentially, sewered the entire season.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…