Vancouver Canucks 2025-26 NHL Season Preview | The Steve Dangle Podcast

Vancouver Canucks 2025-26 NHL Season Preview | The Steve Dangle Podcast

This one’s going to be fun because this team is uh I don’t know. The Vancouver Conucks finished last year fifth in the division 90 points. Oddsmakers have them at basically the same 90 and a half over under. The odds are even. If you go over it’s a 1.87. If you go under it’s a 1.87. Do they go over under guys? I I don’t I don’t know. I’m putting on the Hulkbuster gauntlet and smashing the over. Why? Because uh the fact that the Canucks had the season that they did and still had 90 points is herculean. How? Well, because they have talent. Jesse, over or under? Over. Give me the over. I think they are better than they were what they were last season. It was too noisy. And this season, if I’m just like, “Hey, what do I want out of the Vancouver Conucks this season?” Quiet. calm, not noisy. Everything in the dressing room is good. I think you have a good season. That’s all. At some point, do you take off the doomsday helmet or whatever and say easy money is Elias Patterson is the sorry EP 40 uh because there’s three of them. There’s no way. That was the worst season of his career. It’ll never happen again. Is that not easy money? Well, the reports out of camp and you can trust them or not, but this is not like I’m not reading a journalist saying this. Somebody who is connected said that he looks really good. How’s Yeah. Did you have a I don’t give a damn what his traps look like by what’s his knee look like? That was the problem. Right. Right. And what’s his I don’t care how many pull-ups he did to this and his relationship to his teammates. That too. You know, this is the thing. Vancouver has talent, but as Jesse absolutely nailed, they need calm. And I want to start with not Elias Patterson if I can. I want to start with the head coaching situation, which under under the radar. In any other year, Rick Tocket not ressigning with Vancouver would have been the top story, but Person and JT Miller wanted to tear each other’s faces off and then avoided each other for the rest of the year. So that became the second story. Talk now in Philadelphia where it kind of makes sense that he would be. Adam Foot promoted from assistant coach to head coach. He’s never been a head coach. We’ve talked about this in other previews like with Lane Lambert in Seattle. Huge difference between being an assistant coach and a head coach. And here’s the thing he’s got to deal with. You got to get EP40 back on track. You got to hope that Quinn Hughes wants to stick around and you got to sort of sell him on it. He he missed time, too. So many guys miss time and you need Thatcher Demco to be healthy, too. Adam Foot’s got a lot to manage here. What do we think about that? I think it’s it’s gone a little unnoticed outside of Vancouver about how much turnover they’ve had in that spot over the course of the last five years. It went Travis Green, Bruce Brujo, Rick Tocket, Adam Foot. Now, none of those coaches Travis Geen was the longest tenur out of those coaches. Four years, right? Yeah. And that’s uh that’s all there so much turnover. Every two years they’re getting a new ho head coach. I hope Adam Foot is the one. Like I hope you found one who’s going to stick around for more than two seasons. Since Travis Green, they have it. If anyone should have faith that he’s the one, it’s the Conucks organization. Yes. Who and like they have internal candidates they could have hire hired instead and Manny Malhotra instead. Well, he was an internal candidate, too. He’s an assistant coach. No. Oh, yeah. Sorry. They had other internal candidates. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um like I don’t know. We saw we saw what the Abbottzford Canucks were capable of. They were good. when we were in the finals, man. Holy crap. Yeah, exactly. Uh really, really good team. Um the fact that their season went so so unbelievably shitty. They were one of the carnival teams in the league. Every year there’s two or three teams where like you just die of dehydration from all the popcorn you’re eating. Like you you cannot look away. And the Conucks were one of them. They still hit 90 points. Come on. I love um I love this this roster on paper. Uh and I love it for a lot of reasons, but I’m going to start with the most important reason, which is you have Thatcher Demco and Kevin Lankin, both at the prime in their careers, 29 and 30, for less than 10 million bucks. I think you’ve got a really good goalending situation there. And that’s a nice start, is it not? It is. it. You have I I feel like you just have fewer questions uh this year uh heading into this season than last. You know, can can PD and Miller get along? Is Demco like remember it was like Demco is going to play game one? Uh he may never play again. He he’s going to play in a week. He’s going to play in a month. He’s going to put and and like they didn’t even have Lankin inside at this time. I still think it’s a big question though. That’s my biggest question with the team. Is Demco going to be able to play 50 games? Is he going to be the starting goal or is there going to be another injury that comes up? Oh, I look at it the opposite. Like really to me, uh he doesn’t he doesn’t need to be the starter at least not for like the first half of the season. Okay. um like he was he was their second best goalie last year and if Lanin is as good as he was last year and Demco can incrementally build to where he was and like take over the job I think that’s fine but like to me what I’m sorry why isn’t Lincoln and the like home opener starter to me he’s the best goalie they have until proven otherwise I disagree with that I think Demp goes their starter. I think the ceiling on Denko is way above beyond what Lincoln can be. And I’m not I’m not going to start lanking in over him game one. I I’ll give you this one and here’s why I’ll give the edge to Jesse. Uh Lanin got an extension this year. $4.5 million. So did Thatcher Demco. There’s more. And he’s making eight and a half starting next season. So I feel like that is probably going to be the starter. But there is a platoon role here, right? This is a maybe this is a a 4540 whatever. I just asked them to play 50 games. That’s that’s what is that eight more than half. Yeah. Like it’s not a whole bunch. I’m asking Demco get in there for 50 games and start game one. To to me the eight and a half I mean obviously shows the investment and belief that they have in Demco. So that’s why he starts. But for me I still really try to keep that number of games down. You’re big horny for Lankin. I’m big horny for big horny for having an $8.5 million goalie that is healthy. Y totally right. So we’re going from you missed most of last year to you’re our $8.5 million starter now. Mhm. I feel like we’re skipping a few steps now. I got to I because of timing constraints I got to move you guys forward on some of this stuff because I want to talk about the defense and then the forwards. Quinn Hughes, although you wouldn’t know it, still has two years left on his deal this year and next year. That’s hilarious. So, you know, we’re already talking about an extension, what that’s going to look like for him. July 1st, eligible. July 1st, he’s eligible. He could be traded. Before that, he has zero trade protection. He has zero trade protection. How dare you say that in this video? I apologize to the city of Vancouver for the person sitting to my right. Philip Ronick, Marcus Patterson are also a part of the the top four and signed to really good deals considering what they bring. uh especially Marcus better $5.5 million. Holy moly. Uh Tyler Myers is making three. Beyond that, it falls off. You’ve got the other EP. Uh and Elias Person, the defenseman, Derek Forbert, Pio Joseph is there. Um then we move to the forward group. And it’s clear that despite the noise and the mess behind the scenes, people love playing for this team because, you know, you look at what Connor Garland probably could have got on the free agent market next season. He signed and stayed and that doesn’t kick until next year. You look at what Brock Besser could have got this year specifically from the Wild I think and he signed and he stayed. Um a morale booster, right? I think it Yeah, it has to be that has to feel really really good. And I think when Besser signed there was like an Instagram photo of him out with the boys like celebrating the fact that he was sticking around. What what happened with Besser never happens cuz those negotiations were over come like I want to say late May. Yeah, he was talking. He’s like, “Oh, we couldn’t get it done. I’m going to free agency.” And then after free agency started, at the last minute, they got the deal done. And that’s why it’s a seven-year deal. It’s because they were so far in the free agency that it hap they submitted the contract afterwards. They had to do the seven years. You never see a guy come back after he’s gone. It was It’s incredible uh for the Canucks and what they are as an organization that they’re able to turn around this for a player they clearly wanted in the end. So yeah, I think there’s good vibes there. There’s belief in the dressing room. Philip Heedle is another guy I want to talk about because he was one of part of the return for um uh JT Miller. Yes. And obviously what happens Philip Heedle concussion history shows up with the Conucks immediately gets a concussion. That’s brutal. This guy needs to stay healthy because when he was drafted he was considered a very good prospect. Ah, I’m a big believer in the Canucks and I’m going to I think you’re going to be pretty shocked where I have them. That scares me. Um, like cuz again, you’re going from JT Miller going from JT Miller to Philip Heedle even at Heedle’s best is a downgrade of course and they knew that. And you’re you’re a a bump away from going from JT Miller to Philip Heedle to whoever the hell the next guy is. And that’s tough. And they lost Pew Sudter, did they not? They did. Right. Yeah. Where did he end up? Uh we’re in Oh yeah. season in September. So Sudter, was it Chicago? Is Chicago. Yeah. There you go. No, St. Louis. St. Louis. Oh, what? Yeah. Okay. Um so you would be going again. So last at the end of last season it was like we have JT Miller. Oh it’s Philip Beedle. Oh it’s Pew Sudter, who’s next, right? It’s uh that is the part of the Canucks roster that more than anything scares me. Like even if Demco were to get hurt, you have Lincoln. Yeah. Yep. Like I don’t I don’t know who your top six center replacement is. I don’t think you have one. Jesse Aander Kane was traded almost immediately after the Stanley Cup finals to Vancouver. his hometown. Um what do you think, you know, he’s in the last year of that $5.125 million deal he signed in Vancouver or Vancouver in Edmonton after the Sharks. What do you think he’s got to prove and what do you think he brings? If a Vander Kane is healthy a Vander Kane and not last year where he has to miss all the season to come back and all that stuff, he’s still very effective and he’s going to be a pest in the playoffs and that’s what you got him for, right? It’s to grind out those 82 games, but then to really have him there in the playoffs and be that X factor in your top six where he brings different stuff to the table as opposed to many other forwards in the league where he’s playing with this gritty style plus can also put up some points. I think if they can get to the playoffs again, he’s going to be a great X factor for them cuz I think the the Oilers by the end of the playoffs, they if he was healthier, they would have really benefited from having but he was so busted that, you know, he’s he’s not usable. I look at him too and every time he’s gone to a new situation, he’s done well instantly. Every new situation he steps into. Uh Buffalo, he did well. San Jose did really well. Edmonton, he did really well. and he seems like a guy where every few years and and there are people like this that just need a bit of a a situation change. Everyone loves a good first impression and yep, maybe Evander Kane is that and a hometown hero this year. It’ll be very very interesting to see what happens. So that brings me to where do they finish? They were fifth last year, 90 points. Where do you have them this year? Uh you know what? I’m going to go first because I haven’t gone first yet. I have the Vancouver Conucks in the playoffs in fourth place. Okay. Okay. Who wants to go next? Jesse. I have them as the number four team in the Pacific division. All I’m asking for is a team that’s likable for Canucks fans because they weren’t likable last season. I’m rooting for you to build a likable dramafree team this season. Fourth in the division making the playoffs. They have a lot of question marks, but let’s get nuts. Third. Whoa. I have a guy third. Why? One more position up because I’ve been bullish on the Canucks for half a decade. I’ And one of these days your ship’s coming in. I’ve been bullish on them and their talent. No, my ship coming in was two years ago, but I was like, see, see, I knew it. They were a game away from eliminating the Oilers. Ah, and that’s who they’re going to play in the first round. All right, Steve Dangle, everybody. Third place for the Conucks. It’s a big jump. No, it’s not.

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake preview the upcoming season for the Vancouver Canucks and predict where they will finish in the Pacific Division.

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