Two Canadian Teams are Battling it out...for Last Place

Photo credit: Simon Fearn-Imagn Images

The Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames have had miserable seasons so far, both on a path for first overall pick Gavin McKenna at next years draft, alongside the Nashville Predators who are in last place in the NHL.

The Canucks and Flames have been riddled with injuries, and tons of trade rumours circulating their teams since the season started.

“The Vancouver Canucks are in all kinds of trade rumours right now, the hottest ones are that they are shopping for Owen Tippet of the Philadelphia Flyers, while many NHL teams are shopping hard for Kiefer Sherwood.”-Stinson

Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames are competing in the wrong direction.

Ryan Dixon of Sportsnet reported on the two failing seasons of the Canadian Clubs. They along with the Predators are the only three teams more than wins away from reaching .500 in the entire NHL, which says two things, firstly the rest of the NHL is pretty good, second, these three teams are truly awful.

“Contrast that with the standings roughly a year ago, on Monday, Dec. 9, when nine squads had a points percentage under .500 and two teams were rocking percentages in the .300s. Two years ago, on Monday, Dec. 11, 10 teams were sub-.500 and half those clubs had a points percentage in the .300s. “-Dixon

This is good and bad news for the Canucks, while on one hand it’s much easier to get a high draft pick this season, it shows the entire league is moving in the opposite direction on the other hand. It’s not like there 4-5 teams in the NHL dominating the game, almost every team is in the mix this year, and the Canucks aren’t one of them.

“One thing is for sure: the three teams at the bottom of the league all deserve a quick trip to the podium. The Flames have never selected in the top three since moving to Southern Alberta in 1980, while Nashville’s three highest picks are No. 2 in 1998 (with its first-ever selection), No. 4 in 2013 and No. 5 in June, when the Preds had the third-best odds to get Matthew Schaefer and wound up getting jumped by both the Islanders and Utah.”-Dixon

There’s no other way around it, the Canucks are a bad hockey team, and with a solid core, it’s the management’s fault for not giving them enough supporting cast. Unfortunately there seems to be a lack of accountability for that, but hopefully the Canucks can turn things around with some good draft picks.

Previously on Vancouver Hockey Daily

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