Image

Left on Read: The Canucks Are Done, Is Jake DeBrusk Good + The Simpler Things

By: Brayden Fengler / April 9, 2025

Wether it’s on Bluesky or X, Canucks fans are an active group online. While the team’s season may be fizzling out with only a handful of games left to play, there are still a lot of discussions happening surrounding the future of this team, both immediate and long-term.

However, not every thoughtful post gets its time to shine, and that is what this article series looks to address as best it can.

In this series, we aim to find thought-provoking posts that have gone “unread” within the Vancouver Canucks ecosystem, and shine some extra light on them.

EP40’s Future With the Canucks

My answer to this at the beginning of the season would’ve been “yes”. My answer at the mid-way mark of the season would’ve been, “maybe not”. Now my answer has come full circle again, back to “yes”; EP 40 will be back next year.

Pettersson is likely done for this season, as he continues to deal with an upper-body injury. Injury aside, with the J.T. Miller saga over, the Canucks have made their choice, they kept Elias Pettersson. EP40 may have had a less-than-ideal year from a production standpoint, but he still has an incredibly high ceiling.

At 26 years old, if the Canucks can get him back to his 2022-23 self or even somewhere close, they will have seven more seasons of Elias Pettersson, before they have to negotiate another cent hitting his bank account. The upside with EP40 is still too high to walk away from.

The Canucks Are Done

It’s not mathematically official but this has to be it for the #canucks season right?

— Chris Choi (@chrisbc.bsky.social) 2025-04-07T04:50:15.763Z

Mathematically? No. Spiritually, physically, emotionally, practically? Yes, they’re done. Vancouver has four games left to play, and they would need to jump at least two spots in the standings, which is currently equal to a 6-point difference between them and the last wildcard spot.

At present, Vancouver can only earn 93 points on the year if they win every game between now and the end of the season. So as it stands, the first wild card spot is an impossibility for them even though St. Louis holds that spot with only 93 points.

Considering the tie-breaking procedure St. Louis will have them beat with more regulation plus overtime wins, even if the Canucks were to tie their points total.

The only path that the Canucks can hope for is that Calgary falls off a cliff, holding 87 points at the the moment and Minnesota doesn’t win any more games this season, holding them to 91 points. In that sense there is still a window. But that window demands perfection from the Canucks, and has most of the power sitting with Calgary and Minnesota.

Goalie Problems Are the Least of Their Worries

There are so many players on this Canucks team that are deserving of blame, many players are deserving of it more than once or twice a game in fact. But the Canucks goaltender’s especially Kevin Lankinen are far from the list of individuals that should be receiving any blame this season, even on this play.

Regarding this play, puck luck certainly didn’t go the Canucks’ way, with the rebound going off of Victor Mancini’s skate and straight in. As Jay mentioned, if the puck hadn’t hit Mancini, it likely would’ve found its way to a Vegas forward for a shooting attempt anyway.

However, even in that case, Lankinen did his job. The initial shot was a drop pass one timer that Lankinen tracked and got all of. The bigger question is why was Mancini all alone?

Mancini was having to split his attention between two Vegas forwards because Max Sasson, who was acting as a defender beside Mancini on the break-in, decided to swing way out of position towards the direction of the shot, but not close enough to block it or make any sort of impact.

What Sasson failed to do was cover one of the two open forwards that Mancini was balancing between. If both Mancini and Sasson were on the Vegas forwards and the puck doesn’t go off of either of their skates, then the rebound matters less, Lankinen has more time to get across, and the play likely continues.

Jake Debrusk Is Not a Bad Signing

What is the purpose of Jake DeBrusk on this team? #Canucks #badsigning #why

— Jeff Hacker (@jeffhacker.bsky.social) 2025-04-07T03:16:03.616Z

Jake DeBrusk is quite simply not a bad signing for Vancouver. At $5.5M a year until the end of the 2030-31 season, that number is only going to start looking better and better. DeBrusk has been a consistent linchpin for the team’s top talent this season and is the type of player they should be finding more of.

DeBrusk is only second to Quinn Hughes for the most road goals this season, and on total points at home and away, he ranks 5th on the team, only one point behind Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland, who are tied for third.

DeBrusk is not flashy, but he has been a quiet force of stability this season, playing most of his minutes with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser. Could the Canucks do better? Sure, but at a fair price with good term, and respectable production during a down year, there are bigger fish that the Canucks should be worried about frying.

The Bigger Picture

While this post didn’t get left fully “on read”, I’m willing to bend the rules of the article series just a bit to appreciate this post. As fans, especially as die-hard ones, it can be easy to lose appreciation for the little things surrounding this club and the game itself.

But it’s posts like this that highlight the magic of this experience that we all choose to share 82 games at a time.

Even in down years, there are little moments to be cherished, records to be broken, and milestones to be set. For every loss that a lifelong fan endures for the millionth time, a new fan has just experienced a core memory that will become the building blocks for their love of hockey and the Canucks.

Something special happens before during and after every Canucks puck drop, because of the players and fans that put their blood sweat and tears into this team. While it’s fun to dive into the details, it never hurts to appreciate the big picture from time to time.

Read and Replied

Conversations around the Canucks are about to get a bit quieter, at least for a few days while the sadness of missing the playoffs sinks in.

While it’s disappointing that the playoffs are not a part of the conversation this year, it’s encouraging, as always, that this fan base is not only knowledgeable about the game and this team but actively looking to discuss it.