Why Canucks will win 2024 Stanley Cup

The Canucks proved they were for real right from the start of the campaign. The roster won 12 of 16 games out of the gate, immediately vaulting to the top of the Western Conference and staying among the top teams throughout. And the star power has been the catalyst. Quinn Hughes is in the midst of his best season — by far — after being named captain, and he is the favorite, if not a shoo-in to win the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman.

JT Miller is enjoying another phenomenal, energized campaign in Vancouver as well; he’s up to 35 goals and 96 points in 76 games, and looks poised to shatter the 100-point mark for the first time (his career-high is 99). Brock Boeser is scoring again, with a team-leading 38, while Elias Pettersson has a new contract and has amassed 85 points of his own.

The top players in Vancouver all came to play right from the start of 2023-24, and it’s carried this team to its sparkling record. What also can’t be ignored is the incredible play of the third line — Conor Garland, Dakota Joshua, Teddy Blueger — which was one of the best third lines in the league before Joshua went down with injury. He’s healthy now, and if that line gets put back together and starts playing like it did earlier in the year, it adds yet another weapon to the offense. That trio is constantly in the offensive zone and building chemistry on a game-by-game basis.

Everything seems to have meshed well for the Canucks this year, and the addition of Nikita Zadorov on the back end has also been crucial, especially with injuries to Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers. All of them are healthy now, and along with Hughes, help make up one of the better defensive units in the league. Vancouver gives up just 2.66 goals per game, good enough for fifth in the league. With an offense averaging 3.42 tallies — ranking sixth — it’s clear that this is an elite unit at both ends of the rink. When Elias Lindholm returns from injury, he should be a huge help in both facets of the game after the two-way Swede was acquired by the Canucks earlier in the season.

And the team has been doing it all lately without their starting goaltender.

The return of bubble Thatcher Demko?

The Canucks have won nine of their last 14 games, but have played at just over a .500 pace since star goaltender Thatcher Demko suffered an injury in a 5-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on March 10. Demko was having a fantastic season, with a sparkling .917 save percentage, excellent 2.47 goals-against average and five shutouts.

After a fully healthy offseason, Demko was putting together a true Vezina Trophy-caliber season. The injury was hugely disappointing, but the hope in British Columbia is that the American can return to the lineup before the playoffs. He had been especially phenomenal in his three starts before the ailment, giving up just two goals on 64 shots in victories over the Kings, Golden Knights and Jets.

Canucks fans will not soon forget bubble Demko from 2020. Vancouver first beat Minnesota in a shortened five-game series before upsetting the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues in six games. In the second-round, the Canucks ran into a much superior Golden Knights team, but came back from 3-1 down to force a decisive Game 7. Those were mainly due to Demko’s antics; he was nearly unbeatable in Games 5-7. Although the team would go on to lose 1-0 in the decider, Demko turned heads across the hockey world with his masterful playoff performance.

Demko returning from injury and finding his early-season form will be a critical factor in how far this team goes in 2024. If he comes back strong, the Canucks probably have as good a chance as any team of coming out of the Western Conference. With a group of responsible two-way forwards led by a couple true stars, along with a mobile, puck-moving blue line headlined by one of the best D-men in the league, this is the best roster Vancouver has iced in over a decade. And they’re hungry for success.

Whether or not it will lead to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship since its inception in 1970 is up in the air. But, for the first time since 2015, there will be playoff hockey at Rogers Arena this April.