5-Minute Major: Nothing is going right with the Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks have been plagued with issues throughout the entire season.

On paper, they’re not a worse team than that which forced Game 7 in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.

This run happened without their starting goaltender, Thatcher Demko, or their backup, Casey DeSmith, leaving Arturs Silovs, the 23-year-old third-string goalie — with nine total NHL games under his belt — to save the Canucks’ season and show out under the brightest lights.

A well-lit road for regular playing time was paved for Silovs. He was a relief for Canucks fans who had been dealing with a top-tier, injury-prone goalie for years, with no reliable backup.

The pattern has continued, though.

DeSmith left in free agency. Silovs has not played a game in the NHL since late November, instead playing down in the AHL for Abbotsford. He posted an .847 save percentage in six games and change, allowing an average of four goals in each of those games. Demko was injured for that entire span of time.

In their place, Kevin Lankinen stepped up out of what seemed like nowhere.

In 32 starts this season, he’s had a .905 save percentage and 2.53 GAA, including four shutouts. His numbers don’t jump off the page, but considering he wasn’t expected to be in this season’s picture, he’s been a saving grace for Vancouver.

Demko came back on Dec. 10, but was not looking like his pastVezina-finalist self.

Seventeen starts with a .891 save percentage and 2.87 GAA was not what the Canucks were hoping for.

To make matters even worse, he looks to have sustained another injury last Saturday. He has the mid-season break to rest, fortunately, but with his track record, there is very little reason the Canucks should not be holding their breath.

Demko isn’t the only injury affecting the Canucks, either.

Norris-winning captain Quinn Hughes is hurt too. He has missed the last four games with an undisclosed injury and will not partake in the 4 Nations Face-off that has taken the place of the All Star Game this season.

Fortunately for Vancouver, it sounds like Hughes could be back after the break, but the injury was just another gut punch in a series of disheartening events for a team that was supposed to be better this season.

After they nearly reached the Western Conference Final in 2024, the Canucks had a productive offseason. They picked up several forwards: Jake Debrusk after his drama-filled tenure in Boston, Danton Heinen after his most productive season yet — also in Boston — and Kiefer Sherwood after his first extensive stint in the NHL since his rookie season in 2018-19.

The Canucks also signed other, less eye-catching free agents to fill out an already-playoff-caliber roster that lost center Elias Lindholm and defenseman Nikita Zadorov, who were awarded huge contracts in Boston.

Lindholm and Zadorov have played well below expectations, so their losses haven’t been devastating.

Debrusk, on the other hand, has played right in line with solid numbers he’s put up in the past.

Sherwood has been lighting up the league, but not necessarily offensively. He has 13 goals and 22 points in 51 games, but he leads the NHL in hits by a wide margin with 294. He has replaced the physicality of Zadorov plus some.

Heinen was the only minor disappointment. He was not producing to the level they must have been hoping for, so they sent him off to Pittsburgh, where he’ll be playing with more familiarity.

The season’s struggles for the Canucks, though, were really summarized by the weirdness surrounding the locker room.

The rumors about a rift between stars J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson started to swirl back in December.

At first, they were brushed off by both players, but then, the president of the Canucks confirmed the issues on the record.

Then, J.T. Miller was traded to the New York Rangers.

A lot of negative speculation has been thrown around, leading to the idea that Miller is hard to be teammates with, and with a locker room that seems to include a few sensitive players, he didn’t seem to gel well — it may have been throwing off the entire chemistry of the team.

Miller was traded to the Rangers Jan. 31, and since then, the Canucks have gone 3-1. Miller was one of their top scorers before leaving, so he will be a big offensive loss, but the positives may outweigh that.

The break could not come at a better time for the Canucks as their top-end players get to rest and the off-ice drama gets to subside.

The trade means they will no longer have the spotlight shining on their locker room door trying to illuminate the issues going on in there.

Currently, Vancouver sits in the second wild card spot in the Western Conference with a three-point lead over the Calgary Flames.

With what should be the worst of the season behind them, they are likely to keep holding on to that spot as the playoffs draw nearer and may even have the room to climb.