Canucks Live: Road tripping into Detroit as slumps pepper the roster

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Another day another game amid trade rumours for the Canucks. They play tonight in Detroit while every insider on the hockey beat tries to find trade partners for Vancouver’s pending free agents.

If you missed it yesterday Ben Kuzma wrote about the future of Brock Boeser, another underachieving forward locked down in a big contract.

He is now stuck in the muck of a career-worst 17 games without a goal and just one his last 24. He owns a 10.3 shooting percentage — that’s the lowest in four seasons and is on pace for only 18 goals, his fewest since 2022-23.

Boeser also has a minus-22 ranking. That’s worst in the entire NHL. It’s as startling as the scoring slump.

With the recently scratched Jake DeBrusk, Boeser’s production simply has to be higher. He’s under contract until 2032 at $7 million-plus a season. You simply can’t be paying that kind of money for one goal in 24 games, not when DeBrusk is also slumping and you’re paying Elias Pettersson $11 million to be a Selke Candidate who occasionally has the puck bounce off his skate and into the net.

Tonight the Canucks take on the Red Wings, just like the Sabres who beat them 5-3 on Tuesday, the Red Wings are having a bit of a renaissance as one of the NHL’s hottest teams. The Athletic wrote about their rise.

When respect is earned, respect is given, and the Red Wings are finally making meaningful headway by the model. Detroit is now up to a 93-point projection and a 49 per cent chance at making the playoffs. It may not be above 50 per cent yet, but that’s due to the competition in the East where the Red Wings currently project to finish sixth. Things are looking up.

So what changed? The big thing is that the Red Wings are finally making due on their territorial advantage thanks to a return to form from John Gibson. In each of the first three months, the Red Wings were an average expected goals team; over the last month, they were finally an average actual goals team. Gibson’s .922 save percentage and his sixth-ranked GSAx were a big part of that, leading to a 12-4-2 record. I’m not completely sure he can sustain that, given his recent resume, but it’s a great start toward improving Detroit’s expected standing between the pipes. The Red Wings entered the season with low expectations on that front, but have climbed over the last month.

An average five-on-five team with elite special teams can be a real recipe for success for Detroit, but the true test starts in the second half when the schedule ramps up. If the Red Wings can keep up this current level against the league’s best, they’ll keep earning respect and should have no trouble earning a playoff berth.

And not to rub salt in the wound but another one of their ‘risers’ is Minnesota, and you know how that swell happened.

Did anything interesting happen to the Wild over the last month? Oh yeah, they got the second-best defenceman in the world. Yeah, that’ll help.

While the Wild had to give up some value off their roster to do so (Marco Rossi in particular), the impact of adding Quinn Hughes was still huge, and the team has been rolling ever since with an 8-2-3 record, a plus-16 goal differential, and some elite numbers at five-on-five. Hughes has been sensational, picking up where he left off over the last two years, where he’s challenged Cale Makar for the best in the world crown. Away from the doldrums of the Canucks franchise that limited him through the first two months, Hughes could get there with the Wild.

Hughes’ presence has made the Wild a playoff lock, with their odds jumping from 78 to 99 per cent. How far they go when they get there is the question, though, given who they share a division with. The Wild are on the rise, but still have a lot of work to do to prove they can hang with the Avalanche.

Here’s some quick notes from Chris Faber at the Canucks official site on tonight’s game.

MATCHUP INFO

Tonight marks the second and final meeting between the Canucks and Red Wings this season: Dec. 9 (home, 4-0 L) and Jan. 8 (road).
Vancouver is 68-88-18-11 all-time against Detroit, including a 28-51-8-5 record on the road.
The Canucks are 3-5-2 in their last 10 games against the Red Wings (2-1-2 in their last five).
Elias Pettersson leads all active Canucks skaters in scoring against Detroit with 18 points (5-13-18) in 12 career games.
In 28 career games against the Red Wings, Evander Kane has 16 points (10-6-16).
Jake DeBrusk has 15 points (10-5-15) in 24 career games against Detroit.
In four career games against the Red Wings, Filip Hronek has three points (1-2-3).
Thatcher Demko holds a 2-1-0 record with a 1.02 goals-against average and a .967 save percentage in three career games against Detroit.
Kevin Lankinen is 5-3-1 with a 2.28 goals-against average, a .920 save percentage, and one shutout in nine career games against the Red Wings.

QUICK NUMBERS

Zeev Buium ranks 3rd among rookie defencemen in points (18) and assists (14).
Drew O’Connor ranks t-6th in the NHL in short-handed goals this season (2).
Filip Hronek has six points (1-5-6) in his last six games.
There’s loads of rumours out there right now as teams start to jockey ahead of the Olympic break. Most involve Kiefer Sherwood but there’s no shortage of talk about even the Canucks roster dross out there. This one suggests a desperation swing to move Lucas Reichel, who it was announced Wednesday that he’s going to the Olympics to not score goals for Germany.

One of the Hail Mary moves the Canucks attempted this season was acquiring former first-round pick Lukas Reichel. In short, Reichel did not work out, leading to his placement on waivers.

Reichel’s $1.2 million cap hit gave everyone the heebie-jeebies, leading him to clear unclaimed. But that doesn’t mean there might not be a trade out there for the Canucks. In fact, a swap of failed prospects would revive Reichel’s career.
Another languishing prospect could be New York Rangers forward Brennan Othmann. The 22-year-old has been the subject of significant trade speculation this season. The chatter has been that Othmann is not really in the Rangers’ plans.

As such, the Blueshirts could be willing to move him amid a tough season. Othmann, like Reichel, landed on The Athletic’s trade board this season. Perhaps individually, neither Reichel nor Othmann would be a look.
But as part of a 1-for-1 swap, the deal could make sense.

Canucks get:

Brennan Othmann, F

Rangers get:

Lukas Reichel, F

Let’s be realistic for a moment. Despite having a first-round pedigree behind them, fans shouldn’t expect Reichel or Othmann to become instant impact players. While they could fit into long-term plans, this trade is more about trying to salvage something out of nothing. 

Check back for more Canucks news throughout the day …