2. Vancouver Canucks
Last season's division lead for the Canucks, IMO, was mostly due to the unfortunate cocktail of injuries the Oilers experience to start the season last year which allowed them to get a leg up on the competition and thus was a bit of a fluke last season. I don't think the Canucks will be the division leaders in my mind but there's no doubt to me that they are playoff contenders right now.
Although their top six forward group isn't as impressive as the Oilers, it's still a pretty solid group on paper. The Canucks successfully plucked two additions to their scoring corps from the same team, the Boston Bruins. They signed hometown boy Danton Heinen, who put up 17 goals for the Bruins last year and should be a solid line with incumbents JT Miller and Brock Boeser, two of the Canuck's most potent scorers. In a separate deal they then went out and backed the Brinks truck up to Jake DeBrusk, signing him for $5.5 million a season for the next max term of seven seasons for a new team. DeBrusk comes to the Canucks as they're on an upswing while his prior team the Bruins are on a downswing. Rounding out the newcomers to the Canuck's top six is bargain basement signing Daniel Sprong, who somehow went most of the summer unsigned until the Canucks signed him for a single season at $975,000 - a great under the radar acquisition considering Sprong put up 21 goals for the Seattle Kraken two seasons ago and then another 18 for Detroit last season. Playing with the aforementioned DeBrusk and electrifying scorer Elias Pettersson, I suspect Sprong will get more term and more money after this season.
These additions to the top six forward group have allowed the Canucks to use some of their incumbents for more depth for the third line. 2019 second round pick Nils Hoglander, who scored 24 goals last season for the Canucks, will now be playing on their third line next season. At center will be Aatu Raty, the prospect cornerstone of the Bo Horvat trade with the Islanders a couple of seasons ago. Raty scored 18 goals for the Abbotsford Canucks last season (farm team), and looks poised to become a full time NHLer this season. Raty has played 15 NHL games until this point (12 with the Islanders, the other three with the Canucks). Rounding out the third line is Conor Garland, who scored 20 goals for the Canucks last season but just like Hoglander is being used as veteranosity support for the raw Raty at center. That line is pretty comparable to the Oilers line of Janmark-Henrique-Brown, maybe even a smidge better if they can duplicate last year's results, but at a heavy price - Garland is being paid almost $5 million for the next two seasons to play on the third line. Expect him to be bought out if the Canucks ever need cap space if their backs are against the cap wall.
Centering the fourth line will be Teddy Blueger, who put up 28 points for the Canucks last season after winning the cup as a depth player with Vegas in 2023. On the other side will be Kiefer Sherwood, who put up 27 points for the Nashville Predators last season. Rounding out the forward group is Arshdeep Bains, a local boy who played his junior hockey for the Red Deer Rebels and put up 112 points his last season in junior. The 23 year old is slated to become an NHL regular for the first time in his career.
On D the Canucks have a pretty lethal duo on the top pairing as superstar Quinn Hughes put up 75 assists and 92 points last season - no wonder dude won the Norris trophy last season. Beside him is ex-Red Wing Filip Hronek, who in his first full season as a Canuck put up 48 points of his own. That pairing will be handful to defend. Their second pairing is the still productive Tyler Myers, who put up 29 points and a +16 last season. His partner is stay at home physical blueliner Carson Soucy, who was limited to 40 games last season. The bottom pairing of the Canucks consists of physical stay at home guy Derek Forbort, another ex-Bruin transplant, and ex-Oiler Vincent Deshairnais, who the Canucks for some reason thought it worthwhile to pay a bottom pairing d-man $4 million over two seasons. I'm not surprised at this point that the Canucks have a mere $439K of cap space left. Did I mention Forbort's making $1.5 million next season? $3.5 million to your bottom pairing d-men is not a great use of cap space.
In goal the Canucks have a pretty solid tandem. Star goalie Thatcher Demko will be taking the majority of the starts - he's injured right now but slated to be back for the start of the regular season. Kevin Lankanen was brought in as insurance in case Demko wasn't ready to go, but at this point he appears destined for Abbotsfield. Last year's surprise starter thrust into the spotlight in the playoffs after Demko became injured in Arturs Silovs will back up Demko. The young Latvian shows potential but his numbers aren't all that encouraging up until now.