Canucks: Conor Garland, Team USA Olympian?

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Quinn Hughes we know will get an Olympic look from USA Hockey. Whether any other of the Vancouver Canucks’ clutch of Americans might also get a look has been up in the air.

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At least for now, the only other Yankee Canuck with a chance for an Italian plane ticket is Conor Garland.

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It’s a credit to Garland, who has been a consistent, steady winger for the Canucks since he arrived here in the infamous Oliver Ekman-Larsson trade in 2021.

Garland was a head-turning performance for the Americans at last spring’s World Championships, helping to lead his national team to their first IIHF senior men’s title in 65 years.

It’s been a busy four years for Garland in Vancouver, one almost exclusively full of personal ascendancy. The Canucks had high hopes for him when they landed him in the trade that sent a first-round pick plus broken-down veterans Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel and Loui Eriksson to Arizona for Ekman-Larsson and Garland.

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Ekman-Larsson was the headliner in that 2021 deal, a veteran defenceman who was once an underrated game manager but who was past his prime by the time he landed in Vancouver.

Garland, though, has proved to be exactly as advertised. He is crafty and relentless. A true competitor, he’s won over Canucks fans — and coaches too.

After the trade came down in the summer of 2021, then-head coach Travis Green called me to sing Garland’s praises. Yes, he was pumped about adding what management believed would be a No. 1 defenceman in OEL, but don’t discount Garland, he added. He could be a real diamond in the rough.

Given how the OEL era went, the bar Garland had to clear to be the better player in the deal wasn’t that high.

He has been far better than that. Green was gone before Garland’s first Christmas in blue and green, but his successor Bruce Boudreau proved to be just as much of a fan of the Massachusetts-born winger.

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“He drags us into the fight,” Boudreau crowed more than once. Boudreau’s aggressive hockey suited Garland to a T, with Garland scoring 16 points in April as the Canucks chased an improbable playoff spot.

They didn’t make the post-season in the end, but Garland did everything he could to get them there.

His energetic play carried on under Rick Tocchet, and again especially in crunch time. He had 19 points in March and April 2024, a key player down the stretch as the Canucks won their first division title in a decade.

Even this past season, as the Canucks staggered from one crisis to another, as their top two centres underwhelmed, Garland was a constant.

And that, surely, is a big reason why he is in consideration for Team USA in Milan. There are 24 forwards on the American list at the moment. Garland is in fierce competition to be in the final 22 skaters that the Americans can select. That he’s even in consideration is an honour.

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On the other hand …

The flip side to all this is the snub of Thatcher Demko and, to a lesser extent, Brock Boeser.

Boeser’s foot speed is surely the biggest drawback here and why he’s not in the mix. You would hope that the American coaching staff recognized his skill around the net and the overall smart game he plays, but that was obviously not enough to overcome his major flaw — he’s just not a speedy player.

But for Demko to not even be in the mix in goal is a big statement about something the goalie hates hearing about — his durability.

That remains the main question around him going into 2025-26. Can he stay healthy? Three seasons in a row, he has suffered some kind of injury that has put him on the shelf. More than anything, he needs a fresh, consistent season in the year ahead.

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If he can find his old groove — and if he can stay healthy, why wouldn’t he? — perhaps he will draw back into consideration. After all, when healthy, he’s a Vezina finalist. Right now, Seattle’s Joey Daccord is listed as the fourth goalie on the USA depth chart.

Surely Demko is better than Daccord? Heck, throw out last season and the only goalie in consideration who is better than Demko is Connor Hellebuyck. He is at least on par with the Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman, surely also better than Dallas’ Jake Oettinger.

This is a reminder that Demko holds a huge key to the Canucks’ upcoming season. They need him back on his game, back among the NHL elite.

If he forces himself back into the Olympic conversation, that would mean things are going great for him and the Canucks. And that’s what fans want, more than anything.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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