Canucks Coffee: Which ex-Canuck do you miss the most?

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The lineup of ex-Canucks still playing in the NHL is a pretty good one.

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Just look at the first line you could assemble: J.T. Miller centring Andrei Kuzmenko and Tyler Toffoli.

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Or what about a second line of Bo Horvat between Tanner Pearson and Pius Suter?

On the third line you could have Dakota Joshua and Vasily Podkolzin flanking Elias Lindholm. And your fourth line? Adam Gaudette, Ilya Mikheyev and Jason Dickinson.

The defence of course is filled with fun names: Nikita Zadorov, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Chris Tanev, Luke Schenn, Ian Cole, Jalen Chatfield and Troy Stecher.

Shoutout to Canucks fan Pete Edwards for playing this fun game on social media. He assembled the list. (I added Stecher.)

I then wondered which of of these ex-Canucks might fans miss most, so I put the question out on BlueSky.

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The response was deafening: people miss Bo Horvat and, of course, Chris Tanev.

There were also a few fun-times votes for Kuzmenko and Zadorov.

The desire to have Horvat and Tanev back is obvious: you always knew you’d get their best — and their leadership talents were obvious too. Horvat would be the Canucks’ leading goal scorer this year — he has five goals already, in just eight games — and would be tied on points with Conor Garland (nine points) for the team lead.

Tanev’s talents we understand well, just a smart defender who makes smart decisions with the puck. And since the Canucks didn’t re-sign him in 2020, a financial decision forced upon management by ownership during the pandemic, he’s had just about the healthiest stretch of his career. In only one season has he had a substantial injury: in 2022-23 he missed 17 games. In every other season he’s missed just a handful at most.

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Horvat is also a reminder of how strong the Canucks used to be down the middle and now are not. I was surprised there wasn’t more wishing for J.T. Miller. Obviously his off-ice story is not something people want to revisit but on ice there’s just no getting around how important he was to this team’s offence. One of the best passers in team history and he’s in the Canucks’ 100-point club. Here’s something to contemplate: he’s 32 and needs just 285 more points to get to 1,000 for his career. Can he get there?

Miller’s return

Miller is back on Tuesday. His Rangers are reeling. They’re last in the Metro at 3-4-2. They’ve defended well but have the second-fewest goals scored this season in the league, just 21. Only Calgary’s 16 goals are less.

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They managed to lose to the woeful San Jose Sharks on Thursday — at home, no less.

The discourse around Miller’s Rangers is stunningly familiar: will they have to trade their scoring star (Artemi Panarin)? How did they end up with so little depth on the forward lines? (They traded away Filip Chytil, Chris Kreider and Kaapo Kakko, the story goes.)

Tuesday should be a doozy, one way or another.

Frustration levels

Speaking of frustrated captains, do you really think anything that’s gone on here in the opening weeks of the season will be good in the “will he stay” debate?

The Canucks are plodding along. The game against Montreal was fun — but it was still a loss. And we know Quinn Hughes wants to win, more than anything else. OK, well, maybe as much as he wants to play with his brothers.

Anyway, you get the point.

I will continue to repeat that the assessment around the league, from people I talk to, is that Hughes is almost certainly going to leave.

And as much as we talk about what the Canucks can do to convince him to stay, the reality is just so stark: this team is closer to rebuilding than it is to being a true contender. But of course I’ve just mentioned a word ownership hates, is in denial about, and so we keep thinking about circling the drain.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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