NHL Odds: Canucks, Senators or Canadiens – who will be the worst Canadian team in 2023-24?
Puck drop to open the 2023-24 NHL season is less than a month away and with a new year comes new opportunity and expectation.
Heading north of the border, teams like Edmonton and Toronto are in Stanley Cup-or-bust mode, but what about the other end of the spectrum? The outlook isn’t exactly peachy if you’re a Vancouver, Ottawa or Montreal fan as they project to be the worst Canadian NHL teams in 2023-24.
Vancouver Canucks
Last year was a season to forget for Vancouver. The Bruce Boudreau saga was an ugly scar on an ugly season and the Canucks missed the playoffs for the seventh time in the last eight years, finishing sixth in the Pacific Division. They ranked a respectable 13th in the NHL in goals per game last year, but defence let them down as they were 25th in goals-against per game and dead last in penalty kill percentage.
Vancouver, however, signalled a new era just before the season by naming defenceman Quinn Hughes as team captain. Head coach Rick Tocchet is entering his first full season behind the Canucks’ bench and the team used free agency to acquire depth pieces like Teddy Blueger, Ian Cole and Carson Soucy.
Sniper Elias Pettersson is coming off the first 100-point season of his career and will have a lot to play for in the final year of his contract. J.T. Miller is a steady offensive producer, while Brock Boeser is looking for a bounce-back season. Vancouver also has a strong goaltending tandem with Casey DeSmith being brought in to back-up starter Thatcher Demko.
Outside of the core of Hughes, Pettersson, Miller, Boeser and Demko, there are question marks regarding the lineup. Is there enough offensive depth? Will Hughes have ample support on the back end? Can Demko stay healthy and return to form? The Canucks made a few moves, but they just haven’t tweaked the lineup enough to expect this team to be any better than they were last season.
Ottawa Senators
Between Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa, the immediate future is the brightest for the Senators. Ottawa missed the playoffs for a sixth straight season last year, but they played meaningful hockey late and weren’t eliminated until the 79th game of the season. With a new owner, expectations are high in the nation’s capital.
The Sens shipped winger Alex DeBrincat to Detroit, but they still managed to improve up front through free agency. Newly signed sniper Vladimir Tarasenko adds elite offensive skill, while a player like Zack MacEwen adds needed grit to the lineup. Those players are great compliments to an offensive core that includes captain Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux, Josh Norris and Drake Batherson.
Defensively, questions remain for Ottawa. Thomas Chabot still hasn’t proven he can be one of the elite offensive defencemen in the NHL, while the ceiling is unknown for Jakob Chychrun after several wasted years in Arizona. It also remains to be seen if free agent goalie Joonas Korpisalo is ready to be a starter.
The expectation is a playoff spot for the Senators this season. Tkachuk and Stutzle are each coming into the year fresh off the best statistical season of their careers and the depth on the roster has filled out considerably. Ottawa is not a Stanley Cup contender and nowhere close to Edmonton or Toronto, but this could be the season they take a significant step forward.
Montreal Canadiens
There’s nowhere to go but up for the Habs. Only a few years removed from a Stanley Cup Final appearance, Montreal finished 28th in the NHL standings last year after finishing dead last the season before. They’re coming off a season that saw them rank 26th in goals per game, 29th in goals-against per game and 29th on the power play.
The biggest splash the Canadiens made in the off-season is the addition of Alex Newhook from Colorado. Newhook is a 22-year-old centre who has a high ceiling. He won a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 2022, but struggled when given the chance to be Colorado’s second-line centre last year. Newhook finished the 2022-23 season with 30 points (14G, 16A) in 82 regular season games and added one assist in seven playoff games.
In addition to Newhook, Montreal has a talented young core that includes 24-year-old captain Nick Suzuki, 22-year-old defenceman Arber Xhekaj, 22-year-old snipers Cole Caufield and Kirby Dach as well as 19-year-old winger Juraj Slafkovsky, the first overall pick in the 2022 draft.
The problem for Montreal is they are still years away from being dangerous. Newhook, Xhekaj and Dach still need to take the next step in their respective development and Slafkovsky still doesn’t seem ready to make the jump to full-time NHLer. Couple all of that with questionable defence and average goaltending, and you have a recipe for the Canadiens being the worst Canadian NHL team in 2023-24.
