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With the Vancouver Canucks season concluded, it’s now time to reflect and laugh at our preseason point predictions.
Back in September, five of us at Nucks Misconduct (Kent Basky, Westy, Rob, Markus Meyer and myself) foolishly predicted how many points each Canuck would register in 2021-22.
You would think that Canucks fandom would have tempered our expectations but boy, were we insanely optimistic.
Westy put it best in with his own comments after reading our predictions.
“My compatriots seem to be drunk. They have allotted quite a few points to a team that struggles to score goals.” — Westy99
Westy’s comment turned out to be true, as Vancouver finished the season a middling 18th overall in goals-for.
The easy thing to do would be to run and hide from our predictions but hey, there’s no fun in that.
Below, you’ll see the actual point totals posted by each Canucks in 2021-22, along with the biggest winners and losers among our brave predictors.
We also have a Westy-inspired category for winners based on Price is Right rules which, for those of you born after 2003, means the best guess without going over.
If you want to go over our full predictions from September, you can read those here.
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1. Elias Pettersson
2021-22 Stats: 80 GP, 32 G, 36 A, 68 Points
Elias Pettersson might have set a career-high in points, but he didn’t come anywhere near what most of us predicted for him.
Winner: Westy — 75 Points.
Price is Right Rules Winner: No one.
Biggest Loser: Kent and Rob — 100 Points.
2. Brock Boeser
2021-22 Stats: 71 GP, 23 G, 23 A, 46 Points
Similar to Pettersson, Brock Boeser underperformed based on our expectations for him heading into the season.
The biggest struggle for Boeser was scoring at even-strength. After averaging more than 2 points-per-60 at even strength over the last three seasons — a surefire first line rate — Boeser’s 1.17 points-per-60 was down at a fourth-line level.
Bad shooting luck was a factor, which makes Boeser a good candidate to bounce back next year, whether that’s in Vancouver or elsewhere.
Closest: Beggsy — 72 points. Honestly, I thought I was being optimistic with this prediction...
Price is Right Rules: No one was even close.
Biggest Loser: Kent — 90 points.
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3. JT Miller
2021-22 Stats: 80 GP, 32 G, 67 A, 99 Points
For the most part, our writers were too optimistic.
The opposite is true when it pertains to JT Miller.
There wasn’t anyone who thought Miller was going to flirt with 100 points this year, so it’s hard to give our team too much of a hard time for this.
Closest: Rob & Markus — 70 Points. Talk about a lack of optimism...our winners were still 29 points off of predicting Miller’s true output this season.
Price is Right Rules: Rob & Markus — 70 Points.
Biggest Loser: Westy — 60 Points.
4. Bo Horvat
2021-22 Stats: 70 GP, 31 G, 21 A, 52 Points
The Canucks’ captain had a slow first half of the season, but really turned it on down the stretch, propelling him to his first 30-goal season.
Still, his slow first half, coupled with missing 12 games due to COVID and a tibia fracture, had all of us predicting he’d end up with more than 52 points.
Closest: Rob — 60 Points.
Price is Right Rules: Nadda.
Biggest Loser: Markus — 66 Points.
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5. Nils Hoglander
2021-22 Stats: 60 GP, 10 G, 8 A, 18 Points
Another prediction, another scenario where we all expected more.
We gotta stop drinking in September...
Closest: Rob — 33 Points.
Price is Right Rules: Ha, ha, ha...
Biggest Loser: Kent — 50 Points.
6. Conor Garland
2021-22 Stats: 77 GP, 19 G, 33 A, 52 Points
Full disclosure: I was the most bullish on Garland among our staff. I saw him finishing with the second-most points on the Canucks, trailing only Pettersson.
What I failed to consider was the lack of power play opportunities that Garland would get. He tied Miller for the team lead with 47 even-strength points, but his measly three power play points had him trailing the offensive leaders on this team by a significant margin.
Closest: Rob — 61 Points.
Price is Right Rules: Not this time...
Biggest Loser: Beggsy — 78 Points. Hey...I said full disclosure.
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7. Tanner Pearson
2021-22 Stats: 68 GP, 14 G, 20 A, 34 Points
By all accounts, Tanner Pearson performed above expectations in 2021-22. His 1.74 points-per-60 at evens trailed only Garland and Miller, while his underlying possession metrics were solid.
If Pearson played a full season, we all safely would have predicted the under for his offensive output.
Closest: Kent — 35 Points.
Price is Right Rules: Markus — 32 Points.
Biggest Loser: Rob — 24 Points.
8. Jason Dickinson
2021-22 Stats: 62 GP, 5 G, 6 A, 11 Points
Well, that was a disaster.
No one expected Dickinson to blow the doors off offensively, but the 26-year-old underwhelmed in just about every category relative to expectations heading into the season.
Closest: Kent — 20 Points.
Price is Right Rules: Ha.
Biggest Loser: Beggsy & Markus — 28 Points.
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9. Vasily Podkolzin
2021-22 Stats: 79 GP, 14 G, 12 A, 26 Points
This is one of those situations where the points don’t really tell the full story. Vasily Podkolzin’s offensive numbers don’t jump off the page, but anyone who watched the Canucks saw that the young Russian was putting on a complete performance later in the season.
Not only can he play a heavy game while providing some offence, but he’s already miles above his age group in terms of positioning and defensive awareness in his own zone.
Closest: Westy — 27 Points.
Price is Right Rules: So close Westy, so close...
Biggest Loser: Markus — 31 Points. Hey, at least we were all in the ballpark here.
10. Tyler Motte
2021-22 Stats (VAN/NYR): 58 GP, 7 G, 8 A, 15 Points
Although Motte left Vancouver at the trade deadline, he went pointless in nine games with the Canucks before suffering what likely is a season-ending injury.
Closest: Rob — 16 Points.
Price is Right Rules: Not this time!
Biggest Loser: Beggsy — 22 Points.
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11. Quinn Hughes
2021-22 Stats: 76 GP, 8 G, 60 A, 68 Points
This was a monster season for Quinn Hughes, as he set franchise records for assists by a defenceman, and points by a defenceman.
Even though he was electric this season, his 68 points were below what four of our five writers predicted.
Closest: Beggsy — 71 Points.
Price is Right Rules: Westy — 50 Points.
Biggest Loser: Westy — 50 Points. While Westy wins based on Price is Right rules, he also loses for underestimating the young Hughes.
If we’re using Price is Right rules, Rob overshot most on this prediction when he said Hughes would finish with 82 points.
12. Travis Hamonic
2021-22 Stats (VAN/OTT): 43 GP, 4 G, 6 A, 10 Points
We all predicted the over on Hamonic.
But hey, just so we all feel better about ourselves, all of our writers were in the ballpark of Hamonic’s 19-point pace based on a full 82 games.
Closest: Kent — 15 Points. Hey, Bossman Basky knew it best when he wrote this about Hamonic in our prediction post:
“Will be in and out of the lineup, as there’s actually bottom-pairing options for the Canucks this time around.”
Price is Right Rules: None.
Biggest Loser: Westy — 26 Points.
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13. Oliver Ekman-Larsson
2021-22 Stats: 79 GP, 5 G, 24 A, 29 Points
Bit of a weird first year for OEL, who excelled defensively as his offensive production dipped. He did pick it up in the second half though, with 21 of his 29 points coming in his final 39 games of the season.
Closest: Rob — 35 Points. Our prospect guru Rob, if you couldn’t tell, is winning the NM race for bragging rights. He said it best too in our predictions regarding to OEL: “
“I think his role on this team will have more of a defensive leadership component to it.”
Not wrong, Robbo.
Price is Right Rules: Eek.
Biggest Loser: Westy — 50 Points. I won’t pull Westy’s quote from September. You’re welcome, Westy.
14. Tyler Myers
2021-22 Stats: 82 GP, 1 G, 17 A, 18 Points
Another Canucks player, another opportunity for all of us to wrongly pick the over for his point totals.
Closest: Rob — 25 Points.
Price is Right Rules: Yikes.
Biggest Loser: Markus — 34 Points.
15. Tucker Poolman
2021-22 Stats: 40 GP, 1 G, 2 A, 3 Points
All of us at NM wish Tucker Poolman the best. No one wants to see their career derailed, but especially by something as debilitating on a daily basis as migraines are.
On the ice, Poolman was surprisingly efficient defensively but it’s hard to say that anything positive happened while the puck was on his stick this season.
Closest: Westy — 10 Points.
Price is Right Rules: Nope.
Biggest Loser: Rob — 18 Points.
Winners and Losers
Winners
1. Rob: 6.5 wins
T2. Kent: 3 wins
T2. Westy: 3 wins
4. Beggsy: 2 wins
5. Markus: 0.5 wins
Biggest Losers
1. Westy: 4
T2. Markus: 3.5
T2. Rob: 3.5
T4. Kent: 2.5
T4. Beggsy: 2.5
Win/Loss Total
1. Rob: 3
2. Kent: 0.5
3. Beggsy: -0.5
4. Westy: -1
5. Markus: -3
Price Is Right Rules
We’re going to blame the fact that we were drunk on optimism injuries, but all five of our writers hit the over on 11 of 15 players in our preseason predictions.
Regardless, Markus pulls out the victory in this turtle race. Your golden, turtle-shaped trophy is coming in the mail soon, Markus.
1. Markus: 1.5 wins
T2: Rob: 1 win
T2: Westy: 1 win
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