Sad news: canuck have just announced the retirement of two of their best players
In the next off-season, you could certainly take a little break and enjoy yourself. Unwind, take a vacation, spend your millions, and continue with your summer routine that brought you to this point.Alternatively, you might not be able to sleep. You could show that you’re not content with even the elite level of hockey talent you’ve already attained by
spending your summer working like a bubble player, putting in countless hours to strengthen your areas of weakness.
That exemplifies setting an example. It’s a message to all the other players on the team to keep working hard because if you, the near-perfect superstar, still think you need to get better, then what could be the reason for any other player to stop?
Furthermore, the Vancouver Canucks have not one but two players who set the standard in this regard. This is because it appears that Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson have both spent their summers strengthening their areas of greatest weakness, at least based on the limited preseason action that has been witnessed.
The remainder of the team must now adhere to their league.
Let’s begin with the most evident and striking improvement: Quinn Hughes’ abrupt and deliberate transformation into a goal scorer.
Hughes set new career highs in assists (69) and points (76) last year, but in his farewell interviews, he seemed only interested in discussing his meager seven goals. Hughes declared that he wanted to improve as a shooter and become more lethal going into his offseason workouts.
“I believe that I made progress in my ability to release my shot from various motions so that I won’t have to halt my skating and can be in a comfortable position to release my shot. Depending on where the D is, I believe I can get a shot off in different areas. We’ll see how it goes this year, but that’s the main thing I’m working on,” Hughes told The Hockey News.
Hughes has taken 11 shots in the first two exhibition games and scored on three of them. At 27.3%, that is a shooting percentage that is significantly higher than even Kuzmenko territory. Hughes needed 154 shots to score seven goals in the previous campaign, or a 4.5% conversion rate.
Not only do Hughes’ three goals lead the Canucks in the preseason, but they also lead all NHL players—many of whom have played more than Hughes’ two games—at this point.
Naturally, neither of these stats should persist throughout the regular season. It’s unlikely that Hughes will score on 25% of his shots or be in the running for the Rocket Richard Trophy.
Along with the early stat returns, the eye test also unequivocally shows that Hughes has returned to the ice as a more dynamic, focused, and committed shooter, making him a more complete offensive threat.
Which, for a player who was already regarded as one of the league’s most versatile talents, is really quite something.
And speaking of which, let’s change our subject and discuss Elias Pettersson.
If one kept up with the conversation surrounding Pettersson and the various offseason honors he was vying for, like the Selke Trophy, they undoubtedly heard the same criticism brought up repeatedly.
“How can Pettersson be the best defensive forward in the NHL if he can’t win a faceoff?” was the question that was posed.
Although there have always been many exaggerated rumors about Pettersson’s poor draw-taking ability, it was clearly a weakness in his game. While Pettersson’s on-the-dot winning percentage increased from 41.0% in his rookie season to 44.3% in the previous campaign, it was still significantly lower than that of Patrice Bergeron and other conventional Selke contenders.
However, take note that we stated that this was not Pettersson’s game’s clear weakness. This is due to the fact that, similar to Hughes, it appears Pettersson has invested the offseason in closing this specific deficit, at least if the scant preseason action serves as proof.
Pettersson has also participated in two exhibition games, and in both of them, he had incredibly impressive faceoff results.
