April 2nd, 2023

Ryan Gurevitz 

In the next couple of weeks, the Canucks season will almost certainly come to a close. While I, along with an overwhelming majority of Canucks faithful believe that this season has been a disappointment, I can confidently say it was an eventful disappointment. The Canucks saw a major rotation of core pieces filter in and out of the organization this season. New faces such as Vitaly Kravtsov, Aatu Raty, Anthony Beauvillier, Filip Hronek, Ilya Mikheyev and most importantly Andrei Kuzmenko all donned the orca (and the skate) for the first time in their careers. Head Coach Rick Tocchet also joined the organization with assistant coaches Sergei Gonchar and Adam Foote midway through the season following the controversial exit of the beloved Bruce Boudreau and the less controversial exit of assistant coach Trent Cull. Shortly after the coaching switch, the Canucks traded Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders. Bo Horvat had been a Canuck since being drafted 9th overall in 2013 and was given the captaincy at the start of the 2019-20 season. 

Horvat's departure was well anticipated given his contract situation, but that did not take away from the heartbreak it caused Canucks fans, many of whom called Horvat their favourite player. The Canucks finished the season without naming a captain, instead naming Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and JT Miller alternate captains until the end of the season. It is reasonable to believe one of those four will most likely be named the 15th captain in Canucks history.