2023 was an undeniably eventful year for the Vancouver Canucks. A lot has happened over the past 365 days in Canuck-land — so much that some of it has likely been forgotten.
So, let’s take a look back at the year that was for the Canucks and remember some of the biggest, most impactful, and just plain weirdest stories, while also touching on some of the most well-read Pass it to Bulis articles of the year.
January
2023 kicked off with a Canucks op, as they flew a “#FREETHESKATE” banner across Vancouver in clear imitation of the “#FIREBENNING” banner from the previous season. While it wasn’t the grassroots campaign that it appeared to be it was still a clever piece of guerilla marketing from the Canucks, leading to the return of the team’s black skate jersey later in the month.
Two stories competed to be the biggest news of January: the firing of head coach Bruce Boudreau and the trade of captain Bo Horvat.
Boudreau’s firing wasn’t just about Boudreau getting fired but about the long, awkward lead-up to him getting fired. It was painful to see it dragged out for so long, with it known well ahead of time that Rick Tocchet would replace him.
Weirdly enough, the most popular PITB article on the subject — and one of the biggest PITB articles of the year — was my Encanto parody: “We Don’t Talk About Boudreau.”
As for the Horvat trade, the biggest PITB article on that front was about general manager Patrik Allvin’s assertion that they “got three first-rounders back” in the deal. What was already a pretty ludicrous assertion at the time looks even worse now that one of those first-rounders, Anthony Beauvillier, has now been traded for a fifth-round pick.
Near the end of January, Ilya Mikheyev was shut down for the season with an ACL tear, leading to questions of why they waited so long. Mikheyev notably wasn’t ready for the start of the 2023-24 season but has been solid since his return, with 20 points in 31 games.
January also saw Canucks fans bid farewell to beloved enforcer Gino Odjick, who passed away at the age of 52.
February
The Boudreau story continued into February, as the most-read PITB article of the month was about a Canucks fan sending Boudreau a custom “Bruce, there it is” jersey, which was then framed and hung up in their house.
The second-biggest story was about Andrei Kuzmenko — no, not him signing a new contract with the Canucks but how, shortly after signing, he was already getting benched by new head coach Rick Tocchet.
In more positive news, Elias Pettersson won the Hardest Shot event at the NHL All-Star Skills Competition with a 103.2 mph slap shot — the second-hardest shot ever by a forward in the event.
Then there was the start of J.T. Miller trade talk, which got a little wild. First, Miller was suddenly reported as injured and out week-to-week in the midst of trade rumours. Instead of cooling the trade talk, rumours ramped up, as reports came out that the Canucks had talked about a Miller trade with the Penguins and also had a “sizeable deal” on the way…
March
…which turned out to be the Filip Hronek trade in early March, as the Canucks moved the actual first-round pick they got back in the Horvat trade to the Detroit Red Wings.
Miller, supposedly out week-to-week, was back in the lineup less than a week after those initial injury reports. One report suggested the Penguins made an offer for Miller and the Canucks declined. Allvin said they never got an offer for Miller at all. It was all very weird.
Also weird, Kuzmenko was spotted eating a banana and downing a Pepsi on the bench. That led to a kid trading a banana to Kuzmenko for a stick, which was delightful and fun. Then it turned into a whole thing, as fans offered Kuzmenko more and more food items to get one of his red-hot sticks, which got out of hand.
One of the biggest PITB stories of the month, then, was when I talked to the dad of the 11-year-old who made that initial banana-for-stick trade, who passed along the message that he was, “sorry for what I started.”
The positivity didn’t quite last for Kuzmenko. Later in the month, it came out that Kuzmenko wouldn’t be wearing the Canucks’ Pride jersey for their Pride Night celebrations, one of a handful of players around the league who opted out. That led to the NHL outright banning alternate warm-up jerseys for the 2023-24 season.
March also saw John Garrett announce that the 2022-23 season would be his final one as the Canucks’ colour commentator.
The most-read PITB article in March was about what the Canucks could do with Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The number one option on that list was buying him out.
April
Oh boy. One of the biggest Canucks stories of April was former captain Bo Horvat — intentionally or not — dissing Canucks fans.
When asked about the environment with the New York Islanders and the fans’ support, Horvat said, “I mean, it’s been unbelievable. A lot better than Vancouver, I’ll tell you that for free.”
The quote endeared Horvat to the Long Island crowd but earned plenty of vitriol from Vancouver, with “I’ll tell you that for free” becoming a popular meme among Canucks fans. Horvat quickly clarified that he didn’t mean any disrespect but the damage was already done.
Meanwhile, Quinn Hughes took the microphone to address the fans after the Canucks' final home game of the season. Hughes tried to downplay the moment — "We talked about it and they asked me to do it and I did it" — but it was one of the earliest indicators that Hughes was taking a much bigger leadership role than anyone anticipated and would be the Canucks' next captain.
One positive story in April is that Elias Pettersson hit 100 points in the second-to-last game of the season. It clearly meant a lot to Pettersson’s teammates, with Miller saying before the game, according to Pettersson, “Let’s at least get one point today and make sure you get to 100.”
It makes sense, then, that Pettersson and Miller said they had become friends in their end-of-year press conference.
One of my favourite articles from April was about Travis Dermott and his long road back from a concussion. He missed almost the entire 2022-23 season and it’s been great seeing him back in action this season with the Arizona Coyotes.
The most-read article from April, however, was about Ethan Bear lifting the lid on just how messy things were when he first arrived in Vancouver. Coming from a systems-heavy approach with the Carolina Hurricanes, Bear said he was shocked at the lack of trust and accountability in Vancouver.
May
The big Canucks news of May — and the most-read PITB article of the month — was that they lost the draft lottery and wouldn’t be getting Vancouver’s own Connor Bedard.
The news came the same day as another big story: the Canucks were fined $50,000 for violating the NHL’s off-season training rules, as several players, including Dakota Joshua, nabbed some extra ice time with the Sedins.
Trevor Linden appeared in a commercial for a YWCA Metro Vancouver campaign, lending his voice to a compelling and chilling concussion story, but not his own. I later interviewed Linden and the people behind the campaign about how Linden got involved and the tremendous response the campaign received, opening people's eyes to an under-discussed issue.
Also in May, avid golfer J.T. Miller tried to qualify for the U.S. Open. He didn’t make the cut.
The most positive story from May was Arturs Silovs, who was Latvia’s hero at the World Hockey Championship. The Canucks prospect was brilliant in the Latvian net, carrying Latvia to the bronze medal — their first in IIHF competition. He was named the tournament MVP for his efforts.
Tyler Myers and Ethan Bear took home gold at the tournament, though Bear was injured and didn’t play in the gold-medal game. His eventual shoulder surgery likely cost him a contract with the Canucks.
June
The most-read PITB story of June and, in fact, of the entire year, was about Daniel Sedin doing the Grouse Grind 11 times in one day. I think we can all agree that’s crazy. Daniel Sedin is a crazy person.
Another big Canucks story in June — there weren’t many on the ice for some reason — was about Roberto Luongo joking about “practicing lifting the Cup” as the Bruins alleged the Canucks did back in 2011.
The Canucks bought out Ekman-Larsson, a buyout that will last through 2031. Thus ended one of the worst trades in Canucks history.
And remember that $50,000 fine the Canucks got for violating the off-season training rules? The NHL changed the rule. The Canucks still had to pay the fine, of course.
Oh yeah, the draft.
The Canucks picked defenceman Tom Willander 11th overall ahead of local kid Zach Benson. They also picked Hunter Brzustewicz in the third round, which could prove to be a steal. It was a bit of an odd draft overall, as the Canucks repeatedly went off the board. We’ll see how that turns out long-term.
July
July 1 is, of course, the start of free agency and the Canucks were busy.
The Canucks signed Ian Cole, Teddy Blueger, and Carson Soucy on the first day of free agency, with the biggest result being that the team’s blueline was going to look radically different, which was the subject of the most-read PITB story of the month.
The Canucks also held their prospect development camp. I spoke to Tom Willander about his switch from forward to defence, to Hunter Brzustewicz about wanting to be the next Stephen A. Smith, Akito Hirose about his calmness and comfort level, and Vilmer Alriksson about using his size.
Then it was time for off-season content, including two of the most-read PITB stories of the month.
First, it turns out Roberto Luongo holds an obscured NHL record. And second, I wrote about how one of the worst Canucks trades in franchise history also led to one of the worst airbrushed hockey cards in NHL history.
August
Not all of the Canucks’ free agent signings came in July. One of the most important signings came in August, as the Canucks added centre Pius Suter.
The most-read PITB story of August was what I thought was just a fun little story about J.T. Miller asking to wear the number 10 when he joined the Canucks, not realizing that it was retired for Pavel Bure. A lot of Canucks fans, however, thought it was a vicious attack on Miller, I guess?
Among the other highly-read PITB articles was the annual prospect pyramid ranking all of the prospects in the Canucks’ system and a fun little “what if” that imagined what would happen if the Canucks had traded for Victor Hedman back in 2009.
August was pretty quiet, Canucks-wise. Almost as if it's the least-hockey month of the year.
September
As the Canucks came back to town for training camp, the biggest story of the month was the team naming Quinn Hughes as their new captain.
PITB’s biggest article of the month was about how the Canucks’ casually left Mark Messier off of the announcement, while every other Canucks captain was present and accounted for.
The second most-read PITB story of the month was about Filip Hronek and the transformation he went through during the offseason, which was less about Hronek himself and more about the vicious cycle that all professional hockey players have to go through to get ready for the NHL season.
The third most-read story of the month was about Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua nearly coming to blows at training camp, which is somewhat ironic given their very fruitful partnership on the third line this season.
A big story in September was the Canucks trading Tanner Pearson and a third-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens for backup goaltender Casey DeSmith. That was a huge deal, as it not only freed up cap space but also gave the Canucks a reliable backup; DeSmith has been excellent so far this season.
The story of training camp, on the other hand, was Cole McWard, who spent time on a pairing with Quinn Hughes and nearly made the opening-night roster. He’s only played one game for the Canucks this season, however.
Ray Ferraro and Dave Tomlinson were announced as part of the Canucks’ new broadcast team, replacing John Garrett, which is something Ferraro has wanted for over a decade.
Jim Rutherford famously said that the Canucks are a playoff team “if everything goes right.”
October
One of the biggest stories heading into the season was Conor Garland’s agent being granted permission to talk to other teams to potentially facilitate a trade. The Canucks have to be happy now that the trade never came to fruition.
The most-read PITB story of the month was about Vasily Podkolzin getting cut and sent down to the AHL. He got off to a hot start in Abbotsford before his season was derailed by a concussion on a scary hit.
The second most-read PITB story of October wasn’t about the Canucks’ excellent start on the ice but instead about Quinn Hughes’ bonkers Upper Deck Portraits hockey card, where he looks Shakespearean in a massive ruff.
Also off the ice, J.T. Miller dressed as a Playboy Bunny for Halloween.
On the ice, the Canucks were thriving, which had many analysts pointing at their PDO and screaming, “REGRESSION!!!” at the top of their lungs.
But really, the Canucks owned October because of Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, and Thatcher Demko.
November
The big Canucks news in November came at the end of the month, as the Canucks traded Anthony Beauvillier to the Chicago Blackhawks (just after I asked when Beauvillier was going to do something for the Canucks) to make room for the Canucks to trade for Nikita Zadorov from the Calgary Flames.
The Zadorov trade gave the Canucks one of the biggest blue lines in the NHL.
The most-read PITB story of November was about Conor Garland and a goal he scored against the Dallas Stars that everyone missed, including the on-ice officials and the scorekeepers.
The second most-read story was a Trevor Linden bombshell, as he confirmed that Benning “wasn’t sold” on Pettersson and would have drafted a different player.
The third was me being a bit of a Debbie Downer, pointing out that the last time the Canucks were 8-2-1, they missed the playoffs. Not to worry, the Canucks improved their record after that.
Bo Horvat made his return to Vancouver and the Canucks ruined it with a comeback win.
At one point, three Canucks — Quinn Hughes, J.T. Miller, and Elias Pettersson — were tied for the league lead in scoring.
Brock Boeser took the NHL lead in goalscoring, at least briefly, and I broke down what he’s doing differently this season.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle showed up at Rogers Arena and cheered wildly for a Miller goal.
Andrei Kuzmenko was made a healthy scratch for the first — but not the last — time this season.
November was busy.
December
The two biggest stories of December were the emergence of the Canucks’ third line of Garland, Blueger, and Joshua — fondly called The Good Job Boys by, well, pretty much only me — and the Canucks’ climb to the top of the NHL standings before Christmas. But there were other significant stories in December.
Zadorov made his debut with the Canucks and helped defeat his former team.
Nils Höglander started making waves with his play in early December, earning a promotion into the top-six alongside J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser.
Intriguingly, the Canucks started limiting J.T. Miller’s ice time on the penalty kill in December, promoting Teddy Blueger to the top PK unit.
The World Juniors started on Boxing Day, with three Canucks prospects in action for Team Sweden. Jonathan Lekkerimäki kicked off his tournament with a two-goal performance against Latvia.
Anthropologie sells a sweater that looks like the Canucks’ V jersey! This is vital news!
The most-read PITB stories of the month, however, both revolved around Roberto Luongo, who came back to town for his Ring of Honour night. Thatcher Demko even paid tribute to Luongo by shutting out his Florida Panthers.
The most-read story of the month was about Luongo saying, “My contract didn’t suck,” ending a decade of his contract sucking.
The second most-read story of the month was Luongo calling for the Canucks to “free the skate jersey” during his Ring of Honour speech. Luongo never wore that particular jersey but he knows fashion when he sees it. Either that or he lost a bet to Wyatt Arndt.
