[CanuckJohnny]

Offseason options for Vancouver

Vancouver's greatest area of need is definitely on the wings right now. The problem is that Nikita Filatov regressed overall last year, not many of their young guys outside of Bertuzzi have really stepped up so far, and the free agent class is weak as can be. Good luck finding an NHL calibre winger at all, never mind one who can play in the top six. It's too bad they haven't been successful in convincing Kirill Kaprizov to come over to North America because they could sure use him. They really only have Tyler Bertuzzi and Jared McCann as legitimate top six wingers. Neither of them has much experience. Nikita Filatov struggled last season until he was moved to the third line where he found most of his success. He may be forced back into a top six role however. Brandon Tanev looked solid on the third line but that is likely his ceiling. Neither Stefan Noesen, Evgeny Svechnikov or Josh Anderson has done anything to show they could handle regular minutes in the top six so barring an outstanding camp from one of them or Ty Ronning surprising us all Vancouver is going to need to figure something out for wingers.

They look decent down the middle. Hischier and Horvat should be an solid one two punch for years to come and Cassels seems to be settling into his third line role reasonably well. They have depth coming up through the organization, with youngsters Danton Heinen, Filip Chlapik and Blake Lizotte all expected to compete for the open 4C spot in camp.

On defense they also look fairly deep with the emergence of Mikhail Sergachev last year. McAvoy was a known commodity who was expected to play top four minutes from the get go out of college but nobody was looking for Sergachev to even make the team this time last year, nevermind play a top pairing role. Now, he may not be a legitimate number one defenseman on a good team but certainly after his rookie season he looks to figure in the top four on this team for a long time. Derrick Pouliot has really established himself as a reliable two way top four NHL defenseman who could play on the top pairing of a lot of teams and play PP1 on a lot of teams. Chris Tanev is reliable as always. Rasmus Andersson looked a little out of his league at times last year and they are hoping he will take another step with a full NHL season under his belt now. Marc-Edouard Vlasic maybe didn't figure as prominently as they had originallly intended in their blueline but he was still steady as mostly a bottom pairing defensively reliable vet. Dan Hamhuis is becoming more valuable for his veteran voice in the locker room than for his increasingly rarer on-ice appearances. The Canucks have high hopes for Swedish defenseman Gus Forsling and are thinking he can probable spend a year adjusting to the North American game in the AHL and then go from there. They have some youth and depth in the system with Vince Dunn, Erik Cernak and Carson Soucy all hoping to prove they're worth an NHL roster spot.

In net, Vancouver is going to have to make some decisions soon. It is likely that Demko will back up Jacob Markstrom this season but if DeSmith earns the job they probably don't mind letting Demko percolate another year in the AHL. Markstrom has been streaky throughout his Canucks career and in the next two or three years they should decide on either sticking with him or moving on to Demko before they end up with another messy Schneider/Luongo situation.

The Canucks hold the 11th overall pick due to a trade with Los Angeles earlier. There are rumours Trevor Linden is trying to move up into the top four but that could be too costly for a young team just finding its way and looking to figure out life after the Sedins.