When J.T. Miller left the Vancouver Canucks to go on personal leave, the team needed players to step up to fill the void.
Elias Pettersson has done so, with 10 points in 6 games since Miller left, as has Jake DeBrusk, who has 7 goals in his last 5 games, and Conor Garland, with 4 goals and 8 points in his last 6 games. But one of the most important players to step up has been Pius Suter, who has had to fill in as a top-six centre with Miller gone.
Suter is holding his own in a difficult role with Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland on his wings. In the six games without Miller, Suter has a 54.4% corsi and the Canucks have out-shot their opponents 34-to-25 with Suter on the ice at 5-on-5.
More than that, Suter has produced points. He's a point-per-game in the six games Miller has been gone, with a 4-game point streak and 3-game goal streak heading into Tuesday's game against the Minnesota Wild. His 9 goals through 22 games are good for second on the Canucks — one goal behind DeBrusk — and he's on pace to shatter his career highs in both goals and points.
Suter hasn't been perfect, by any means — he's struggled in the faceoff circle, for instance — but he's made Miller's absence a little bit easier to bear.
It all leads to one of the most unexpected narratives of the 2024-25 Canucks season: can Pius Suter retake the goalscoring lead from Jake DeBrusk?
The two have battle for the top spot over the last few games, with DeBrusk taking the lead with his hat trick against the Detroit Red Wings. They'll be in tough to add to their goal totals against the Wild, who have been the stingiest team in the NHL.
The Wild have allowed just 2.33 goals against per game, which leads the NHL by a wide margin. They have been vulnerable, however, on the power play: their 73.7% penalty kill ranks 27th in the NHL this season. They've managed to limit this issue by staying out of the penalty box: only the New York Islanders and Vegas Golden Knights have taken fewer trips to the sin bin than the Wild.
Combine that stinginess with the NHL's leading scorer, Kirill Kaprizov, and it's no surprise the Wild are on top of the Central Division with a 16-4-4 record. This will be the toughest test of the road trip for the Canucks.
Vancouver Canucks projected lines
The Canucks are not expected to make too many changes to their lineup but they might make an adjustment on defence. While Quinn Hughes has been incredible, his ice time has climbed to unsustainable heights in recent games, culminating in 31 minutes in the overtime win over the Red Wings.
Here are the Canucks' projected lines, which will be updated if they change by puck drop:
At practice on Monday, Tyler Myers, who has been paired with Hughes since Filip Hronek got injured, was back with Carson Soucy on the second pairing, with Noah Juulsen bumped up to the top pairing with Hughes. Juulsen has played with Hughes before with some success but this move is likely more about having a second pairing that can eat up minutes so Hughes can occasionally take a breather on the bench.
Whether or not the Canucks run with those pairings against the Wild remains to be seen. It might be too much to ask Soucy and Myers to shut down Kaprizov, given their early-season struggles.
UPDATE: Sure enough, the Canucks went back to Hughes and Myers in warm-ups, with Soucy and Juulsen on the second pairing. Expect big minutes for Hughes as he faces off against Kaprizov in a battle of Hart candidates.
The Canucks' starting goaltender is expected to be Kevin Lankinen, who will be putting his 10-game road winning streak on the line against the Wild.
Minnesota Wild projected lines
The main concern for the Canucks is Kaprizov, who has 15 goals and 38 points in 23 games. He's playing like a Hart Trophy candidate and seems nigh-unstoppable.
Kaprizov's linemates should not be overlooked, however. Matt Boldy has 11 goals and 24 points in 24 games, while Joel Eriksson Ek provides the defensive conscience for the line, while contributing 5 goals and 13 points in 21 games.
Marco Rossi has also been dangerous this season from the second line, with 7 goals and 19 points in 24 games.
Here are the Wild's projected lines courtesy of NHL.com's Jessi Pierce:
Kirill Kaprizov - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy
Marcus Johansson - Marco Rossi - Ryan Hartman
Marcus Foligno - Freddy Gaudreau - Yakov Trenin
Devin Shore - Marat Khusnutdinov - Ben Jones
Jake Middleton - Brock Faber
Declan Chisholm - Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill - Zach Bogosian
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andre Fleury
The Wild's starting goaltender will be Filip Gustavsson, who has been phenomenal for the Wild, with a .929 save percentage that ranks first in the NHL among goaltenders with 7+ starts this season.
Gustavsson hasn't had a save percentage under .900 in his last nine games and has two shutouts in that time, so the Canucks will have their work cut out for them finding the back of the net.
