6 Players Who Always Dominate the Vancouver Canucks – The Hockey Writers – Vancouver Canucks

While the Vancouver Canucks haven’t been the best team at shutting down great opponents in recent seasons, there are always a few players who stand out as extra difficult to face. Here are six active players who have been a headache for the Canucks in recent years.

Connor McDavid

You could probably pencil Connor McDavid near the top of these lists for most Western Conference teams, but he’s terrorized the Canucks the most of any franchise. Some have argued he’s the best player in NHL history, and he certainly looks that way when playing against the Canucks.

In 46 regular season games against the Canucks, McDavid has scored 24 goals and 51 assists for 75 points. This is his highest point total against any opponent, and second-highest goal total, behind Edmonton’s arch-rival the Calgary Flames. McDavid also has his most total shots and faceoff wins versus the Canucks, adding to his overall impressive career against Vancouver.

With a Canucks team that is young, inexperienced, and lacking in consistent defence, this number is just going to climb in the next couple of years, though it will be interesting to see if McDavid sticks around in Edmonton after his contract expires.

Leon Draisaitl

It’s not just McDavid who carves up the Canucks whenever the Oilers face them, as Leon Draisaitl is the active goal leader against the team with 29. He doesn’t just shoot well when facing the Canucks either, as he has 33 assists in contests against them. This adds up to 62 points, the second-highest total of any active player.

Perhaps Draisaitl’s greatest run as a Canuck killer was in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, as in the seven-game series, he scored three goals and 11 assists for 14 points. One could argue he was the player most responsible for ending the Canucks’ best chance since 2011, which will forever cement him as a player feared in Vancouver.

Patrick Kane

Similar to Draisaitl, Patrick Kane’s dominance against the Canucks was at its scariest in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He leads all active NHL players in playoff points versus the Canucks with 22 in 19 games, and this came at a time when scoring was a bit more difficult to come by. The Canucks had some great defensive teams in the three consecutive seasons where they faced the Blackhawks in the playoffs, but the Blackhawks led by Kane always found a way to break through. Even in the series where Alex Burrows slayed the dragon and finally knocked the Hawks out, Kane still recorded six points, tied for the team lead.

This is not to say that Kane has been a slouch against the Canucks in the regular season either. He has 17 goals and 30 assists for 47 points in 51 games, with four of those goals being game winners.

John Gibson

It’s always felt like John Gibson was destined to find another gear. He’s been great, but he hasn’t quite been the elite goalie that he maybe was expected to be earlier in his career. You wouldn’t know this if you just watched him against the Canucks, though, as he has never been an easy opponent for the team.

Gibson has an insane record of 15-5-2 in 23 games against the Canucks, with a 2.04 goals-against average and .933 save percentage. Canucks fans could tell early that he was going to be a nuisance to play against, as he shut the door in the first two contests they faced off. He’s since had two more shutouts against the Canucks, including one for the Detroit Red Wings last season.

Tyler Toffoli

For many Canucks fans, Tyler Toffoli feels like the one who got away. He looked great in the blue and green, scoring at a point-per-game pace in the ten regular season games he played for the Canucks. He also looked promising in the playoff games he did play in the bubble, putting up four points despite dealing with an injury. There was reportedly mutual interest between the two sides in reuniting, but former Canucks general manager Jim Benning claimed they “ran out of time” to sign him.

Toffoli has had lots of chances to play against the Canucks. He’s played well with three different Pacific Division rivals in the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks, and Calgary Flames. In his full season in 2020-21 with the Montreal Canadiens, he played the Canucks eight times, scoring at a goal-per-game pace and putting up 13 points in those contests. He’s a player who’s always been a thorn in the side of the Canucks, which is a shame as he could have been a member of the squad’s core.

Jordan Eberle

For years, Jordan Eberle was the active leader in goals scored against the Canucks before Draisaitl took the mantle. This certainly checks out, as he has routinely delivered outstanding performances against the Canucks while playing for Pacific Division rivals, the Oilers and the Seattle Kraken. There are so many outstanding performances that come to mind when you think of Eberle versus the Canucks, whether it was his hat trick with the Oilers in 2017 or his three-point night for the Kraken in 2023.

Every team is ultimately going to have players who shine against certain opponents. For as up-and-down as the Canucks have been in recent seasons, several players have shown a tendency to go for the kill against certain squads. Elias Pettersson against the Flames comes to mind, and who could forget Brock Boeser’s 11 goals in 14 games against the Pittsburgh Penguins, including the hat trick which goaltender Matt Murray infamously chalked up to luck.

Still, though, if Canucks fans had a choice, they’d probably choose not to have these six players suit up against their team, at least not any time soon.