The Vancouver Canucks' Lackluster Season Just Got Exposed By the NHL
Photo credit: Bob Frid - Imagn Images.
Advanced statistics are painting a pretty bleak picture of how poor the Vancouver Canucks' 2025-26 season has been so far and things needs to turn around quickly.
Heading into the 2025-26 season, there was plenty of hope that the Vancouver Canucks would be able to make a return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after missing out last year, with the club acquiring Evander Kane in a deal with the Edmonton Oilers, bringing Vitali Kravtsov back to North America and Elias Pettersson saying that he was out for revenge this fall.
While reaching the playoffs is certainly still an attainable goal right now, the team hasn't done themselves any favours with their mediocre start to the 2025-26, partly due to inconsistent play and dealing with countless injury issues, and recently, some new advanced stats from Money Puck show how poor the year has been so far for Adam Foote's group.
Advanced stats paint bleak picture of Vancouver Canucks' 2025-26 season so far
In an article for Daily Hive last week, Trevor Beggs took a look at some of the underlying number regarding the Vancouver Canucks' season and after 15th game, which was a 5-4 overtime win over the Nashville Predators on November 3rd, the team sat at the bottom of several advanced stats, including expected goals for percentage (XGF%) with 44.1% at even strength.
"So, they're below average offensively, and their defensive performance has been ghastly. That's led the Canucks to having the worst expected goals-for total in the entire NHL at even-strength." Beggs said.
After the team went 1-2-1 on their four game homestand, scoring 13 goals and recording 135 shots, Vancouver has managed to find a way to increase their expected goals for percentage and now sit 28th in the National Hockey League at 45.85% according to Money Puck, with the Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks, Winnipeg Jets and Seattle Kraken the only teams below them in that category.
The Canucks know they need to be better and it starts with their top guys including Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, two players who when they're on their game can almost singlehandedly get their group a win any night.
With eight wins in 18 games so far, things aren't looking great for the Vancouver Canucks, but we'll have to reserve judgement on their chances to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for when the team is fully healthy, something that hasn't been the case from the moment the puck dropped in early October.
Source: Daily Hive/Trevor Beggs.
Analytics suggest the Vancouver Canucks are the NHL's worst team
Analytics suggest the Vancouver Canucks are the NHL's worst team
Previously on Canucks Daily
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