Canucks’ Conor Garland Proving His Worth in 2023-24

He doesn’t have the luxury of being Pettersson’s height to deflect pucks away or using a long reach to rip pucks away from opponents. Instead, he uses his speed, effort and body to win puck battles at a high rate. On top of his takeaways, he leads all Canucks players in expected goals-for-percentage (xG%) at 58.71%. When he is on the ice, good things happen.

Offensively, Garland’s point production is at an all-time low for him (38% point percentage). But his ability to win the puck back on the forecheck and hold up play behind the net to allow his teammates to set up in the offensive zone has been elite this season. He has the least amount of giveaways among all Canucks with two. Just think about how many times he has stolen the puck off of an opposing defenceman down low as the first forechecker and contained the puck while being checked numerous times by opposing players. It happens routinely in Canucks games.

His contributions are a big reason why that third line has been so potent this season. According to MoneyPuck, the trio of Dakota Joshua, Teddy Blueger, and Garland rank 11th among all offensive lines (minimum 100 minutes time-on-ice – TOI) in the entire league in xG% with 61.5%. They’ve willed the Canucks to occasional victories throughout the season. Quite often they’ve even been Vancouver’s top line in a multitude of games. Both Joshua and Blueger have been great this season, but Garland has made that third-line top-tier.

Keeping Garland on the Third Line

So with all these numbers… shouldn’t he be moved up to a top-six role? No. As stated before, the current third line is cooking with gas. Everyone has heard the saying “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” and that sentiment holds true in Garland’s case.

Although Garland himself may deserve a promotion, the way he, Blueger, and Joshua have coexisted has arguably been the biggest victory for the Canucks this season. It has been a long time since Vancouver has had an excellent third line and frankly, there’s no good in changing it up. There’s a point to be made that continuing to play the Massachusetts-born in a bottom-six role won’t help his scoring, and that’s a fair point. However, what he’s done in his current role might be the most underrated aspect of this already great Canucks season.

Garland’s 2023-24 season so far is a story of stick-to-itiveness. From a complicated situation revolving around a move out of Vancouver to being touted as “overpaid”, to now being one of the Canucks best forwards on a (should be) playoff team, he has shown for the first time in a Canucks uniform that he is worth every penny.