Vancouver Canucks: 2 Players Who Will Bounce Back Next Season

With the off-season starting to slow down a bit, we now have a better idea of every team's roster going into next season. Of course there will be other moves, but the craziness from the Expansion Draft and first day of free agency is officially done.

In this segment, we will be taking a look at two players from each NHL team who are set to bounce back next season. Sometimes players will have down seasons, but end up completely turning it around in the following one. This will inevitably happen for this upcoming year, too.

The Vancouver Canucks will be the team of discussion in this one. Last season was a rough one for them, as they were hit extremely hard by COVID-19 and missed almost an entire month of action. As a whole, the team should perform much better this upcoming season. They have made some smart decisions this off-season and look stronger on paper. These two players seem like big bounce back candidates, too. One of them is a new player who fans should be excited about.

Tanner Pearson LW: In 69 games during the 2019-20 season, Tanner Pearson scored 21 goals and recorded 45 points. That was very solid production from the 28-year-old and was reminiscent of his days with the Los Angeles Kings. However, he was far less of a threat this season, as he only had 10 goals and 18 points in 51 games. When seeing as how it was a rough year for everyone in Vancouver, it is fair to assume that he can find his scoring touch again this upcoming season. When on his game, he is a very solid middle-six winger.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson D: Oliver Ekman-Larsson should be able to benefit from a change of scenery. He was the subject of trade rumors for over a year with the Arizona Coyotes, so it is nice that this chapter is over. With the Canucks, he will have less pressure to be "the guy" on the backend, as the Canucks have Quinn Hughes manning the left side of the first-pair. This will allow OEL to play top-four minutes, which is probably better-suited for him. It would not be surprising to see him improve in every aspect of the game this upcoming season. In 46 games this year, he scored three goals and had 24 points. He also was a -17, which should change moving forward.