The 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs are starting without the Vancouver Canucks.
A lot went wrong this season to get to this point and it’s bitterly disappointing for Canucks fans, especially after all of the positivity from last season’s playoff run that came one game short of the Western Conference Final.
It’s a shame, as the Stanley Cup Playoffs are one of the best experiences in sports and are even better when you have a rooting interest.
why watch overtime playoff hockey when you can simply snort cocaine and ride a motorcycle out of a helicopter
— Jon Bois (@jon_bois) April 17, 2014
So, Canucks fans need another team to root for, something they’ve needed far too much over the past decade.
Who should Canucks fans cheer for this year? Let Pass it to Bulis help you out, not with an argument for a specific team, but with a guide on how to make your own decision. Here are your options:
1 | Your second team
I get it. Some Canucks fans have split allegiances.
Perhaps you grew up in another city before moving to the Vancouver area. Maybe your parents are fans of another team and indoctrinated you into their fandom before you embraced the Canucks. It could be that the Canucks missing the playoffs in eight of the last ten seasons have forced you to pick a second team already.
If you already have another team you cheer for, then you’re all set. At least, as long as that second team made the playoffs.
2 | Anyone but them
If you don’t have sports love for another team, you might still have sports hate. For various reasons, some Canucks fans resent the Edmonton Oilers, despise the Minnesota Wild, and can’t stand the St. Louis Blues. Fandom is a very personal thing and so is anti-fandom; your reasons for hating another NHL team are your own.
If that’s the case, your choice is easy: you’re cheering for whoever their opponent happens to be.
If all goes well, that opponent will eliminate your hated team in the first round, forcing you to make another choice. Or maybe you can just latch onto that opponent out of gratitude and cheer for them the rest of the way.
3 | The former Canucks
Canucks fans don’t just cheer for the team; they grow a connection to the individual players. When those players head elsewhere, it’s only natural to keep rooting for their success.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have much-loved former Canucks defenceman Chris Tanev, as well as the slightly-less-loved Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
The New Jersey Devils have Jacob Markstrom in net. They also have Daniel Sprong, who the Canucks traded for nothing after just nine games this season.
The Winnipeg Jets have Luke Schenn, acquired at the trade deadline from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Vegas Golden Knights have Tanner Pearson and Ben Hutton, even if the latter only played 11 games this season and got his only two points against the Canucks in game 82.
The Florida Panthers, longtime trading partners of the Canucks, surprisingly have just Jonah Gadjovich and Nate Schmidt. Gadjovich played just one game for the Canucks, but that’s one more than Gustav Forsling.
The Washington Capitals have Nic Dowd and Anthony Beauvillier — a bit underwhelming, but they count.
The Dallas Stars have Casey DeSmith, who might not appear in a single game as the backup behind Jake Oettinger.
The Colorado Avalanche have Jimmy Vesey, who played 20 games for the Canucks in the 2020-21 season. Feels like we’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
But what about the Ottawa Senators? The Senators have a motley crew of former Canucks in Adam Gaudette, Matthew Highmore, and Travis Hamonic, as well as Zack MacEwen in the minors, with those players finding a home in Ottawa thanks to former Canucks head coach Travis Green. He also has Nolan Baumgartner and Mike Yeo as assistant coaches.
In terms of sheer quantity of former Canucks, the Senators win.
4 | Any Canadian team
The Stanley Cup hasn’t been won by a Canadian team in over 30 years. The last team to do it was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.
Accordingly, Canadian Canucks fans might want to see the Cup return to Canada, especially given the renewed patriotic feelings in the wake of a certain other country’s repeated threats to Canada’s sovereignty.
The only trouble with this option is that a lot of Canadian teams also happen to be hated rivals, teams that would be an “anyone but them” option. Are Canucks fans really going to cheer for the Edmonton Oilers or Toronto Maple Leafs to win the Cup?
There are a lot of Montreal Canadiens fans in B.C. but how many of them are also fans of the Canucks? Canadiens games in Vancouver tend to be pretty combative.
Perhaps the Winnipeg Jets or Ottawa Senators would be more acceptable; neither team has really given Canucks fans a reason to hate them. The Jets also just won the Presidents’ Trophy and are a pretty fun team to watch, so they’re not a bad option.
Speaking of…
5 | The Cup favourites
It’s fun to cheer for a winner, especially when you’ve had to spend so many season cheering for a losing team. So, why not pick the favourite?
The only trouble is that it’s awfully difficult to figure out who the favourite is this year.
Oddsmakers like the Florida Panthers to repeat or Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche, with both having the best odds to win the Cup this year. But both teams were third in their respective divisions. The Avalanche had the eighth-best record in the NHL; the Panthers were 11th.
The Jets, as Presidents’ Trophy winners, ought to be the favourites, but they haven’t made it past the first round of the playoffs in the last six seasons. The one time they did, they got swept. That leaves a lot of question marks.
So, who really are the favourites? An argument could be made for the Carolina Hurricanes, Edmonton Oilers, Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vegas Golden Knights, Toronto Maple Leafs, Dallas Stars, and Los Angeles Kings as favourites. But, to paraphrase Syndrome, if everyone's a favourite, no one is.
6 | The underdogs
Everyone loves a Cinderella story, so instead of picking a favourite, why not hitch your wagon to the underdog?
There are a couple of good options for underdogs this year.
There are the Senators, who made the playoffs for the first time in eight years. They’ll be playing the team at the centre of the universe, the Toronto Maple Leafs, in the first round, making them a strong pick on the grounds of “anyone but them” as well. If the Leafs collapse in the playoffs like they have so many times before, the Senators could be a fun underdog pick.
The New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens finished with just one point more than the Canucks, so they’re naturally underdogs.
The Devils have the tough task of taking down the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round but maybe Markstrom can come up with some heroics. The Canadiens, meanwhile, will be looking to counterspell the magic of Alex Ovechkin’s record-setting season, though the Capitals’ league-high 5-on-5 shooting percentage could regress.
7 | Hughes happiness
At this point, maybe the only thing a Canucks fan really wants to see is Quinn Hughes smile. After a long, difficult season that had Hughes looking filled with even more existential dread than normal at the season-ending press conference, Hughes could use some happiness.
There are a couple of teams in the playoffs whose success could make Hughes happy again.
Brady Tkachuk is Hughes’ best friend, so you have to imagine he’s rooting for the Tkachuk-captained Senators. They have a lot going for them from a Canucks perspective: they’re serious underdogs, they have the most former Canucks on the roster and behind the bench, and they’re a Canadian team.
But Hughes is even closer with his brothers, Jack and Luke, so he’ll likely be pulling for the Devils even more than the Senators. With Jack Hughes out for the season after shoulder surgery, Luke Hughes will be the only Hughes brother actually playing in the playoffs, but maybe he can go on a playoff run for both of them.
The Devils are also underdogs and have a big-name former Canuck in Jacob Markstrom. They’re not a bad choice for Canucks fans.
8 | The Abbotsford Canucks
Of course, you can still cheer for the Canucks in the playoffs, just not the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Abbotsford Canucks are heading into the Calder Cup Playoffs, with the AHL regular season wrapping up on Saturday as the NHL playoffs begin.
And if you’re looking for a team with a lot of former Canucks on the roster, you can’t go wrong with Abbotsford, who have Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Linus Karlsson, Aatu Räty, Max Sasson, Arshdeep Bains, Ty Mueller, Phillip Di Giuseppe, Akito Hirose, Cole McWard, Guillaume Brisebois, Kirill Kudryavtsev, Christian Wolanin, Victor Mancini, Nikita Tolopilo, and Arturs Silovs.
The best part is that they’re not just former Canucks; they’re also current and future Canucks.
