How did the 13 recently-departed Canucks perform in 2024/25?

The 2024/25 Vancouver Canucks entered the season with a lot of promise, and they didn’t deliver on much of that promise. Except, perhaps, the promise of continued roster turnover.

Between the end of last season and the Trade Deadline of 2025, the Canucks said farewell to a full 13 players who had previously seen NHL ice-time for the franchise, and that’s a lot of individuals to keep track of.

So, with the regular season concluded, we thought it was the perfect time for a departed Canuck roundup. In fact, with the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs already over, only two of the players on this list are still playing – Casey DeSmith in Dallas and Vasily Podkolzin in Edmonton.

The rest have put their 2024/25 campaigns in the books. Now let’s take a look at how those campaigns went, post-Vancouver.

Ilya Mikheyev, Chicago Blackhawks

Mikheyev was traded to Chicago at a retained rate just ahead of the opening of free agency. And while one might not call this a full bounceback effort, one can’t deny that Mikheyev made the most of his expanded ice time on the Blackhawks. His 20 goals were the most he’d scored in any season save for 2021/22, when he got 21, and his 34 points were a career-high, though he has scored at much higher point-per-game rates before.

With this season, Mikheyev may have bought himself one last NHL contract…if he wants it.

Sam Lafferty, Buffalo Sabres

Lafferty was traded alongside Mikheyev to Chicago, but was a pending UFA, and chose to sign with the Buffalo Sabres instead. He remained on the fourth line for much of the year, but he cannot be said to have made much of a major difference – not that many players in Buffalo did.

What Lafferty didn’t have in Buffalo was that initial run of scoring success he experienced in Vancouver, and so his point total was cut down by more than two-thirds between last year and this one. Fortunately for him, he remains under contract with a $2 million cap hit for another season. 

Nikita Zadorov, Boston Bruins

Zadorov was one of two prominent Vancouver UFAs to sign with the Bruins, and he’s definitely the one that experienced the greatest success. With Charlie McAvoy missing a good chunk of the season and Hampus Lindholm inconsistent, Zadorov was probably Boston’s most important defender in 2024/25. He majorly upped his ice-time while maintaining the same production rate and his trademark truculence.

Plus/minus isn’t everything, but it says a lot that Zadorov took on so much responsibility for a bad team and still wound up +25. His contract might have been a little controversial upon its signing, but few in Boston are complaining about the value in year one.

Elias Lindholm, Boston Bruins

Lindholm, on the other hand, did not thrive in his first year in Boston. Instead of building on his playoff success with the Canucks, Lindholm went back to the same, barely 0.5 PPG rate he displayed in the regular season.

While many share blame for Boston falling hard out of playoff contention this year, Lindholm’s inability to step into the 1C role was a major factor. They’ll have to hope that he rebounds in the remaining six years of his $7.75 million AAV contract.

Ian Cole, Utah Hockey Club

Cole’s success is never going to show up on a scoresheet. But he reportedly delivered the same steady, calming defensive play to the Utah blueline as he did in Vancouver. In fact, Cole significantly increased his underlying numbers, like seeing his Corsi go from 48.70% in Vancouver to 52.50% in Utah, despite last year’s Canucks being a better team than this year’s Utah HC.

The biggest compliment given to Cole’s game was a new contract for 2025/26, with only a slight pay decrease to $2.8 million. This will mark the first year in five that Cole won’t be switching addresses over the offseason.

Casey DeSmith, Dallas Stars

The first of two Canucks still active in the playoffs has had a better-than-solid season as Jake Oettinger’s backup in Dallas. A winning record and a relatively high save percentage are all that a contender wants from their veteran backup, and DeSmith has been able to do that while otherwise staying out of workhorse Oettinger’s way.

DeSmith’s backup duties are definitely going better for him here than they did in Vancouver, that much is sure.

Vasily Podkolzin, Edmonton Oilers

Podkolzin’s season is a tough one to figure out. That he had any success in Edmonton after being dealt for just a fourth-round pick still rankles many in the fandom. But despite a few short stints of production, Podkolzin still wound up with numbers a little lower than what he posted as a rookie in Vancouver back in 2021/22.

That said, Podkolzin still found himself a consistent spot on a playoff-bound roster, and maintained that spot even as Edmonton got healthier and added at the deadline. Now, he’s up to four assists through his first six postseason games, and that’s hard to ignore.

Edmonton is certainly happy with his value for what they paid for it.

Daniel Sprong, Seattle Kraken and New Jersey Devils

Sprong was sent back to Seattle in November for future considerations and then flipped to New Jersey at the Trade Deadline for a seventh-round pick. In between, he played more in the AHL than he did in the NHL.

Then again, against all odds, Sprong got into one postseason game for the Devils, which is something. Chances seem pretty good at this point that 2024/25 will be his last in the NHL, and that he’ll return to Europe this summer.

JT Miller, New York Rangers

On to the big one. Miller had fallen a fair bit below PPG status in Vancouver this season, with 35 points in 40 games, then he matched that total in just 32 games in NYR, which is a considerable production turnaround.

At the same time, Miller reportedly struggled at times on the defensive side of the puck, as did several of his Rangers teammates, during their slide out of playoff contention. This wasn’t the New York homecoming Miller was hoping for, but it was also more successful than what he left behind in Vancouver. At the very least, Miller demonstrated that he’s not finished putting up big numbers.

Erik Brännström, New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres

We don’t include Brännström here to dunk on him, but just to note that despite being subsequently flipped from New York to Buffalo at the Trade Deadline, Brännström did not play another NHL game after leaving Vancouver.

Like Sprong, Brännström may also find himself on the way back to Europe this summer.

Vincent Desharnais, Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose Sharks

Desharnais felt like a cap dump when he was included in the trade that brought Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor to Vancouver, but then Pittsburgh managed to flip him at full value for a fifth-round pick from San Jose. Furthermore, the Sharks reportedly liked what they saw from Desharnais, who played some 14 minutes a night for them and brought a little extra toughness to their lineup.

He clearly wasn’t a fit in Vancouver, but perhaps Desharnais can continue to be a bottom-pairing role player for a few years yet elsewhere.

Danton Heinen, Pittsburgh Penguins

Heinen continued to keep on doing his thing in Pittsburgh, much the same as he always has. He scored at roughly the same rate with the Penguins as he did with the Canucks, which isn’t too terribly far off the career-high rate he scored in Boston the year prior.

Heinen remains under contract for another year of relatively steady hockey.

Mark Friedman, Nashville Predators

Some were hoping that Friedman would get a chance to play more NHL minutes after being dealt to Nashville, but it didn’t happen. Instead, Friedman began to play a leading role on their AHL blueline, something that might not have happened on a more stacked Abbotsford roster.