The Vancouver Canucks haven\u2019t had a player lead the team in scoring in back-to-back years in a decade.<\/p>\n
The last player to lead the Canucks in scoring in back-to-back years was Daniel Sedin in 2014-15 and 2015-16.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s actually somewhat unique in the NHL. As pointed out by hockey analytics content creator JFresh on Twitter, the Canucks have the longest active streak without back-to-back scoring leaders.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an interesting list of players. For ten seasons, from 2006-07 to 2015-16, the Canucks were led in scoring by one of Daniel or Henrik Sedin: five times by Daniel and five times by Henrik. They took over from Markus N\u00e4slund, who led the Canucks in scoring in seven straight seasons.<\/p>\n
The three subsequent scoring leaders were the young forwards expected to take the torch from the Sedins: Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser, and Elias Pettersson. Then J.T. Miller arrived and led the team in scoring every other season, with Pettersson and Boeser interspersed until the Canucks\u2019 best player, Quinn Hughes, led the team in scoring this past season.<\/p>\n
Now, the question is whether Hughes can break that streak?<\/p>\n
The Canucks had better hope he doesn’t.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying that Hughes is incapable of leading the Canucks in scoring in the 2025-26 season. It\u2019s just that recent history tells us that wouldn\u2019t be a good thing.<\/p>\n
Last season, Hughes was one of two defencemen to lead his team in scoring, along with his fellow Norris Trophy nominee Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets. While both defencemen had phenomenal seasons, neither was able to lead their team to the playoffs.<\/p>\n
You have to go back a couple of seasons to find other defencemen who led their team in scoring. In 2022-23, Erik Karlsson led the San Jose Sharks in scoring, while Roman Josi led the Nashville Predators. Both teams missed the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The last time a team led in scoring by a defenceman made the playoffs was Josi with the Predators in the previous year, 2021-22, when he had 96 points in 80 games. That was enough to beat out the Vegas Golden Knights for the final Wild Card spot in the West.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Predators were subsequently swept in the first round.<\/p>\n
All that is to say, it\u2019s not normally a good thing when a defenceman leads your team in scoring. Generally speaking, that means something else has gone wrong in the construction of your team. Most likely, your team isn\u2019t going to make the playoffs and, if you do, you\u2019re not going to last long.<\/p>\n