The other Western Conference second round playoff matchup in the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Playoffs begins on Wednesday with the Vancouver Canucks playing the Edmonton Oilers in an all-Canadian Pacific Division battle. One of the interesting storylines is the fact that the Canucks have such a low number of Canadians on the roster. While the Canucks are comprised of primarily Americans and Swedes, they remarkably had as many Latvians who played in their first round playoff series against the Nashville Predators in game six as Canadian born players. So even though Vancouver’s NHL franchise is called the Canucks, the fact that 10 players are American-born, they would be better off being called the Vancouver Yankees than the Vancouver Canucks.
Who were the two Canadians for Vancouver in Game Six?
The two Canadian-born for the Canucks in game six were left winger Phillip Di Giuseppe of Toronto, Ontario and defenseman Carson Soucy of Viking, Alberta. It should be noted that defenseman Tyler Myers is born in Texas, but is Calgary-raised and plays internationally for Canada. Defenseman Noah Juulsen of Surrey, British Columbia saw action in only game two against the Predators (a 4-1 Vancouver loss to Nashville), while defenseman Mark Friedman of Toronto has not played a postseason minute.
Phillip Di Giuseppe
This season Di Giueseppe had five goals and five assists for 10 points in 51 regular season games. He is a -1 with 36 penalty minutes, one game-winning goal, 52 shots on goal, five faceoff wins, 23 blocked shots, 93 hits, six takeaways and three giveaways. Di Giuseppe’s game-winning goal came in a 3-1 Canucks win over the Vegas Golden Knights on March 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada. Di Giuseppe scored from Juulsen and Nils Hoglander of Bocktrask, Sweden at 6:56 of the first period that put the Canucks up 2-0 at the time.
In the postseason, Di Giuseppe has one assist for one point in six games. He is a +1 with two penalty minutes, three blocked shots, 21 hits and one takeaway. Di Giuseppe’s shot on goal came in game six, a 1-0 Canucks win over the Predators on May 3.
Carson Soucy
This season Soucy had two goals and four assists for six points in 40 games and is a +10. He has 12 penalty minutes, two power-play points, 29 shots on goal, 64 blocked shots, 65 hits, eight takeaways, and 14 giveaways.
The two power-play points came in Canucks wins. The first was on October 21, 2023 in a 5-3 Canucks win over the Florida Panthers. Soucy scored a power-play goal from Conor Garland of Scituate, Massachusetts at 10:41 of the second period which put the Canucks up 2-1. The second was on November 2, 2023 in a 10-1 Canucks win over the San Jose Sharks. Soucy helped set up Anthony Beauvillier of Sorel-Tracy, which put the Canucks up 9-0.
In the postseason, Soucy has one assist for one point in six games. He has two penalty minutes, five blocked shots, 20 hits, four takeaways and five giveaways. Soucy’s lone assist helped set up Brock Boeser of Burnsville, Minnesota in a 4-3 Canucks win over the Nashville Predators on April 28 in game four of the series.
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