r/canucks • u/Artemchubarov Official Thomas Drance • Sep 10 '19

ASK ME ANYTHING I'm Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver: Imitator of obscure Russian-born ex-Canucks grinders on Twitter, one-time CanucksArmy overlord, author and former NHL PR guy - AMA

Hey /r/Canucks! Thanks for hosting me over your lunch hour.

Happy to be here with all of you and I'm looking forward to talking some hockey and excited to answer any questions you can dream up. Shoot your shot!

And if you want to use my discount code to subscribe to The Athletic and support what we're getting up to this upcoming season, you can do so here: http://www.theathletic.com/welcomethomas

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u/AliAllyAllie Sep 10 '19

How long until we're legit cup contenders?

9

u/Artemchubarov Official Thomas Drance Sep 10 '19

Honestly while the team needs to upgrade their depth to get there, the timeline on this will be determined more by the young guys than the depth pieces.

Pettersson, Brock and Hughes remain "pre-peak" players, who aren't finished products yet. If they reach their ceiling together, then the team may become a legit cup contender with the right supporting pieces.

I think if they're going to get there - just the young guys reaching the peak of their powers - that window should begin to open next season. In terms of the work needed to upgrade the supporting pieces, I suspect that's more of a 2021-22 season thing.