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“I believe Sven is ready to take that next step,” said Benning. “He’s 195 pounds now. He feels he’s fast and has the speed and strength to play in the top six. But if something make sense, I’m going to look into it.”

The Canucks have floppable wingers — Alex Burrows, Derek Dorsett and Eriksson can all play left wing — but Jannik Hansen was the only other forward to top 20 goals last season with a career-high 22 after finding chemistry with the Sedins. Eriksson should hit the 30-goal plateau this season and a healthy Brandon Sutter should push for 20 goals. The same projection is fair for Baertschi and Bo Horvat.

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All that doesn’t scream playoffs, but this market should be able to stomach a more competitive team and more production and influence from its younger players. The Canucks need a fit and motivated Jake Virtanen to add a physical element in the tough Pacific Division. They need a power-play quarterback. They need to be harder to play against. They need a lot.

“Our forward group is going to have to score by committee,” added Benning. “We’ve made our team better and we have better depth. If we can stay healthy, we can compete. Last year, I’ve never saw a team get decimated by injuries like us. And because we’re in a transition period and at the intersection of older and younger players, developing them properly is going to take patience.”

An optimist can point to the Canucks being three points shy of a wild-card playoff berth Feb. 9 and finally being healthy before Alex Edler (left leg fracture) and Sutter (jaw fracture) were lost for the season that night in Denver. Having nine regulars injured at one point and playing as many as seven rookies didn’t help. A pessimist can point to a season that was already off the rails with a 29th-rated offence and 27th-ranked power play.