from Kevin Woodley at NHL.com,

The Vancouver Canucks spent the offseason adding talented veterans to their young core in order to help them return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs sooner rather than later.

Vancouver, which improved by eight points from 2017-18 but missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, acquired forward J.T. Miller in a trade from the Tampa Bay Lightning on June 22 and added defensemen Tyler Myers and Jordie Benn as free agents on July 1 before signing forward Micheal Ferland on July 10.

They join a young group that includes forwards Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson, who was voted the winner of the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year for 2018-19, and defenseman Quinn Hughes, who was the No. 7 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft and had three assists in five games at the end of last season.

"Our goal is to make the playoffs so our young players can experience what playoff hockey is," general manager Jim Benning said after signing a three-year contract extension Aug. 20. "That's an important part of their development. So by signing some of these players we did this summer, it's with the goal in mind we want to keep getting better and be a competitive team that can compete for a playoff spot."

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