Delivering the Sauce: What Should the Forward Lines Look like when Booth and Kesler Return?

What are the Canucks going to do with their forward lines when Ryan Kesler and David Booth are both ready to return from the injured reserve? The Canucks haven’t been lighting the league on fire offensively, but not many expected them to without two of their best possession players.

Assuming Kesler and Booth are both back within the next week to 10 days (and that seems like a safe assumption based on what we’ve heard), how will Alain Vigneault put his lines together?

Well, he will have some options. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Jordan Schroeder has acquitted himself quite well over the past two weeks. His defensive and neutral zone play has been particularly impressive, and it has allowed him to see more ice time than a rookie center typically would with the Canucks (even with the Kesler injury). Centers have a lot of responsibility in Alain Vigneault’s system, and Schroeder has shown that he isn’t a liability without the puck. The offense will come as his comfort level increases – he has shown flashes of creativity on the power play and at even strength, especially with Mason Raymond.

Kassian has been really solid on the top line, but when push comes to shove I expect Burrows to be back there in big games and down the stretch. The Canucks won’t want to put too much pressure on Kassian, unless he proves he is ready for it by continuing to produce and bring the same level of intensity and effort to each game. Kassian is currently averaging 21 shifts per game, up from the 15 shifts per game he averaged in Vancouver after the trade in 2011-12. His training last summer has given him the conditioning necessary to play more, but will be be able to sustain in the long term?

In this Schroeder profile for the Canucks website, I mentioned the idea of moving Kesler to the right wing, similar to what happened when the Canucks signed Mats Sundin during the 2008-09 season.

It would allow Schroeder to stay on the roster, while still having a more typical shutdown line centered by Lapierre to give the tough minutes to. And it would give Booth and Kesler a speedy playmaker to play with. Kesler still had a lot of the responsibilities of a center when he played with Sundin and Demitra (more so because Sundin wasn’t the fleetest of foot), and he would likely reprise that role with a rookie as his center.

I really like the above lines, but I’m not sure if Vigneault would be willing to give them a try at this point.

However, the fact remains that Vigneault would probably prefer to not go with a 5-9 rookie as his third line center. Cody Hodgson centered the third line last year, but Kesler played the role of shutdown center (and his offensive production suffered accordingly). During Kesler’s 40 goal season in 2010-11, the tough minutes were swallowed up by Malhotra, allowing Kesler to show off his wrist shot and offensive prowess a bit more.

These lines look a bit more like a “typical” hockey roster, with two scoring lines, a checking line, and a grinding/energy line. Raymond has been sneaky good to start the season, and he looks much stronger on the puck than he did at any point last year (which shouldn’t have been a surprise considering how serious his back injury from 2011 was). Raymond could play the role of distributor to his two American linemates, and it would allow Lapierre and his two buzz saws on the wing to eat up all of the tough matchups and defensive assignments.

This idea was floated by Thom Drance when we were talking the other night. Vigneault has gone with it in the past, and a lot of other coaches around the NHL like to use it from time to time as well. Instead of having line combinations, Vigneault would establish “pairs” or combinations of two players, and then a third player would rotate on and off of the line, depending on game situation, opposition players, and so on.

There are two potential sets of pairs I see with the current roster:

With Kassian, Burrows, Higgins, and Hansen rotating throughout the lineup. Burrows and Higgins in particular are very versatile players, which helps with this kind of roster structure.

Or without Schroeder:

With Burrows, Raymond, Higgins, and Kassian rotating throughout the lineup.

Vigneault is going to have to make some tough decisions in the next little while. Does Schroeder stick around, even when Kesler returns to the lineup? Does Vigneault trust Schroeder enough to give him a reasonably tough two-way role? Does he give Kesler the shutdown minutes again? Does he think about moving Kesler to the right side, where he flourished with Mats Sundin and Pavol Demitra back in 2008-09? What line combinations would you go with to give the Canucks the best chance to win?