Monday Mailbag: Leadership and Lines

I rarely if ever drink beer, believe it or not. It just doesn’t agree with me. Cider and wine too. Maybe I’m allergic to sulphites?

In other words, my go-to summer beer is bourbon and soda. Coincidentally, my go-to winter beer is also bourbon and soda.

Gaunce and Leipsic earned praise from Travis Green after the bag skate on day one. Tyler Motte also fits the bill, I think he’s pretty much been an afterthought since the end of last season, but he had a nice goal in the first scrimmage and landed a big hit on Jake Virtanen. Petrus Palmu was probably the biggest standout on day 3, but he’s more of a longshot than a bubble player.

I honestly have no idea, but I’ll give it a shot anyway:

Eriksson-Horvat-Boeser

Baertschi-Pettersson-Goldobin

Granlund-Sutter-Virtanen

Gagner-Beagle-Leipsic

That’s assuming Roussel and Schaller won’t be ready to go on opening night.

Jay Beagle?

In past years, they’ve generally carried 8 defensemen and 13 forwards, which makes sense given how many defensemen the team usually goes through in a season. This year I could see things being different, at least at first. They’ve got a lot of forwards on the bubble and may want to keep room open for them on the active roster, although with Roussel out I’d say that’s beginning to look less likely.

I’d really like to think so, but they just don’t have room for him right now. He’s still pretty young, obviously quite small, and has no experience playing the North American pro game. (He does have experience playing in North America and playing pro in Finland, though. That gives him a leg up on some of the Canucks other youngsters.) I think an optimistic projection would be for him to go to Utica, play his way into the top six, and maybe earn a call-up at the end of the season. Even that is pushing it. I’d say it’s more realistic that if he has a really good year in the AHL he may get a shot next year.

The thing I’m most excited about is getting to see Elias Pettersson play in a Canucks uniform and see how he handles the challenges of being an NHL rookie. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say he’s the best prospect the team has ever had, so it will be fascinating to see how his game translates.

A close second would be seeing if Brock Boeser can match his impressive totals from last season. He was the beneficiary of some ungodly percentages last year, and teams will be keying in on him now that he’s established himself as arguably the team’s best player. If the pictures that surfaced the other day are any indication, he looks up to the challenge.

A distant third will be seeing other young players finally get an opportunity to play in offensive roles now that Henrik and Daniel Sedin have retired. This organization has been notably behind the rest of the NHL as far as incorporating young players into the lineup, but they’ll be forced to move in that direction this year and that should provide some intrigue.

I’m inclined to believe that if the team had wanted to trade Brandon Sutter he’d no longer be a Canuck. If they’re lucky enough to land Jack Hughes at next year’s draft, or Adam Gaudette continues to aggressively knock on the NHL’s door, that may force their hand; but the truth is they could have traded him at the deadline and they didn’t. So I don’t expect him to be moved any time soon.

As far as the Edler-Gudbranson pair goes, I’m not sold. They rocked a sub-45% Corsi while on the ice together, and Edler’s getting a little long in the tooth to carry a pair at this stage. I’d much rather see him play with Troy Stecher or try to regain his chemistry with Chris Tanev.

I know this is a bit, but the role of “leadership” in an NHL organization is something I’d love to see someone explore in depth. Max Pacioretty earned a lot of eye-rolls with his “23 captains” comment, but I think there’s some truth to that idea. On a fundamental level, any team working together towards a common goal needs every member to be on board and invested in the success and well being of the entire organism. For that reason, I’m not sure how necessary or wise it is to appoint certain players as leaders. They’ll step up over time but it should be allowed to happen naturally. That’s why I’m not chomping at the bit for the team to name a captain in the near future.

I sort of touched on this when I did the projected lines, but I’m going to say that Roussel’s absence means the team won’t immediately have to make a decision on which of Nikolay Goldobin or Brendan Leipsic draws out of the lineup, assuming it’s down to those two.