It has been a rough year for Vancouver Canucks forward Nils Höglander.

But last season was a career year for the Swedish forward. He scored 17 5-on-5 goals in a bottom-six role. And with Elias Pettersson playing with a non-inspiring Ilya Mikheyev and Sam Lafferty on his wings, Höglander earned himself a taste of top-six action.

In his new role, Höglander added seven goals and five assists to bring his season totals to 24 goals and 12 assists for 36 points in 80 games. However, once the playoffs came around, Höglander struggled. He wasn’t producing; he went the entire opening round against the Nashville Predators pointless, finishing with just two shots on goal with a minus-2 rating.

The struggles left Rick Tocchet no choice but to sit him for two games against the Edmonton Oilers, despite picking up an assist in Game 1. Höglander would score in Game 6, but in total, it was a disappointing post-season run, finishing with just one goal and one assist with eight shots in 11 games.

However, his efforts during the 2023-2024 campaign earned him a three-year, $9 million extension that pays him $3 million annually starting next season.

Höglander started this season on the third line with training camp standout Aatu Räty and Conor Garland. Höglander got off to a hot start with points in his first two games, but then the struggles came back, and he would find himself back in a fourth line role.

Even further than just the line demotion, his minutes declined. Höglander saw four straight games with less than 9:15 minutes of ice time, bottoming out at 6:28 minutes in a win over the Buffalo Sabres. He would then find himself with a seat in the press box. The downfall went so far that there was serious belief that he would be traded earlier this season.

It’s been an uphill battle for Höglander as he tries to get back into Tocchet’s good graces. The points haven’t been there, and the little things to earn him ice time weren’t either. Höglander had a 22-game pointless streak and 30 games without a goal. He now sits at just five goals and 11 assists for 16 points through 61 games this season.

But things started to turn around for Höglander once the calendar flipped to 2025. During the month of January, Höglander scored two goals and six points through 13 games.

In an interview with Canucks.com’s Chris Faber later in the month, Höglander addressed some of his season struggles but highlighted what he’s doing differently to turn his season around:

“These last couple weeks feel like I’m getting more opportunities,” said Höglander. “I feel I’m playing better, being stronger on the puck, and winning more pucks. I’m trying to be more physical out there and I seem to have the puck more. I feel like I want the puck more, maybe before I was skating around out there, and [was] hopeful the puck would come to me. Now, I really want to have the puck, that’s what I think changed from the past.”

Tocchet spoke about how Höglander needed to find his identity and a role on this team. He mentioned that the 5’9″ winger is best when he’s forechecking and hard on pucks, but mentioned that he wants him to start holding the puck more and drive it to the net.

The long disconnect in his game and Tocchet’s system was in the defensive zone. Höglander has always been an aggressive forechecker and a threat along the boards in the offensive zone, but cleaning up his play in his own end is something that he needed to work on before fully gaining the trust from his coach:

“I’m trying to gain their trust more and be better at the details. [Tocchet] knows what I can do in the o-zone and the parts there, but just the small details are what he wants from me.”

But it seems like he’s starting to figure everything out, and that’s resulting in his minutes increasing. Over the past eight games, Höglander has seen over 14 minutes of ice time in four of them, topping out at over 16 in two of those games.

Let’s go over the Canucks’ previous two games and highlight exactly what we’re seeing out of Höglander and how he’s earning himself a top six role in our series called, The Tape.

Before we get into the clips, we will preface this by saying that we know Höglander is a great forechecker. That’s where he excels. We’re going to show you the little things he wasn’t doing before that are the stepping stones to becoming a top six forward.

Höglander started the game in a fourth line role but would earn an elevation later in the game.

Going back to what Tocchet said above about how he wants to see Höglander hold onto the puck more. He does just that in the first clip.

Höglander receives the Tyler Myers break-out pass along the boards and turns up ice. He has an easy outlet to Pius Suter before entering the zone, but he decides to hold onto the puck and carry it into the zone. Once the Montreal Canadiens defender gaps up on him and takes away his space, Höglander gets the puck out of danger by throwing a weak shot on net.

While it wasn’t a threatening shot, the idea of this was to cause chaos in front of the net and hope somebody could find the loose puck and make a play. That’s exactly what happens. Normally, watching Höglander, it would be more of his game to try and challenge the defender down the boards with his speed, but you risk getting hit and separated by the puck.

It seems minimal, but damn it, it almost worked!

Despite his smaller frame, Höglander isn’t afraid to rough it up along the boards in a board battle. He gets physical with two Canadiens defenders, enough for the puck to squeak out, and Kiefer Sherwood grabs it. Höglander follows the play and ends up with the puck along the boards but has next to no space with three Canadiens around him.

With all that pressure, some would try and get the puck off his stick right away and try and force a pass to the point. But Höglander takes the patient approach, protects the puck and buys himself time to make the Canadiens player hesitate. He can now easily send the pass to Victor Mancini at the point.

The play ends with a shot toward the net with a screen in front, all because of the time Höglander bought himself down low.

We get to see Höglander display that patience with a little bit of creativity mixed in with it.

He grabs the loose puck, waits long enough to draw the forechecker and makes a pass to himself along the boards behind his back to gain some open space to make an outlet pass to Marcus Pettersson. Höglander then picks up speed and heads up the ice to receive the pass back.

Höglander takes the puck into the offensive zone and fakes a slapshot. With very little space, he sends a pass to Suter, who is now in a much more advantageous position to shoot.

After the missed shot by Suter, Höglander sticks around the play, ready to intercept a pass if the Canadiens try and re-group. He ends up getting rewarded by grabbing the errant pass and makes a quick turn to find Suter.

Once Suter loses the puck, Höglander extends his stick to grab the puck and uses his body to box out the Canadiens defender. While the defender is able to wack the puck off his stick, now Pettersson is in position to maintain the zone. The puck goes D-to-D and Filip Hronek, Höglander goes to the net front and the point shot beats Sam Montembeault to get the Canucks on the board.

This goal wouldn’t have happened without Höglander’s strong play in the neutral zone and boxing out the Canadien defender.

With Drew O’Connor battling an illness and missing a few shifts, Höglander earned a few shifts on the top line with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser due to his efforts.

Those efforts earned him a full-time role in the top six for the must-win game the next night against the Calgary Flames.

Höglander started this game on the top line with Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk.

Höglander enters the defensive zone, keeping pace with Mikael Backlund and sticks to the insider to intercept a cross-ice pass. And once Blake Coleman circles back, Höglander follows to cover his defender and is in prime position to intercept the pass.

He carries the puck out of the zone and passes it off rather than trying to beat the Flames defender. Sticking with the play, Höglander now has a ton of space in front of him to grab the puck and gets an uncontested shot off.

The defence Höglander provides leads to offence for him the other way – something that most top six forwards are great at.

Now, this might have been a planned play off the draw. But typically, after a faceoff win, Höglander would head straight to the net. But on this play, he goes back to support and grabs the puck despite DeBrusk coming in off the half-wall to do the same.

His elite edges give Höglander enough space to create separation and head down the boards. He then stops on a dime and fires it back to Hronek. As Quinn Hughes maneuvers through the zone, Höglander does a lap around the net and gets lost in the Flames’ defensive zone coverage.

This allows him to circle back, and while it may not have worked, he is left all alone in front of the net. Had the puck gotten to him, he would have been one-on-one with Dustin Wolf with a chance to give the Canucks the lead.

Again, another clip of Höglander holding onto the puck and using his speed to seamlessly. He makes the move to take the outside on Kevin Bahl and shows strength to box out the 6’6″ Flames defender. Höglander stops up, moves behind the net and finds Sherwood for a scoring chance.

With all the attention now on Hughes with the puck at the point, Höglander circles back around the net to find the open space. Receiving the pass from Hronek, Höglander is not in a shooting position. But he quickly opens up his stance to get a quality shot on target and tries to pick the top left corner.

This was more of the Höglander we’re used to seeing. His work in minimal space and playmaking ability, but with the added holding onto the puck and skating to put himself in a better shooting position, is an improvement.

This one’s a bit smaller, but after Höglander loses the puck along the boards, Pettersson leaves the point to pinch up. And Höglander doesn’t go into the scrum to help out but makes the responsible decision to cover the point?

He does leak a little to the middle of the ice but is in the perfect position to receive the DeBrusk pass and gets a solid shot off in the slot.

Höglander wheels through the neutral zone with the puck. Once he’s met with pressure, he stops quickly to evade the defender and finds DeBrusk open on the left. Once in the zone, Höglander heads to the front of the net to cause a disruption.

The Mancini rebound goes right to Pettersson for a tap-in and tie the game late to keep the Canucks’ playoff hopes alive.

That play could have very well ended up in a turnover in the neutral zone from Höglander. But the play he makes to find the open man for the easy zone entry led to an assist on one of the biggest Canucks goals of the season.

Höglander finished the game with a team-high six shots on goal, one assist, a plus-1 rating and was third on the team in 5-on-5 ice time. The night before, Höglander led Canucks forwards in 5-on-5 ice time with 16:30 – the third most ice time for him on the season.

Something to note that isn’t shown in these clips. Höglander would mostly park himself near the point to cover the defender in the defensive zone. Which, as a winger, that is his job. However, we noticed him creeping down a tad more to assist the F3 (defensive forward) in these past two games. That’s something new and shows growth for Höglander in the defensive zone.

As a speedy forward, it felt like that’s how he saw the game. His plays, his passes, and his movements all needed to be quick. But now, it seems like things are slowing down for him, and he’s letting plays come to him.

There is still a long way to go for Höglander to become a complimentary top six asset. But with the stride he’s taken recently, he might be showing he can become that in the future.