Who is the Vancouver Canucks’ unsung hero?: Canucks Conversation
6 months ago
On Tuesday’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal were joined by RinkWide’s Jeff Paterson to talk about a player whose performance might be flying under the radar for Vancouver.
At the time of the recording, the Canucks had just come off an impressive 6-3 win against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Rick Tocchet once again deployed the deadly lotto line of Pettersson-Miller-Boeser, who outperformed Panarin and co. with four total goals to earn the win.
With most of the conversation around the Canucks’ star talent, the guys centred their discussion on the team’s under-appreciated players.
Jeff Paterson weighed in first: “At the start of the year, I was like, ‘alright, Phil Di Giuseppe – starts in the top six, this guy’s earned his spot, a pretty good candidate to be the unsung hero. Then ten games in I’m thinking, man, Ian Cole, what a pickup for the Canucks, just quietly going about his business. Then Teddy Blueger gets back from injury, and you look at what he’s done, and you’re thinking, ‘this is amazing’… Pius Suter is the guy nobody talks about, but he’s just such a smart player, and you can see and hear it whenever Rick Tocchet is asked about him, just how much he appreciates how, positionally, this guy puts himself in the right spots. He’s been asked to play in different positions in different parts of the lineup, and every time he does, he seems to win his share of battles, never get scored on, and there’s enough offence there. He’s been so good, does a lot of the underappreciated things that aren’t going to make headlines. There’s a lot of star power around him that people are drawn to, but I do think that on this team he is a really valuable piece.”
The Canucks signed Suter to a 2-year $3.2 million contract in the offseason, and so far, the 27-year-old Swiss has exceeded expectations. With eight goals and four assists through 26 games, the numbers aren’t eye-popping, but with a +13 plus-minus rating, he’s providing steady contributions while keeping the puck out of his team’s net.
Quads then chimed in, saying he thinks Casey DeSmith should get the vote at this point in the year.
“Add him to the long list,” JPat replied. As it turns out, this may be a tough decision to make. But what does that say about the work the pro scouting and management group have done that there are this many candidates at the midway mark that you could sit down and legitimately build a strong case to be the unsung hero of a hockey club.”
You can watch the full replay of Tuesday’s episode in the video below:
Failed to load video.
Be sure to check out the live show Monday-Friday at 2 PM next week!
The show can be found on the CanucksArmy YouTube channel and the CanucksArmy Twitter account here. Clips of the show are also posted daily to the CanucksArmy YouTube channel, which you can find by clicking here.
The show is also available in podcast format around 2 PM every day wherever you get your podcasts! Be sure to subscribe to the CanucksArmy YouTube channel, and join in on the fun with the live chat!
Recent articles from Clarke Corsan
