Just a season removed from being described as a “project” by John Tortorella, Kassian did little to shake his detractors and found himself even less endeared by the management group that followed. His was a season of ups-and-downs, with intermittent success alongside the Sedins and glaring defensive shortcomings that kept him from the lineup frequently otherwise. Factor in the lingering back injury which sidelined him for much of the back-nine and the entirety of the playoffs, and it was a season to forget on the whole.

At the crux of the debate surrounding Kassian’s usage and playing time was, of course, the extent to which management envisioned him as a much more bang-and-crash power forward than he ever realistically provided evidence of being. Whenever the Kasquatch was benched, management repeatedly expressed a want for more from the mercurial winger, be it in his own zone or as a force in the other. Effort was a question mark as well; Willie Desjardins regularly pleaded for a more physically engaged Kassian. 

With the requisite tools to play the role of that prototypical power forward, it’s no surprise that this is the second coaching staff in a row that has vocalized wanting as much from Kassian. The size, hands and (rarely apparent, oft-uncontrolled) meanness are there; unfortunately for Kassian, never more than a week at a time and very rarely simultaneously. 

For these and other reasons, Kassian’s name was a regular fixture in the rumour mill as a trade chip – with Benning going so far as to admit shopping him at the trade deadline. While Kassian’s reputation as somewhat of a party animal is often speculated on and his commitment almost always questioned, I must say, he handled the frequent press box stays and dangling by management about as well as one could reasonably hope for. 

That said, the relationship behind closed doors could be considerably more strained than either side is willing to let on – although I’m curious how much worse it could get behind doors than what we’re already privy to. It was Benning, after-all, who played a major role in leading the charge in trading Tyler Seguin (LOL) due to extra curricular concerns during his time in Boston.

When called on, Kassian was generally slotted into what’s become his role as the play driving force on the third line. There were brief stays on the top-line and just as infrequently the second – much to the chagrin of Canucks nation – but save for an explosive second-half of February, the boxcar production never seemed to warrant an extended stay. At least where Desjardins was concerned, anyways. Given the two month stretch prior, which saw Kassian post doughnuts in the goals column, it’s hard to disagree overwhelmingly with this assessment. 

That said, I can’t help but feel as though the Canucks continued the time honoured tradition of forcing Kassian’s oblong shaped peg into the perfect circle slot which would represent of the oft-chased, overly coveted “power forward”; I would argue, quite strongly, to his detriment. Where as Kassian is at his best as a playmaker who uses his size to control the boards, with a deft saucer pass and brilliant body-control, the coaching staff refuses to acknowledge this, echoing the need for Kassian to bang bodies and crash the net.

Although hard to quantify, I can’t help but feel as though as the noise from upstairs becomes increasingly deafening, so too does the reckless physical play which is often ugly and bordering on dirty. His hits neither separate the opposition from the puck or help advance play deep in the offensive zone; at best, they come a few seconds late and look every bit as forced as I’m sure they feel to Kassian; at their worst, they can be pretty ugly and worthy of a penalty more often than not. 

Kassian will always be a considerably more cerebral player than he is visceral and to keep forcing the latter upon him takes away from the former at almost no gain. See, Kassian’s low ice-time and equally meager boxcars. 

Nine of Kassian’s 10-goals came at even strength and he posted a Sh% of 18.4 in that same state of play, so yeah, his nearly 20-goal pace over a full season might be a little percentage driven. That said, Drance presents a strong case for Kassian being a positive outlier in this regard in his article from just the other day. Interestingly enough, in somewhere in the neighbourhood of half as many games as the season prior, Kassian provided just three less hits. If this coaching staff wanted a more physically engaged Kassian, surely the evidence suggests he tried, at least.

It would be easy enough to suggest that it was Kassian’s defensive play which dragged his Corsi totals south, but his CA/60 was actually at its lowest in Kassian’s time as a Canuck. It was his inability to push play forward which changed this season. This sentiment is reflected in Steve Burtch’s dCorsi metric, which shows that Kassian missed the mark greatly on the CF that one might expect from a player put into his situation, with his linemates and usage – nearly a 11 point difference between his dCAImpact and his dCFImpat. 

Even with elevated on-ice and personal shooting percentages, the underlying goal-based metrics don’t reflect all that well on Kassian’s ability. By that same token, we know that there’s almost no relationship between a skater and the ability to impact Sv%, and the Canucks had a sub-90 Sv% with Kassian on the ice at evens. Most impressive was that Kassian had the highest GF/60 among Canucks with more than a half-season under their belt.

If there were any one stat to point to in an effort to showcase Kassian’s defensive shortcomings, we just might have found it. Among Canuck regulars, none hemmorhaged scoring chances against to the extent Kassian did – the second worst is Luca Sbisa (shocker) and he’s nearly three SCA/60 clear of Kassian. His SCF/60 isn’t exactly great either, which would explain the awful relative showing. 

It’s somewhat relieving to see that Kassian does slightly better where the high-danger scoring chances are concerned. Actually, given the sparse playing time Kassian had, his iHSC is actually pretty impressive. 

On an individual level, Kassian is hardly what you’d call a machine gunner. He has the 316th highest S/60 among skaters last season and it’s just never really been his strong suit. That said, Vancouver left in the black with Kassian on the ice as a team, posting 29.4 SF/60. Nothing to write home about, but relatively encouraging all the same. Oddly enough, it’s his SA/60 that’s making up the ground here and pushing Kassian closer to asset territory where territorial play is concerned. His 28.2 SA/60 ranked highly among Canucks regulars.

Kassian spent much of this season as the right winger on the Canucks third line, playing with Shawn Matthias on his opposite flank, with Richardson as their pivot. As one might expect, Kassian proved immensely useful in boosting the possession metrics of both players the closest they’ve ever been to respectable. For example, Matthias sees an almost 2% increase in his Corsi For when playing with Kassian; Richardson gets a much more pronounced 5% bump. 

Though the fans of Vancouver seem eager to embrace the Big Guy should he ever find his stride, it is looking more and more remote that he will. He is turning 25, and we still have legitimate questions as to what he is as a player, so you can be certain his managers do too. Given he’s been rumoured to be on his way out as recently as this past trade deadline, and that Benning is loudly trying to re-acquire draft picks, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Kassian moved out in the very near future.

Then again, how does one trade this fella?