On Thursday’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal dove into the mailbag to discuss some fan questions and comments.
The first topic of discussion centred around Jake DeBrusk’s potential impact and the surplus value the Canucks seem to have garnered throughout their contract book. DeBrusk signed a 7-year, $5.5 million AAV deal with Vancouver on the first day of free agency.
“Out of the deals signed for big-name forwards on July 1st, it’s pretty good value,” said Harm, addressing the DeBrusk signing. “What stands out to me when I look at Vancouver’s cap sheet is, it’s not that there’s a ton of ‘steal contracts,’ but the aggregation of marginal gains where it feels like there is slight-to-modest surplus value on many of the Canucks’ contracts. Pius Suter at 1.6, Teddy Blueger at 1.8, Nils Höglander at 1.1, then you add Quinn Hughes at below 8 million, Thatcher Demko at 5- it just continues to add up, especially now that the Canucks have offloaded all the inefficient contracts they used to have.”
“Jake DeBrusk is going to be a nice addition for this power play,” Quads chimed in. “Yes, Pettersson is super important, but this is also the best fourth forward they’ve had on the power play since Andrei Kuzmenko. You could watch the games and see the opposing penalty kills were not even bothered by that guy in the middle. Rick Tocchet was basically begging his power play to start shooting and stop paying attention to these set plays. Get the puck to the net and see what happens; you’ve got an extra guy, see what you can do when the puck is thrown at the net.”
“It’d be a dream scenario if DeBrusk can figure out the bumper as a left shot because that’s the most natural fit with the other personnel on the ice,” Harm continued. “We know J.T. Miller quarterbacks from that left side, it gives him a one-time passing option, opens up other plays like going down low to Boeser at the net front, basically trying to emulate what they lost with Bo Horvat in the bumper. We’ll see- it comes down to DeBrusk’s fit and getting Pettersson back on track.”
The conversation shifted to Elias Pettersson and how important him finding his old form is going to be for Vancouver this upcoming season. With Vancouver hoping DeBrusk can come in and be the top-6 winger they’ve been missing for Pettersson, expectations are high, and fans have reason to be optimistic.
“I feel confident that he’ll be healthier first of all, we can’t forget he was playing through an injury from January onward, which coincided with his production falling off a cliff,” Harm asserted. “Plus the mental reset of an offseason- not having to deal with any of the noise, plus nothing to do with his contract; for how long was that a talking point? Now all he needs to do is focus on the hockey side of it. I’m looking at Pettersson as a major catalyst for the Canucks hopefully making a deep playoff run next year. When I look at the roster as it is right now, I don’t see many players you can expect more from. Most of the roster played to the peak of their potential already last season; you’d be happy with them coming close to what they managed last year. I’m looking at Pettersson and a healthy and hot Thatcher Demko come playoff time- that’s the other major key.”
You can watch the full episode below:
Sponsored by bet365
