Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA TODAY Sports

When the Vancouver Canucks elected to remove top sniper Radim Vrbata from a line with the Sedin twins, the Canucks’ top playmakers, the idea was to help spread out the club’s offensive production throughout their lineup. 

It worked for a bit and Vrbata went on a nice little run down the stretch while helping to reinvigorate Nick Bonino from his mid-season offensive slumber. In an uninspiring playoff series loss at the hands of a historically weak opponent, that line was a liability, though. It’s a major reason why the club swapped out Bonino for Brandon Sutter this summer (and paid a premium to do so).

The logic of playing Vrbata on a secondary scoring line so as to more evenly distribute the club’s offensive skill would appear to still be in effect for the Canucks, as the club’s leading scorer has opened the preseason playing on a line with Sutter and Sven Baertschi. In the club’s preseason opener – from which we should be very reluctant to take away much of anything, frankly – that line didn’t produce much, and certainly didn’t show any immediate, effervescent chemistry. 

There are still plenty of exhibition tune-up games remaining for that chemical reaction to occur though. Blue Meth isn’t made in a day.

While there are myriad reasons for skepticism, conceptually I think the idea of playing Vrbata with Sutter could make some sense. 

Sutter’s offensive production has been unimpressive at 5-on-5 over the years, but I think his shot is a legitimate weapon and he has solid abilities – both in terms of being a big, disruptive presence and in terms of his hand-eye coordination – at the net front. My theory, roughly, is that Sutter might be competent in a more offensive role so long as he has a linemate (or two) that can be trusted to rush and carry the puck. In Baertschi and Vrbata, he’ll have that, at least in the preseason.

Photo Credit: Matt Kartozian/USA TODAY Sports

In listening to Vancouver Province beat writer Jason Botchford do a radio hit on TSN 1040 on Tuesday, he brought up an interesting point. Botchford said – and you can listen to the full interview here – that he was discussing the possibility of a partnership between Sutter and Vrbata with the Czech-born volume shooter, and Vrbata mentioned that he sees Sutter as a somewhat similar piece to Martin Hanzal – with whom he enjoyed a good level of success during his time with the Phoenix Coyotes. 

It’s an interesting comparison, for sure. Hanzal is, like Sutter, a big defense-first centre better suited to doing yeoman’s work in the slot than he is to rushing the puck through the neutral zone. The problem with the comparison, as far as I’m concerned, is that Hanzal is – to my eyes – a much better playmaker on in-zone play in the offensive end than Sutter is.

My perception holds up when digging into the underlying stats a bit, though there’s a major qualifier that we’ll get too also. 

Hanzal and Vrbata played together for nearly 2000 even-strength minutes between 2011 and 2014, and the Coyotes handily outscored and out possessed their opponents when that duo shared the ice. Where Vrbata’s comparison begins to fall apart though is that Hanzal has produced assists at a first-line rate over the past four seasons (his assist rate since 2011 is better than Alexander Steen’s, Tyler Bozak’s, and Jason Pominville’s), and has also produced primary assists at a solid, second-line quality clip. Sutter’s assist rate over a similar time frame, by the way, is similar to that managed by David Booth, Nate Thompson and Derek MacKenzie.

Now it should be noted that Hanzal’s most frequent linemates during this time frame were Vrbata, Shane Doan, Martin Erat, Ray Whitney and Mikkel Boedker, which compares favourably (and then some) with the wingers Sutter has most frequently skated with at 5-on-5 since 2011 – a group that includes: Patrick Dwyer, Beau Bennett, Andreas Nodl and Steve Downie. Not a tonne of finishing talent there…

That’s a crucial qualifier. While I’d still suggest that my perception of Hanzal’s superior playmaking skills is well-founded and likely fair, I’d also note that the gap between the two is almost surely not as large as that between Bozak’s passing skills and Booth’s. 

Where I think there should be some cause for concern though is in the likely calibration of a Sutter, Vrbata partnership. There’s no doubt that Vrbata has the skill set to be effective when handling the puck and focused on making plays, but he’s much more dynamic when testing goaltenders with that sly, accurate wrist shot. Essentially Vrbata is a credible top-six quality playmaker, but he’s a top-line quality goal scorer and a super-elite volume shooter. 

It could certainly work to have Vrbata take on more of the puck-carrying burden on a line with Sutter, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a cerebral sniper of Vrbata’s quality found clever ways to take advantage of Sutter’s plus ability to screen goaltenders. (That ability was demonstrated late in the first period of the preseason opener, by the way, when Matt Bartkowski took a dangerous shot with Sutter wrecking havoc in front of San Jose Sharks goaltender Troy Grosenick. The ensuing chaos led to Sharks forward Tomas Hertl taking a penalty as time expired).

Overall I’m not convinced that you want Vrbata to be focused on carrying the puck and making plays, particularly if it comes at the expense of him finding gaps in the opposition’s defensive coverage and uncorking shots at a dizzying rate. 

It’s way, way too early to judge this experiment, though, and giving Sutter every opportunity to hold down an offensive role with Vrbata still seems sensible. That is unless Bo Horvat really forces the club’s hand by being the most dangerous offensive player on the ice repeatedly. And Horvat checked that box, for sure, in the preseason opener.