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Friday Roundtable: What if Jannik Hansen’s Hurt?

By J.D. Burke

Jan 8, 2016, 13:00 ESTUpdated:

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Bright spots for the Vancouver Canucks this season are few and far between. One inarguable shining light has been the play of the first line though.

In Henrik and Daniel Sedin the Canucks have one of the premier first lines in the entire NHL. One of the unheralded keys to their success this season, though, has been the play of Jannik Hansen. Hansen, who is on pace for somewhere on the neighbourhood of twenty goals for the first time in his career, could be looking at an extended stay from the Canucks lineup due to injury.

This begs the question: who will play in Hansen’s stead, should the Danish winger be kept from the lineup for an extended stay of games?

Always90Four

Alex Burrows is the obvious answer, but I lean towards Radim Vrbata. That potentially opens up the door for Jake Virtanen to get a shot on the Horvat/Baertschi line and I’d be more concerned with THAT line than the Sedins. The Sedins take care of themselves and you could put a dead fish on that line and he’d get at the very least… an assist. If Virtanen does get that opportunity, they can let him just be a banger for a bit and let him find his spot on the big club. Its not secret the Bo/Bae combo has been clicking lately and it was only a matter of time before they took on Y2J’s theme music “BREAK THE WALLS DOWN!”

Again, Hansen being out isnt the worst as Vrbata could use an offensive boost and he knows how Hank and Danny play. That….and if we all believe he’s tradeable, you need to up that value

cat Silverman

When in doubt, Alex Burrows it out.

Ryan Biech

As wild as it sounds, Jake Virtanen.

Ray Ferraro compared Virtanen to Jannik Hansen yesterday, so why not just replace Hansen on the line with Virtanen. Seriously though, give it a try. Virtanen is in need of a confidence boost after the World Juniors and playing with the twins may be exactly what he needs. He will just be able to play, maybe put up some points without having to worry too much about his own play. You can’t break up the Baertschi – Horvat – Vrbata unit, so your other options are players who are equally undeserving of the promotion. Thus give your recent 6th overall pick a chance to build some confidence.

Matt Henderson

Due to his lack of offensive production as of late, I would say Alex Burrows deserves the slot with the Sedins. I don’t need to tell you that Burrows has enjoyed a lot of success with the Swedes in the past and perhaps it’s that kind of experience that will send him out of his slump. Vrbata is succeeding with Horvat and Baertschi – especially last game – so to take him off of that line with those two would make no sense for the team. Burrows is the only person that makes sense.

Dylan Kirkby

Chris Higgins has been, for a long while now, an incredibly dependable, consistent and effective contributor for the Canucks. He’s struggled quite a bit this year, posting some of the worst shot metrics of his career and he’s sporting a brutally low PDO. I’d like to see him get a shot on his off wing playing with the Sedins, as an opportunity to get his season back on track. He’s an excellent candidate for a trade deadline move, provided he’s willing to waive his NTC, and some time with the Sedins could do wonders for his trade value.

Petbugs

J.D. Burke

I wrote a while back on the virtues of playing Vrbata with the Sedins again, but it was based almost entirely on the belief that it would boost his value near the deadline. Seeing as it’s becoming less likely by the day that this will happen, asset management should probably be the least of my worries here.

Call me crazy, but I don’t think that Jared McCann would be the worst option in the world. It’s been quite some time since the budding rookie has scored and I’m sure it would do wonders for his overall game to find the back of the net again. Not to mention, McCann’s best assets are his shot and ability to read the game. These are attributes which mesh extraordinarily well with what the Sedins bring to the table.