When a team starts the season without its star goalie, has its heart and soul leader step aside for personal reasons and then loses a top pair defenceman, it puts organizational depth to the test in a hurry. And so far, with a 13-7-3 record, the Vancouver Canucks have aced just about every exam they’ve faced (save for figuring out how to win on home ice).
However, with depth players stepping into roles higher in the line-up and succeeding, it muddies the waters when it comes to trying to figure out just who this team’s unsung hero has been so far.
Dakota Joshua is the two-time defending Fred J. Hume Award winner, and it’s possible he can build his game to a point where he’s in the running again. Of course, after recovering from testicular cancer, Joshua stands a reasonable chance of being the first Vancouver Canuck to skate away with the league’s Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey which is often awarded to a player that has overcome significant medical challenges to resume his career.
Now, no team awards are handed out in the first week of December, so there is still plenty of time for this debate to rage on. But looking at the first quarter of the season, it really is difficult to come up with a leading candidate whose contributions have flown under the radar.
It can’t be Kevin Lankinen. He’s been all-worldly and is on a very short list behind Quinn Hughes for Team MVP. The market has sung Lankinen’s praises, and his play has warranted that he’s been a front-burner story since he signed just days before the preseason.
In other years, Pius Suter would likely garner some consideration. But the guy is second on the hockey club in goal-scoring after starting the season as a fourth-line winger. With both Brock Boeser and JT Miller missing significant portions of November, Suter stepped out of the shadows and emerged as a top-end performer. Maybe he still deserves consideration as the team’s unsung hero, but it feels like the market is rightfully taking notice of his many contributions.
Kiefer Sherwood has to be in the running. The NHL’s hit machine has truly been a smashing success in his first two months in Vancouver. Whether lower in the line-up in an energy role or bumped higher to complement skilled players, Sherwood has been everything the Canucks could have hoped for. But as he takes a run at the NHL record for hits in a single season, he’s likely going to find himself in the spotlight in the second half of the season. That’s not exactly under-the-radar stuff.
Which leaves Erik Brännström. Is he the real unsung hero on this hockey club so far? With three goals and seven points in 20 games, he has found ways to chip in offensively. All three of his goals have come in Canucks victories, one was the game-winner against Chicago, and on Sunday, his goal with 3:20 remaining in the third period tied the game and set the stage for the Canucks to grind out an overtime win in Detroit. The offensive contributions have been timely – and welcomed – but without question and with little fanfare, Brännström’s biggest contribution has simply been his stabilizing presence on a blueline that started the season with plenty of question marks behind Hughes and Filip Hronek. With positive possession metrics across the board and a 14-12 goal differential at 5-on-5, Brännström has proven to be so much more than a contract required to make the numbers work when the Canucks offloaded the final year of Tucker Poolman’s deal the day before the season started.
There’s plenty of ground still to be covered, and this discussion will likely take several twists and turns before the season is finished and the Canucks Unsung Hero Award is handed out. But for the first quarter of the season at least, Erik Brännström has to be the guy.
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