The Vancouver Canucks were a team desperate for their first win. Last year’s Pacific Division winners started this season by dropping their first three games, with one regulation, one overtime and one shootout loss. With some struggles defensively, Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet made some lineup alterations, inserting Noah Juulsen into the lineup for Vincent Desharnais.

Desharnais signed a two-year contract in Vancouver on July 1, so making him a healthy scratch after his first game wasn’t a great look for the future of the contract. However, the 6’7″ defencemen kept himself in high hopes, putting faith and belief into the coaching staff that they would help him elevate his game enough while he’s out to return to the lineup. And that he did for the Canucks’ fourth game of the season.

But he had a new partner, freshly re-called Erik Brännström. The 5’10” offensive-minded defenceman signed a one-year prove-it deal with the Colorado Avalanche. Once it was clear he wouldn’t make the team, the Avalanche traded him to the Canucks, in exchange for Tucker Poolman and a fourth-round pick.

The former first-round pick started the year in Abbotsford, turning heads with his impressive skating and puck skills, finishing with three assists through his first two games. Ultimately, Brännström made the decision easy for the Canucks as to who to call up on the left side once Derek Forbort was announced to be stepping away from the team.

The Canucks inserted him right into the lineup on the same day they called him up. It must have been a long travel day for Brännström going from Abbotsford, BC, to Sunrise, Florida. Let’s get into Brännström’s tape from his Canucks debut.

On his first shift, he already impressed. Brännström was decisive with the puck, decisive with how to handle opposing forwards; his skating and edge work kept him in the proper defensive positioning. This positioning allowed him to join the rush had it not been halted due to a delayed offside. It was all great but scattered over an entire shift and not short enough for a clip. But a solid first shift from the Swedish defenceman nonetheless.

Now, we’ll get to the clips.

We start off with a defensive zone shift. Brännström is up against the top line of Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell. Now, we’re not so sure about this decision to lay down and cover the pass when there’s zero threat of a pass with three Panthers along the non-threatening side wall and a defender at the blueline when Reinhart is one-on-one with your goaltender. But hey, no harm, no foul.

Don’t get it twisted; Brännström has speed. But he does lose the footrace to the puck behind his own net to Lundell. And while he’s not the tallest guy, he knows how to use his stick to his advantage if he’s not first to the puck. With Lundell about to pick up the puck behind the net, Brännström has enough force to poke it far enough away to Elias Pettersson on the half wall.

Then the end, he shows off some of that edge work that this author can’t stop watching.

Is it just me, or is it nice to see some confident puck carrying out of a defenceman who’s not on the top pairing? Cause Brännström looks completely comfortable with the puck on his stick. He picks up the puck after a Nils Åman faceoff win, gains speed behind the net and makes the quick outlet pass to the tape of the open man on the half-wall. It leads in a crisp five-second zone entry from faceoff to out of the zone and got himself and his teammates a much-needed change after an icing.

It’s a small, simple play, but not necessarily something you’d see out of a Derek Forbort, Vincent Desharnais or Noah Juulsen.

Here’s a good example of Brännström’s quick instincts and decision-making. After Nils Höglander gets dumped from behind by Nate Schmidt, the Panthers are back on the attack. Brännström has to decide whether to continue covering the slot/in front of the net or cover the streaking player for a potential quick pass opportunity.

Brännström checks he’s got his F3’s support (Elias Pettersson) if he leaves his perch, and decides he’s going to play man defence, and completely eliminates a surging AJ Greer as a passing option. Great instinctive play by the newcomer.

While it’s nice to have an offensive-minded option on the bottom pairing if they jump up in a play and that play goes array, that can also be a recipe for an odd-man rush the other way. We kind of get a glimpse of that here.

As Arshdeep Bains tries to make a long stretch pass to JT Miller, Brännström picks up speed through the neutral zone to join him. However, Bains’ pass was intercepted at the Panthers blueline, and now they are on the move the other way. Brännström quickly turns back to cover defence, but Verhaeghe has already gained too much speed along the wall to receive the pass and enter the zone with enough shooting space to get a shot off.

Another thing Brännström needs to be careful of here, is when he does get back, don’t forget about the switch. Since Brännström was out of position, that forced Desharnais to come over to shorten the gap for Verhaeghe. But once Brännström catches up, he stays with Verhaeghe, leaving Evan Rodrigues as the open trailer for a one-timer opportunity.

In his first shift of the second period, there were two instances where the Panthers were threatening through the neutral zone or dumped the puck in the Canucks end, and Brännström was not even in the frame of the screen. And there were three or four Canucks on the screen.

It’s fine to pinch up, but twice on the same shift; as a defenceman, you shouldn’t be caught twice as the last man back in your zone.

Brännström was put in a difficult situation here as he was tasked to handle the two-on-one after Desharnais’ unsuccessful pinch. And he does a great job. He trusts his goalie. Mackie Samoskevich is the puck carrier, AJ Greer is skating with him, and Brännström takes away the pass, so now it’s just Samoskevich one-on-one with Kevin Lankinen at a poor angle — great positioning and trust in your tendy.

Rodrigues grabs the puck behind the Canucks net. Brännström plays him physically, pushing him against the boards and knocking him off balance enough that he loses control of the puck. Brännström stays with the play and gets rewarded as he’s able to flip the puck past the scrum of players to Kiefer Sherwood and clears the zone. Quick, easy, simple plays that resulted in a zone clearance.

Brännström better have given his goalie a stick tap to the pads after this one. He just starts skating into the neutral zone for no real reason; he doesn’t pressure the puck carrier; he just opens up the middle of the ice for Samoskevich to receive the pass and go on a breakaway. He then follows the puck carrier to the corner instead of covering the front of the net, giving the Panthers another uncontested wack on Lankinen.

Brännström only had one shot attempt in this game, but he managed to get it through traffic and tested Sergei Bobrovsky. Then, later in the play, he shows off his speed and instincts by pinching and pressuring the defender with the puck to keep the play in the zone.

After landing a clean hit on Jesper Boqvist in the corner, Brännström comes behind the net and collects the puck for an easy zone clearance. Then, after a fluffer pass to the middle of the ice by Adam Boqvist, Brännström instinctually jumps on it and takes a skate with the puck before dumping it into the zone. It’s nice to see a defenceman other than Quinn Hughes jump up into the play, make some dekes, and look confident while carrying the puck against defenders.

With the Panthers carrying the puck through the neutral zone, Brännström steps up to block Lundell’s dump-in attempt, slowing their momentum up ice with the team needing to re-group. The Panthers would turn the puck over after a failed stretch pass, and Brännström made a nice two-line pass to Åman’s tape for a dump-in for the Canucks. This was Brännström’s last shift of the game.

Brännström ended the game with 20 shifts for 11:49 minutes of ice time, with one shot on goal, one hit and a zero plus-minus rating.

All in all, there’s plenty to be excited about with Brännström. His skating is fun to watch; he makes crisp and confident passes in his own end that will help with zone exits and bring a wow factor to what was an uninspiring bottom-defensive pairing. There were instances when he was caught pinching and late to the defensive zone, but other than that, he was usually in his proper defensive positioning.

What do you think Canucks fans? How did you think Brännström did in his Canucks debut? Also, is he going to stay in the Canucks lineup? Let us know in the comment section below!