For our final edition of this The Tape series, we’ll be covering the Canucks’ most coveted free agent signing, Jake DeBrusk.

Observers around the hockey world could have told you the biggest glaring need the Canucks had in the playoffs was a bonafide winger to play on the top line with Elias Pettersson. After they were eliminated from contention, that quickly became priority number one for Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford.

In the window between when they had been eliminated from the playoffs until free agency opened on July 1st, whenever there was a top-six forward’s name floated around, the Canucks were one of the teams reportedly interested. Whether it was Jake Guentzel, Martin Necas, Nikolaj Ehlers, or the countless pending unrestricted free agents, if there was a rumour out there, Vancouver was mentioned as a fit.

Ultimately, the club didn’t go the trade route and was headed into free agency, looking to fill this void in their lineup.

Surprising for a Jim Rutherford team, the Canucks were quiet out the gate of free agency, and the selection was starting to become bleak. Top-six options such as Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen, Tyler Toffoli, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, Elias Lindholm, and Viktor Arvidsson had all signed with a new team before Vancouver made one signing.

However, shortly after, the club finally made their big splash by signing former Boston Bruin Jake DeBrusk to a seven-year $38.5 million contract.

DeBrusk, 27, is coming off yet another 40-point season, scoring 19 goals and 21 assists in 80 games. While averaging 0.50 points per game is still good, it was considered a down year by DeBrusk’s standards. DeBrusk is one year removed from a career year, which saw him score 27 goals and 23 assists for 50 points with a plus-26 rating in 64 games.

So, to see a 10-point decline in 16 more games was a disappointment. To be fair, though, DeBrusk shared he had been playing through the second half of the season with an injured wrist. That could have been the cause of his regression.

However, come playoff time, DeBrusk returned to full health, and it showed. The former first-round pick led the Bruins with five goals and 11 points in Boston’s 13 playoff games. This year wasn’t a fluke either. DeBrusk has now put back-to-back successful playoff runs, scoring 17 points in 20 games – something that the Canucks so desperately needed last season.

Allvin had this to say shortly after the signing of DeBrusk:

“Jake will be a great addition to our top six and gives us another offensive option up front,” said Allvin. “He is a smart two-way player who plays with pace. He isn’t afraid to go to the tough areas of the ice and uses his strong motor and determination to drive play.”

Now, let’s see exactly the time of player you Canucks fans should expect from their newest top forward acquisition by examining his tape in the regular season and playoffs.

After the Canucks cleared the zone and the defencemen passed it back and forth, DeBrusk showed off some elite skating by turning his body open while not losing any speed or momentum as he entered the zone. Noah Juulsen does an excellent job of keeping DeBrusk along the perimeter, so he has no choice but to cut back. Now in a board battle, DeBrusk uses his frame to hold Juulsen off and keeps the play alive.

DeBrusk put his great skating to enter the zone and used his body to back off a defender to maintain the offensive zone on display here.

Pius Suter wins the draw, and the puck goes straight to Quinn Hughes. DeBrusk fires himself out of a cannon off the draw and gets on Hughes immediately. With intense pressure, Hughes has no option but to backpedal and fire a desperation shot at the net, only for DeBrusk to block the shot and clear the zone. This was a great, fearless display of speed and defence from DeBrusk.

This is the exact level of defensive play that the Canucks are hoping to get when they signed DeBrusk. He’s not caught puck-watching; he keeps moving his feet, shoulder-checking the point man, and although he wasn’t in the play, DeBrusk was always in the proper positioning.

When the puck was down low, he went to the slot area. Once the puck went to the point, DeBrusk turned on the jets to his point man before Hughes even passed the puck across. By the time Filip Hronek receives the puck, the space is gone. Hronek has to skate right to avoid DeBrusk, and with the room starting to shrink, the Canuck defenceman fires the puck toward the net, which DeBrusk blocks.

A really quick clip, but it shows a great individual effort from DeBrusk to clear his own zone.

Jeremy Swayman comes out of his net and rings the puck around the right boards. Once the puck goes past the Bruins defender, DeBrusk bursts onto the screen, gets in front of Pius Suter and perfectly deflects the puck with his backhand behind Suter for an easy clearance for Charlie Coyle.

DeBrusk makes himself available for an outlet pass through the neutral zone on the powerplay. He then enters the zone seamlessly – something that the 2023/24 Canucks struggled with – avoids the pressure, does a nice give-and-go with Morgan Geekie, and the Bruins are set up in the offensive zone.

After feeding the point, DeBrusk assumes his position in front of the net. He follows the play and positions himself properly to face the puck carrier and open up his stance for a shooting opportunity. The Bruins sniper is then rewarded by getting a nice tip towards the net off a David Pastrnak point shot.

Last season, one of the many factors of bringing in Elias Lindholm was to be a net-front presence on the powerplay. Well, it looks like they found their replacement.

We now fast forward to Game 1 of the Bruins’ opening series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The opening game started off quiet for DeBrusk. However, it didn’t take him long in the second period to make his mark.

The forechecking Charlie Coyle pressures Matthew Knies into a weak pass across the middle of the ice. That’s when DeBrusk pops onto the screen to intercept the pass. DeBrusk has nothing but the goalie in front of him, but he doesn’t collect the puck cleanly as Justin Holl’s stick pops the puck in the air. Once he gains the puck back, DeBrusk quickly spins to rip a shot on net, but Knies redeems himself by breaking the play up before DeBrusk could shoot.

This was a great heads-up offensive play from DeBrusk that almost led to a wide-open scoring chance.

On the same shift, DeBrusk enters a corner battle and wins it. Once he realizes he’s got the puck alone, he uses his lower body to push Morgan Rielly in the opposite direction and exits the corner and behind the net. DeBrusk goes untouched to the other side of the net, where he makes a crisp pass to Carlo who makes no mistake of sending a howitzer passed Ilya Samsonov.

If it weren’t for DeBrusk’s offensive instincts to separate that pass, the Bruins might not have held the zone, which led to their 2-0 lead.

Once DeBrusk found the scoresheet, it was apparent he had some level of confidence in his play.

DeBrusk carries the puck through the zone on the powerplay and takes it down to the corner before sending a pass to the point for a proper setup. DeBrusk then leaves his perch in front of the net and receives a pass in the right faceoff dot. He then circles to get himself in a threatening shooting position before ripping a contested shot from the top of the circle, through a crowd, past Samsonov, off the post and in.

But the fun doesn’t stop there.

Not even two minutes of game time since DeBrusk’s first powerplay goal, the Bruins are back on the man advantage.

After two straight failed zone entries for Boston, DeBrusk decides to take matters into his own hands by carrying the puck up the ice himself before dumping the puck in the zone. Instead of taking time to set up, Charlie McAvoy gets the puck at the point and enters a shooting position. This was beneficial because the shooting position caught the Maple Leafs out of position while DeBrusk and Brad Marchand were able to sneak behind the defenders.

McAvoy’s shot turned into a tape-to-tape pass to a wide-open Marchand down low. Marchand sends a saucer pass over Joel Edmundson’s stick, right on DeBrusk’s tape, who drops to a knee with his stick on the ice and buries the tap-in for his second goal and third point of the game.

There’s so much confidence flowing through DeBrusk that he’s producing offence, even on the penalty kill.

In what was his first penalty kill stint of the game, DeBrusk collects the puck as he enters the zone. After gaining speed in the neutral zone, DeBrusk blows past Tyler Bertuzzi along the wall, makes a slick move for a more advantageous shooting position, and fires a quick shot that rings right off the short side post.

There really isn’t much. But there were a couple of instances of note.

Here, DeBrusk was caught puck-watching, nearly resulting in the puck being in the back of his net.

With a puck battle going on in the opposite corner, DeBrusk glides through the slot area towards the scrum. Once DeBrusk has gone too far, the puck spits out to JT Miller, and he goes into attack mode. DeBrusk realizes he’s too late to get to Miller and has now also left his point man.

He stops on a dime, but Miller has already passed him, opening up a passing lane to get the puck to Hughes. With a sliding goaltender, Hughes has his shot blocked by Brandon Carlo in front. Lucky for DeBrusk, Carlo got in the way, or his check could have tied up the game.

Well, he may not be the most physical player.

The puck comes to DeBrusk along the boards, and he’s got a clear lane for an easy zone exit. However, he turns a little slow and tries to send a weak backhand pass to Coyle, which gets deflected by Auston Matthews, who then gives DeBrusk another bump that knocks him off balance. The puck is held in the zone, and DeBrusk receives another hit that knocks him off balance.

And although DeBrusk wasn’t signed for his physical play, it was just noticeable seeing him get pushed around when he’s flustered.

DeBrusk is phenomenal off the faceoff. If the Bruins won the faceoff, he immediately went to the far boards for an outlet pass. If the Bruins lost the faceoff, he sprinted to the point to put instant pressure on the defender. Either way, DeBrusk was rarely in no man’s land and always keeps his feet moving in the defensive zone.

Watch here:

DeBrusk is immediately on Hronek off the faceoff, forcing him to dump the puck behind the net. If Hronek had more time, he could have passed the puck to Hughes for an easy zone setup.

The Bruins have a system built on solid forechecking and backchecking, and DeBrusk was one of the most noticeable of the forwards at both. It didn’t matter whether DeBrusk was a real threat to steal the puck or not; he relentlessly put pressure on the puck carrier in the offensive zone and wasn’t afraid to get into the corners in the defensive zone.

If you want more highlight reels from Jake DeBrusk last season, check out this hype clip the Canucks Twitter posted earlier this summer.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Are you excited about the newest top-six forward, Jake DeBrusk, to be rocking the blue and green next season?