The 2022-23 season was much like all but one season from the 2015-16 seasons for the Vancouver Canucks. The team was going through a rebuild, and the thing they most looked forward to in the spring was signing import and college free agents, not making a playoff run.

Canucks upper management was busy in March and April of 2023, as they signed four import/college free agents: Akito Hirose from the Minnesota State Mavericks (NCAA), Cole McWard from the Ohio State Buckeyes (NCAA), Nikita Tolopilo from the Sodertalje SK (HockeyAllsvenskan) and Max Sasson from the University of Western Michigan (NCAA).

Sasson was the highest-profile signing the Canucks made during this spring. “There were many great choices. Max felt the most comfortable with the opportunity presented by the Canucks management,” Milstein told Rick Dhaliwal, who added that more than half the NHL showed interest in Sasson.

Before he signed, the Birmingham, Michigan native scored 15 goals and 27 assists for 42 points with a plus-20 rating in 38 games with Western Michigan. Once he signed, he joined the Abbotsford Canucks (AHL), where he scored one goal and one assists in seven games. In his first full season in the AHL, Sasson took a big step, finishing fifth on the team in points, registering 18 goals and 42 points with a plus-14 rating in 56 games.

To start the 2024-25 season in Abbotsford, Sasson is third on the team with four goals and five assists for nine points in 16 games. His efforts earned him a call-up, as the big club in Vancouver was without JT Miller and Brock Boeser. Sasson wasted no time getting into his first NHL game as he suited up for his debut with Vancouver on Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators.

The 6’1″ centreman played just 7:49 minutes of ice time, but he managed to pick up his first NHL point and finished with a plus-one rating. Well, let’s not spoil too much of his play, and let’s get into a shift-by-shift analysis of the awaited NHL debut of Max Sasson.

Sasson was given familiar linemates for his NHL debut, as he played on the right wing with Arshdeep Bains and Aatu Räty, who he’s played with in Abbotsford both this season and last.

His first shift was an offensive zone start. It won’t be shown in the first clip, but Sasson wacks a loose puck toward the net and hustles all around the zone, clearly showing his excitement to show what he’s got in his debut. Another positive was that once the Senators turned the puck over, he quickly turned and made himself available for a pass with his stick on the ice. Once he realized he wouldn’t be receiving the pass, he headed straight to the net for a screen.

After the Senators regained possession, Sasson hurried back to the defensive zone. While he’s a natural centreman, he wasn’t slated to play the F3 (defensive centre) position tonight. However, once he sees Räty gets taken down, he jumps to the slot area to cover for his fallen teammate.

Once Hughes grabs the loose puck, he turns his stance, backpedals and makes himself available for an outlet pass. Continuing to backpedal, Sasson now has speed as he exits the zone. He shows his confidence with the puck to carry it out on his own, all the way through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone, where he fires a shot off target for Filip Hronek to pick up along the right-side boards and quickly goes off for a change.

Nothing spectacular on his first shift, but his positioning to help facilitate the breakout and break-in to the offensive zone was exactly what you want to see from a debutant.

Listed at 6’1″, 181 lbs, Sasson isn’t an overly physical player. But he laid his first of two hits in the game on this clip, as he catches former Canuck Adam Gaudette with an unexpecting hit.

On his next shift, he landed his second hit in the defensive zone on Senators defenceman Nick Jensen. After the hit, Sasson would stay with the play and get rewarded by out-manning Tim Stützle in a puck battle along the boards and sending an outlet pass to Danton Heinen to clear the zone.

While he’s known for being an offensive threat, Sasson is making his presence felt early away from the puck and is proving he can be relied upon to make the correct play in the defensive zone.

Now, here’s the only concern we’ve noticed thus far. However, it’s not a big one at all. Given that Sasson is a natural centreman, this is going to happen from time to time, as he’s used to playing the F3 position. But he’ll need to remember to stay on his wing if that’s what he’s going to play at the NHL level.

Sasson enters the zone and continues to skate through as the centreman, and now the Canucks have four players below the faceoff dot in their own zone. With Sasson in the corner, Räty does a good job covering the point, but this leaves the left defenceman with a lot of room with the puck.

A little later, Räty goes into the corner. Heinen scoots to his side, but Sasson stays down low. Once the Senators retrieve the puck, Stützle fires a pass to the right defenceman, who has nobody covering him. Luckily, the pass was out of the defender’s reach, and the Senators cleared the zone. But if it wasn’t, Sasson’s man is left wide open with a clear lane on net.

Again, it’s not overly concerning, considering that’s the position Sasson is used to playing, but it’s something he’s going to need to be mindful of if he continues to play the wing.

We fast-forward to the second period, where Sasson receives an outlet pass and shows no signs of those rookie nerves as he confidently strides through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone. Once in the zone, he attempts a pass around Jensen to Räty, but it gets blocked. However, he stops on a dime and regains possession. With limited options, Sasson makes the smart play and fires the puck back around the boards.

What is just so mesmerizing is how he skates with the puck; it’s just so smooth. He doesn’t look out of place at the NHL level with the puck on his stick.

Here is where we see Sasson’s offensive side shine.

Tyler Myers makes a great play to read the stretch pass and intercept it in stride up the ice. With a short window before getting pressured by a Senators forward, Myers slides a pass to Sasson in the neutral zone. Sasson takes a wide angle entering the zone, protects the puck and then stops on a dime to buy himself time to allow his linemates to enter the zone.

Watch how fast his head turns. It’s before he’s even fully stopped. This allows Sasson an extra second to find the streaming Teddy Blueger and sends a quick pass to him in stride. Blueger receives the pass with a shooting lane, sneaks it short side and puts it right inside the post.

What vision and playmaking ability from Sasson here on his first NHL point.

Here’s a closer clip at Sasson on this play:

On the same shift after his primary assist, the Canucks maintain possession in the offensive zone. Carson Soucy tries to find Sasson down low, but the pass is out of reach. We touched on Sasson’s frame earlier and how he’s not necessarily the most physical player, but he does a great job of boxing out 203-lb Thomas Chabot while fighting for the loose puck. By doing so, he’s the first on the puck and sends it back to the point for the Canucks to maintain the zone.

Just a quick clip here, but wanted to highlight some Sasson trickery. After his team dumps the puck in, Sasson is the first to the puck along the left boards. With Jensen coming to check him, Sasson stops quickly and uses his body to shield the puck from the defender. Now, Sasson has the puck with the defender out of position and buys himself time to make the pass to the point, where the Canucks get a shot on net. Linus Ullmark makes the save and sends it to the corner, where Sasson isn’t as lucky in the next corner battle.

Sasson continues to show off his shiftiness as he collects a pass from Filip Hronek. As Sasson turns to the middle of the zone, he’s met by a forechecking Brady Tkachuk. In typical Brady fashion, he goes to lay the body; however, Sasson makes a heads-up play to pass it back off the boards as he evades the hit and collects it back. Unfortunately, his pass doesn’t get to Räty, but the two combine to disrupt the intercepting defenceman in the neutral zone.

These were back-to-back shifty plays from Sasson, with quick decision-making that won’t go unnoticed by his coach.

On his first shift of the third period, he’s in the defensive zone and has Tkachuk feed him a cross-check in the back. But Sasson manages to stay with Tkachuk, which potentially saved a goal as he ties him up as Tkachuk receives a pass in the slot, making him unable to get a shot off in a dangerous scoring area. This great defensive tie-up from Sasson potentially saved a goal and kept this a two-score game.

Sasson would have just three shifts in the third period and finish the game with 7:49 minutes of ice time. However, he only needed that amount of time to get his first tally in the NHL while also displaying great positioning in all three zones and flashes of craftiness that will undoubtedly earn him another shot with the Vancouver Canucks.