Most of the talk surrounding the Vancouver Canucks‘ return for Quinn Hughes has been about Zeev Buium, and rightfully so. He was the centrepiece of the deal, and projects to be a high-profile offensive defenceman in the NHL. But don’t overlook the addition of Liam Öhgren.

Öhgren, 21, was selected 19th overall by the Minnesota Wild in the 2022 NHL draft. The Swede has taken some time to develop to the NHL game. Through 48 career games, Öhgren has just four goals and four assists for eight points. But as you’ll see throughout the column, his on-ice traits are better than the point totals may suggest.

In today’s version of our The Tape series, we’ll be covering the first two games of Liam Öhgren’s Canucks career.

We don’t have to wait long to see Öhgren make an impact, with this strong defensive awareness on his first shift as a Canuck.

The Devils break the puck out of the zone. With Max Sasson stuck down low after the draw, Öhgren shoulder-checks three times and realizes he’s the first forward back, so he has to take the F3 defensive forward role. He follows the play to the front of the net and is in the proper positioning to deflect the puck out of harm’s way in front of his goaltender and kills the Devils’ offensive rush.

Encouraging awareness to be the defensive-minded forward on the play.

A forechecking Sasson forces the Devils into a pass that results in a turnover in the neutral zone. Tom Willander makes a good move to get out of danger and head up ice and dumps the puck in. Picking up speed in the neutral zone, Öhgren is able to beat Luke Hughes to the puck in the corner, gets under his stick, and shovels it behind the net to Sasson.

With the puck tied up behind the net, Öhgren comes in as support and is the first on the loose puck behind the net. He gains possession with one hand on his stick while using his other hand to shove Hughes’s stick out of the way. Using his body to protect the puck, Öhgren centres the puck to the net front area. The pass doesn’t connect, but the right idea was made.

Buium dances at the top of the zone and fires a shot wide of the net. Öhgren is first to it, again, but sends a weak backhand along the boards for Hughes to gain possession. But behind the play, Stefan Noesen hits Öhgren in the numbers along the boards, sending the Canucks to the power play.

Öhgren didn’t get any of the power play time, but his efforts drew the penalty and resulted in the Canucks scoring what would end up being the game-winning goal on that ensuing man-advantage.

Just a quick one here, but we wanted to show how tenacious Öhgren is on the forecheck – attacking opposing defenders with speed.

After a Conor Garland dump-in, Öhgren is the first on scene to pressure Jonas Siegenthaler. The Devils defenceman tries to spin around Öhgren, but his body position restrains him from doing so. Dougie Hamilton is there to collect the puck, but Öhgren keeps at it. He attempts to stick lift Hamilton from behind, and reaches around to tie up his stick instead. Hamilton still gets enough of the clear the zone, but that non-stop motor will lead to some defensive zone turnovers for the opposition.

Just watch the speed on this kid.

After Sasson rings the puck around the boards to David Kämpf, Öhgren picks up speed in the neutral zone and wins the race to what was intended to be just a dump-in. With that gained speed, Hamilton does a good job of containing Öhgren to the outside, but the new Canucks winger uses the same move as before, where he has one hand on the stick and uses his other hand to push away the defender’s stick.

The puck would leave the Devils zone. Coming back into the Canucks end, both defenders and the F3 battle for the puck behind the goal line. This leaves the net front wide open. Öhgren realizes that and bolts straight to the front of the net to guard the trailer. The puck never gets there, but once it finds its way to the point, Öhgren is the first player there to the puck carrier, and forces a shot wide, and the Canucks clear the zone.

He made an impact in both ends of the ice on this shift.

After a weird play behind the Devils net that left both Sasson and Linus Karlsson off their feet, Öhgren now has to help defend the odd-man rush.

Do we like the way Marcus Pettersson and Tyler Myers played the odd-man rush? No necessarily. The two end up defending the same player in the slot, leaving Öhgren to now take the puck carrier, who is quite a distance away.

Once Dawson Mercer realizes the Canucks defencemen have left Jesper Bratt open, Mercer switches the puck to his backhand, away from Öhgren, and finds a wide-open Bratt in the high slot, dropping it to Hughes, who makes no mistake.

It’s hard to fault Öhgren for getting beaten like that, as had he not pressured Mercer immediately, he would have had a clear lane to the net. But he does overskate the play by a few feet by the time he stops up. Regardless, the play results in a goal against with Öhgren on the ice, and neither Sasson nor Karlsson is in the frame when the goal was scored.

We see some more of those tools you typically see from high-end, first-round picks.

Öhgren goes into the corner to battle 6’4″ 225-lb defenceman Brenden Dillon, and comes out of it with the puck. He circles the corner and cuts through the left circle, stick handling away from a poke-check, but the puck gets checked off his stick. It was a crowded lane for Öhgren to be able to pull the move off and get a shot on net, but that willingness to attempt a play like that shows there’s an offensive spark still in the former first-round picks’ game.

There wasn’t much more to add from this game. Öhgren registered his shot on goal in the second period after coming off the bench unguarded as the Canucks held the offensive zone. There was a shift where Kämpf broke his stick, and Öhgren performed well filling in as the F3 in the defensive zone on what was a near two-minute shift. Öhgren did not play the final four minutes of the second, nor the first four minutes of the third.

Final stats vs. Devils: 0 goals, 0 points, minus-one rating, one shot on goal, 0 hits, one block in 11:39 minutes of ice time.

We don’t have too many clips of Öhgren from his performance against the Rangers, as, well, he only had eight shifts.

Öhgren had two shifts in the first period and zero through the final 13 minutes due to the Canucks being in penalty trouble. His next shift came two minutes into the middle frame – and he made it count.

Öhgren’s teammates seemed to realize after his debut that they just needed to get him the puck with space in the neutral zone, and he’d make something happen.

Karlsson chops the puck past the pinching defender, allowing Öhgren to skate onto the puck at the Canucks’ blueline. Entering the zone with speed, Öhgren keeps his head up as if he’s selling Rangers defender Braden Schneider on a pass to a player who wasn’t joining the rush. Instead, Öhgren rips a quick shot – which NHL Edge ranks as his hardest shot of the season – that trickles through the legs of Jonathan Quick, hits the post, and eventually crosses the goal line.

When Öhgren puts his speed, his deception, and his shot all together on the same play, he’s exciting to watch.

Sometimes, you’ve got to get lucky.

Öhgren is in the right place at the right time as he enters the defensive zone to pick up a missed pass. And then he turns on the jets and heads up ice. Again, Öhgren gets a little lucky as he enters the zone, as Matthew Robertson fell over – not the same type of play as Quinn Hughes would make as he broke someone’s ankles on a spin-move, but the result is the same.

With a clear lane to the net, Öhgren tries to beat a sliding Quick five-hole, but to no avail. The Rangers’ F3 misses the puck, and it finds Öhgren again. Not in a position to corral the puck, he kicks it to his stick, and now, with minimal options being pressured by two defenders, Öhgren sends the puck to the high-danger area. No Canuck is there. But one day, there will be, and that’s a quick-thinking playmaker’s play he made following the luck of his original scoring chance.

After that, Öhgren had little opportunity to provide for his team. He had one more shift in the second, and two in the third – he didn’t play the final 11:30.

Final stats: one goal, one point, plus-one rating, two shots on goal, one hit, 0 blocks, 7:15 minutes of ice time.

We’ll leave you with one last clip that summarizes what we’ve seen from Liam Öhgren in these first two games.

An annoying forecheck that results in a turnover and possession for his team in the offensive zone. And when he defers the puck, he heads to the net. Typically, that’s not a bad strategy. But with a Canuck already at the net front, and with so much open ice in the right circle and a clear passing lane, that would have been the optimal positioning for a threatening scoring chance.

He’s fantastic on the forecheck. Öhgren always attacks the puck carrier with speed and isn’t afraid to get physical when he needs to. While not the biggest player, he uses his body well to protect the puck from opponents. His speed is undeniable: he ranks in the 81st percentile according to NHL Edge in top speed burst (22.64 MPH) and has already logged five speed bursts of 22+ MPH (89th percentile). He doesn’t have the highest shot totals (averaging just over 1.0 per game this season), but he packs a heavy punch (91.9 MPH, 94th percentile) when he decides to fire one on net.

For our eyes, he’s got the tools that can translate to a top-six forward. But sometimes, his positioning and decision-making with the puck don’t always follow. And that can become a problem.

He’s got the tools of a high-end, skilled player; he’s just got to figure out the toolbox.

What do you think, Canucks fans? What are your first impressions of the newly-acquired forward Liam Öhgren? Let us know in the comments below!