Yes, it’s another Daniel Sprong article. Deal with it.

It’s Sprong week here at CanucksArmy, as the Vancouver Canucks signed the bottom six scoring winger to a one-year contract worth $975,000 over the weekend. Sprong has bounced around multiple teams early in his career, and at 27, he called it a wake up call that nobody wanted to give him the contract he was looking for in free agency.

Sprong has been an incredibly efficient scorer in the limited minutes he’s logged throughout his career, but seemed well aware when he spoke to reporters on Monday that his defensive game needs to improve if he hopes to find a long term fit where the coach can trust him to play bigger minutes. Sprong also sounded motivated to prove his doubters wrong and on multiple occasions, cited a phone call he had with Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet as a big reason why he’s so eager to begin his next chapter as a Vancouver Canuck.

But where will Sprong play in the Canucks’ lineup?

Prior to the signing, the Canucks’ forward lines looked something like this:

Danton Heinen-JT Miller-Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk-Elias Pettersson-Nils Höglander
Dakota Joshua-Pius Suter-Conor Garland
Kiefer Sherwood-Teddy Blueger-Phil Di Giuseppe
Extras: Vasily Podkolzin/Nils Aman

What do you notice about that lineup? One thing that Sprong and his agent Pat Brisson certainly noticed was that there are just two right-shot wingers in the Canucks’ top nine forward group: Brock Boeser and Conor Garland.

Boeser is basically stapled to JT Miller’s wing, while Garland is clearly at his best when playing with Dakota Joshua. That means Sprong has a golden opportunity to either play on Elias Pettersson’s wing if everything goes right, or be a solid scoring option to feast on weak matchups in limited minutes on the fourth line if things don’t go quite as planned.

That deployment description sure sound like the one that forced the Canucks to ship Andrei Kuzmenko out of Vancouver, but there’s a big difference between a player costing $5.5 million fitting that billing compared to one costing $975,000. As we’ve written multiple times already during Sprong Week™, Sprong’s addition is a low-risk bet that is quite inconsequential if things don’t go right. The potential upside is certainly worth the investment.

But we’d be foolish and downright cheerleading if we sat here today and said the most likely and only outcome worth talking about for Sprong is that he’ll play on Elias Pettersson’s wing right from the get-go. There is certain to be plenty of competition for that spot, and Sprong will need to be at his best and show some big improvement on the defensive side of his game if he hopes to find a home in that spot.

So, let’s instead consider Sprong playing with Pettersson the best-case scenario and not spend any more words discussing it.

What seems more likely is that Sprong plays with whichever bottom six centre isn’t playing with Garland and Joshua. In the lineup we listed above, that’s Teddy Blueger. A refresher on that lineup, this time with where Sprong could play:

Danton Heinen-JT Miller-Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk/Daniel Sprong-Elias Pettersson-Nils Höglander
Dakota Joshua-Pius Suter-Conor Garland
Kiefer Sherwood-Teddy Blueger-Phil Di Giuseppe/Daniel Sprong
Extras: Vasily Podkolzin/Nils Aman/Daniel Sprong

Yes, that’s right, we also have Sprong listed as a healthy scratch, which is what he was at times last season with Detroit. This isn’t even a bad thing either. Imagine when an injury happens or when the top six desperately needs a shakeup. Who has slotted into those spots in the past? Linus Karlsson? Arshdeep Bains? Phil Di Giuseppe? Vasily Podkolzin? Sprong has more scoring prowess than all those players, and his cap hit means that even in this admittedly “worst-case scenario,” he still represents a valuable addition to this Canucks team.

The Canucks want to generate more off the rush next season, and Rick Tocchet has said already that he’s comfortable opening up his defence-first system a bit in order to aide the Canucks’ effort in that department. Sprong is a volume shooter, and at worst, he’ll provide a level offensive punch from the fourth line that the Canucks haven’t had in years.

So where will Sprong play in the Canucks’ lineup next season?

At best, he’ll slot into the top nine alongside “good friend” Elias Pettersson. Most likely, he’ll do what he’s done the past few years: score a bunch of goals from the bottom six and give the second power-play unit an identity. At worst, he’ll be a valuable plug-and-play player for a Canucks team that managed to beef up their forward depth in late July.

Where the scoring winger ultimately lands in the Canucks’ lineup next season will be up to him. Read more from a motivated Sprong’s introductory press conference yesterday by clicking here.