Photo credit: Matt Kartozian/USA TODAY Sports

With five goals in his first nine games, Jared McCann burst
onto the National Hockey League scene as if he’d been shot out of a cannon. For
two weeks at least, the Vancouver Canucks first year centre held his own with that other McRookie who was attracting
much of the attention of the hockey world. 

McCann’s offensive production has
all but vanished in the second half of his first season as a professional. The teenager himself has not. He’s remained on the Canucks roster as a
19-year-old.

While
it’s been a struggle at times and a stern test both physically and perhaps more
so mentally learning the ropes in the best league in the world, McCann has no
doubt he is a much better player now than he was five months ago.

I
think I’m stronger – that’s the biggest thing,” he says. “Physically I’m
stronger on my feet. In the gym, I’ve put a lot of work in with (Canucks
strength and conditioning coach Roger Takahashi) and the training staff and I
feel like that’s where I’ve improved the most. I still have a lot of work to
do. I’m not the biggest guy. I have to put weight on and muscle on. It’s going to
be a tough summer, but I’m ready for it and I’m looking forward to it. But confidence-wise,
I feel like I know the game a lot better. The speed of the game and the
thinking is a lot quicker now. I feel like it’s a lot easier to play now than
at the start of the year.”

Listed
at 6’0” and 179 pounds, McCann simply doesn’t have the physical tools yet to
match up with many of the best centres in the NHL. That was a big part of the
Canucks mid-season decision to devise the McCann Plan – a series of scheduled
healthy scratch nights based on opponents and the rigours of the schedule.
Injuries to Brandon Sutter and more recently Henrik Sedin have scuttled the
plan the organization had for the rookie and forced the Canucks to use the 24th
pick in the 2014 draft on a nightly basis.

McCann, who doesn’t turn 20 until
the final day of May, is averaging 12:25 of ice time including 59 seconds per
game on the power play. He sits 12th in a strong rookie class with
88 shots on goal in the 55 games he’s played so far. However, the Cancks are controlled just 47.4 percent of shot attempts with McCann on the ice at even-strength, and the rookie pivot knows there is plenty of work to be done to
ensure he’s spending less energy in his own end and more of his time in the
offensive end of the ice.

“There have been nights when I’ve
felt like I spent too much time in the defensive zone, but I want to be a
200-foot player and be responsible in my d-zone first and if I do that it’s
going to lead to offense,” he says, repeating a mantra that is heard often in
the Canucks locker room. “And I feel like once I continue learn and get better
at it, then the offense is going to come.”

Perhaps the biggest area of
concern – and thus for potential growth – for McCann in his first NHL season is
in the face-off circle where he has struggled mightily. Of the 105 NHL centres
who’ve taken as many draws as McCann this season (476), he is dead last winning
just 35.9% and only Nashville’s Mike Ribeiro within five percent of that success
rate. While he has been shielded in terms of deployment, McCann has been even
worse in his own zone winning just 31% of the 126 defensive zone face-offs he’s
taken this season.

The numbers don’t lie – McCann has
plenty of work ahead of him in that area. Again, some of that comes back to the
raw physical strength he lacks to battle behemoths he encounters on other
teams.

“Even these last 20 games, I feel
like I’ve gotten a lot better on my face-offs and my numbers look a little bit
better,” he says. “Obviously it’s something I have to continue to work on and
get stronger and I feel like once I put more weight on and muscle, I think I’ll
be better.”

As it is for most rookies – and even
more so for teenagers – McCann has found life difficult in the NHL on many
nights. It’s all part of on-the-job training for players who make the jump
straight from junior. The Canucks knew they’d have to bring their rookies along
slowly and live with their mistakes.

The thinking from the outset of
the season was that McCann and fellow first-year forward Jake Virtanen could be brought
along slowly, spotted into the line-up as the coaching staff saw fit and placed
in situations that would foster their development. However, injuries up the
middle and the loss of Adam Cracknell on waivers last month, have forced head
coach Willie Desjardins’ hand with McCann probably more than he would have
liked. Still, the coach has seen enough from his young centre this season to see the potential he possesses.

“I
think there are lots of areas he’s a better player now,” Desjardins says. “I
think it was hard on him when he played every day. I think he got into a bit of
a rut, I think he got worn down and I think he got beat up by the schedule. It
was hard. I think once we gave him a few days off, the next games he played, he
had a lot more energy and a lot more battle in his game. And it’s hard to
battle when you’re not physically at the point he needs to be. But he’ll get
there over  time.”

As for
McCann’s puck handling and playmaking, Desjardins says he’s seen plenty of
progression in both areas as the season has progressed.

“You see flashes in the game and you
see that upside – we all see it – the skill and what he can do, that’s a big
upside,” he adds. “There’s no doubt, he’s a better play now than he was at the
start of the year, but the league gets better as you go on. And that’s kind of
caught up to him a little bit.”

For his
part, McCann has vowed to finish the year strong and recapture some of the early
season success he enjoyed. He claims very little in his game has changed from
the first few weeks when he introduced himself to NHL goalies with his heavy
and accurate wrist shot.  While some will
question the organizational wisdom of keeping a struggling teenager past the
40-game threshold which burned the first year of his entry level contract in
terms of unrestricted free agency, the Canucks are hoping that by keeping
McCann with the club all year they have accelerated his development and understanding
of the pro game

He didn’t
get a say in the matter, but McCann’s glad he stuck around all year.

“Oh yeah, I’ve learned more here
than I would have in Sault Ste. Marie,” he says, of his former junior hockey home. “I have mentors like the
Sedins and Hamhuis and Vrbata who’ve really put the time in and effort with me
and making sure everything’s good to go and whether it’s learning from them
about on ice things or off ice things, you can’t ask for any better.”

As his first season in the NHL
winds down, McCann looks back to the player he was in training camp and sees
how far he’s come. He knows he still has a long way to go to be the player he
wants to be at this level and he’s excited by the opportunity he’ll have to get
there in the years ahead.