Stecher’s status on the rise
Tenacious rookie defenceman a pleasant surprise in dismal campaign
Troy Stecher was once a 16-year-old Canucks fan, his emotions teetering as he absorbed the first of three consecutive playoff series between Vancouver and Chicago.
No one could have known it then, but he wasn’t just cheering. He was acquiring information that would help Vancouver rebuild its team now, seven years later.
Stecher had no business being voted the Canucks’ best defenceman at the end of the regular season. It’s not that he didn’t earn it, it’s that he wasn’t supposed to be in this position at all.
He was a 5-foot-9, undrafted rookie defenceman who hadn’t played a lick of pro hockey eight months ago. Those three strikes — size, draft status and inexperience — are why no one thought Stecher would be making an impact any time soon when he signed last spring. Even Stecher.
“If I’m being honest, last year coming out of college, I didn’t even think I’d be considered to make the team,” Stecher said. “I thought I’d be in the AHL for a year or two.” Instead, it was a week or two. The rest of the season he spent playing 71 National Hockey League games, during which he played 20 minutes a night, and had the fifth most points (24) among rookie defencemen and the fifth most shots (125).
The odds of playing 71 NHL games in a lifetime are long enough for any 5-foot-9 defenceman. Doing it as a 22-year-old rookie is nearly unheard of. So, how did he do it?
Start with attitude. Stecher is like Captain Serious Jr. He’s usually so measured, direct and determined in our exchanges, I sometimes wonder if I’m talking to someone in the middle of Marine Corps Recruit Training.
He treats every play and shift like the future of mankind depends on it. It’s why he was the perfect victim of an April Fool’s Day prank. He believed the coach when informed he was about to play on a line with the Sedin twins. The superior officer had a made a choice and he was going to follow the chain of command.
“I don’t have a choice to (be a different way). If we’re calling a spade a spade, I’m an undersized defenceman and not overly physical,” Stecher said. “If I don’t play that way, I’m not going to be an NHLer for very long.
“I need to show management, my teammates and the coaching staff I’m willing to do that every night.”
He’s done that, moving from being a college project to someone mentioned often by Canucks management when discussing the cornerstone players for their core of the future.
But Stecher didn’t just do this with dogged effort. He’s studied the game, spent a lot of time thinking about how’d he manage despite the obvious size thing.