TARNISHED GOLD
CANUCKS TOP 10 PROSPECTS: Call No. 6 on our list Nikolay ‘Golobin,’ because he’s got no D
There is an awkward truth to Vancouver GM Jim Benning’s comments this week.
Everyone knew what he meant. The straight-shooting, plain talker disturbed overly sensitive types when he said he was looking for “North American heart” while scouting some European talent.
Yes, it’s cliché and unfortunate, but in context, he was talking about skills transferring to smaller ice sheets in North America, it was both applicable and common.
Were there better ways of saying it? Sure.
He wouldn’t have triggered the snowflakes if he said his team was searching for talented Europeans who play a North American style.
It’s a mix, by the way, the Canucks are hoping to get out of Nikolay Goldobin in the fall.
Goldobin is the playmaking winger with the wicked shot who ranks No. 6 among our ranking of the Canucks top 10 prospects. The 21-year-old Russian isn’t just gifted with offensive skills; he lusts after goals, which ensures he’s often in the spots where scorers have the most success: in and around the goal-line and net.
“He’s really smart,” Benning said. “His hockey sense is a real strength.
“You saw that when he played with the Sedins. He can read off of them. He knows where to go for scoring chances. He understands where he needs to be to get the puck. “To me, he’s a pure goal-scorer.” Benning is probably underplaying Goldobin’s playmaking abilities here. He did have 26 assists in 46 AHL games before the Canucks traded Jannik Hansen to acquire him at the trade deadline. But “pure goal-scorer” is both a nice compliment, and something the Canucks desperately need.
The Canucks scored the second-fewest goals in the past two seasons combined. In those two years, the Canucks have had just three players reach 20 goals and they each did it only once. That is not good. For the franchise, the offence is in fact historically awful, which is why Goldobin’s development is so important.
It’s also why his relationship with new head coach Travis Green is going to be more scrutinized than the next time Benning is asked to break down some European prospects.
Getting offensive players to buy in and play with “North American heart” was massively important to Green during his four years in Utica. It meant some odd deployment choices, like long stretches where the “pure goal-scorer” of the day, Hunter Shinkaruk, was on the fourth line and not getting power-play chances.
If, say, the same thing were to happen to Goldobin in Vancouver, it would be a huge, overbearing story.
And getting a more well-rounded, structured game out of Goldobin is going to be one of the Canucks — and Green’s — goals.
“We’ve talked to him about it, and we’ve got to ... he’s got to round out his game,” Benning said. “He needs a good summer to get physically stronger up top.”
But there is a fine line here the Canucks are going to be riding, and they risked swinging too far in the wrong direction late last season when Goldobin was being publicly challenged to play grittier, notably by Brandon Sutter.
The Canucks have lots of players who can spend their time focused on grit. Goldobin needs to score. The Canucks need Goldobin to score. He has skills very few in the current organization possess.
“I think when people talk about him being grittier, it’s in the puck battles,” Benning said. “He needs to be stronger in those puck battles to use his skill and to make plays with the puck.
“But he’s never going to be a guy who is going to get in on the forecheck and hit. That’s not the style of player he is.
“He’s the kind of guy who can score and set up plays.”
The kind of guy the Canucks have been short on for years.