Changing gears Gagner’s forte
VERSATILE FORWARD: Whether on wing or at centre, vet provides Canucks with options
Their opening week wasn’t even over before the Vancouver Canucks suffered the season’s first significant run of injuries.
This time they were prepared — or at least they hope so.
First it was Alex Edler, who was lost for four to six weeks, and then right behind him was Loui Eriksson, who got the same news after he was shoved into a netpost.
It quickly brought an end to pre-season hopes that often started like this: “Good things could happen, but only if the Canucks stay healthy this year.”
If you’re new to the city, know this — the Canucks never stay healthy. Maybe it’s the travel. Maybe it’s just dumb luck. But important players are hurt every season — lots of them — and not for a short amount of time.
The Canucks did try to build a safety net in the summer. They brought in Michael Del Zotto, a left-side defenceman who will be chewing through huge minutes helping the team absorb Edler’s loss.
They also signed Sam Gagner for three years and $9.45 million total. But fitting Gagner into the lineup has come off like finding the solutions to the hardest New York Times crossword puzzle: It hasn’t been easy.
He’s been everywhere and nowhere at the same time. That has to change. The time is now for Gagner, who should benefit the most from the opportunity presented with Eriksson out of the lineup.
Head coach Travis Green said Gagner doesn’t have to score to be productive, to help his team win, but the Canucks need goals and Gagner was signed to help out there.
When the Gagner deal was announced in July, GM Jim Benning put out a statement calling him a centre. By the start of pre-season, Benning told TSN the Canucks were flirting with the idea of playing him with the Sedins on the wing.
All of this may read as contradictory, but it does makes sense. Gagner is versatile. But sometimes versatility can make it more difficult for a player to find a consistent home and, in turn, chemistry.
Last year, for Gagner, he found consistency on the wing with the Columbus Blue Jackets and it was in a defensive-type, even-strength role. No one saw it coming.
“I think, all put together, I maybe played a month at centre,” Gagner said.
The rest of the time he was playing on the right side with Lukas Sedlak as his centre. It was both an odd deployment choice and a roaring success.
Sedlak, in his first year, proved to be an effective fourth-line centre whose best attributes are his defensive abilities.
Gagner, who hasn’t historically been a positive possession driver, helped control 55 per cent of the unblocked shot attempts when he was playing with Sedlak at even strength. That’s huge. Also, it was a big advantage for the Blue Jackets and helped create some mismatches for head coach John Tortorella.
There’s not really a Sedlak-type centre on the Canucks, though both Markus Granlund and Alexander Burmistrov could help Gagner have that type of success with the Canucks.
When asked, Gagner said he feels comfortable wherever he ends up in the lineup.
“I try not to think (where I fit) anymore,” Gagner said. “I came here with an open mind and will do what’s asked of me.
“That approach is definitely more beneficial. I feel like my game is coming around.”
So far, Green has suggested he doesn’t see Gagner as a centre with his lineup choices. How does Gagner see himself?
“It’s hard to say. I’ve played so many different positions now, I don’t know. I just see myself as a hockey player,” Gagner said. “I prepare the same way, no matter where I am in the lineup.”
Maybe the biggest reason the Canucks signed Gagner was the success he had on the Jackets’ power play.
He put up 18 points on that man advantage, but it is worth pointing out only four came in the second half of the season.
For Columbus, Gagner was mostly the middle component of a 1-3-1 power play, a position he hasn’t yet played for Vancouver.
For the Canucks, Gagner has been used more as a trigger man on the outside in that same formation.
He doesn’t have the hardest shot, so he may be misused here. But even Green admitted the team is still figuring out where he fits best.
Hopefully it doesn’t take three years.