OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS FOR BUDDING BRISEBOIS
Hitting in the third round of any NHL Entry Draft is brutally tough.
It’s among the reasons Nikita Tryamkin’s departure to the KHL hurt so much. The Canucks finally nailed the right pick in a middle round and lost the player for nothing in return.
But Tryamkin’s parting isn’t all bad. A young man that size doesn’t exit without opening a door. And the gap could be wide enough for one of the Canucks’ developing defencemen to swagger through.
Enter rangy, mature and smart Guillaume Brisebois. The player taken with the third-round pick acquired in the Eddie Lack trade is no sure thing. But he’s shown enough top-four upside this past season to slot in here at eighth in a rundown of the Canucks’ top-10 prospects.
Brisebois took some hits at the Young Stars tournament in September. They weren’t all on the ice.
Vancouver GM Jim Benning basically called him out for being soft, pointing out Brisebois needed “more desperation” and “urgency” in the way he played defence.
This is usually code for a player not being tough enough. It’s true Brisebois, who measured at nearly 6-3 in the fall after being 6-1 heading into the 2015 draft, did get rolled, or easily outmanoeuvred, by forwards nearly half a foot shorter. That was troubling.
At the time, Travis Green suggested Brisebois watch a whole lot of Alex Edler video to figure out how to box players out, especially around the net. It seemed to be sound advice for a defenceman looking really raw.
Brisebois apparently got the message because he followed up his Young Stars and training camp experiences with his best season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He broke out offensively and was among the final cuts for Team Canada’s World Junior Championship team. What several scouts like is his point total, which jumped from 26 to 47, but the Canucks seemed most thrilled about his urgency.
If Brisebois pans out in the pros, some credit must go to Vancouver development coach Scott Walker.
“He did good work with him and he got him playing with more conviction defensively,” Benning said. “We drafted him because we liked his ability to get back and transition the puck up the ice. His overall game, his ability to skate and move the puck up, that is his strength. But he needed to play with more conviction.”
Scouts love to point out his character.
At 17, he was named captain of his junior team, Acadie-Bathurst. He was traded last year and wasn’t even with Charlottetown two months before his new teammates voted him captain.
The leadership qualities are there, but is he physically ready to play in the AHL this season?
“He’ll come to training camp, so we’ll see where he’s at, but I would think development-wise, he’ll be playing in Utica,” Benning said. “He needs to keep developing.”
This will be a big season for him.