Healthy Ferland would be a playoff bonus
Physical forward expected to be OK for mid-July camp
Micheal Ferland was built for this.
He knows it. His coach knows it. And so does the NHL.
The revved-up, testosterone-testing post-season is unlike any other professional sport. The regular season is about speed and skill and no-hitters, but the second season is a gut check. Touch the puck and you pay a price. Put a stick into somebody and expect to man up.
Under normal circumstances, that would be music to Ferland’s ears. But this has not been a normal season, even one paused March 12 by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Vancouver Canucks left-winger was limited to 14 NHL games by two concussions — one in an Oct. 30 fight and another when he delivered a jarring hit on Dec. 10. He then lasted one period on Feb. 14 after suffering concussion-like symptoms in a conditioning assignment with the AHL affiliate Utica Comets.
As the Canucks await their bestof-five, qualifying-round matchup with the Minnesota Wild in late July, they also have to wonder how Ferland could possibly be part of their mix.
There is encouraging news. The 28-year-old Swan River, Man., native is skating and training in the Winnipeg area and will be ready for training camp in mid-July.
“I talked to him three weeks ago and he said he was feeling well,” Canucks general manager Jim Benning said Thursday. “If he’s healthy, he’s the type of player you need. He can get in on the forecheck, knock a guy off the puck and make a play.
“The playoffs are about trying to get out of your own end fast and putting on the pressure with a strong forecheck. That’s the strength of his game. He could be a big help.”
Ferland was acquired July 10 in free agency and signed a four-year, US$14-million deal. The Canucks were banking on the six-foot-one, 217-pound winger chasing the 40 points (17-23) he had with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2018-19 and the 41 points (21-20) with the Calgary Flames in 2017-18.
And if he still had that nasty streak from driving the Canucks crazy in the 2015 playoffs, all the better.
Ferland was initially projected to provide time, space and protection for Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser. The newly acquired J.T. Miller was going to align with Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson and there was reason for top-six forward optimism.
However, Ferland managed but one goal and three points in his first 10 games. Then came the concussions. Then along came winger Tyler Toffoli in a Feb. 17 trade.
Toffoli quickly found footing with Miller and Pettersson and had 10 points (6-4) in his first 10 games. Boeser joined Horvat and Pearson to get his game going, but didn’t score in his final 12 games, despite a pair of five-shot outings.
Adam Gaudette between Antoine Roussel and Jake Virtanen made alignment sense and Jay Beagle centring Tyler Motte and Brandon Sutter would be a shutdown line.
Ferland, Loui Eriksson, Zack MacEwen and a number of AHL recalls would be extras, but Ferland may warrant a look. He could replace Roussel, who endured 12and 11-game goal droughts from Jan. 7 to March 4.
Roussel could still help drag the Canucks into the fight, if he doesn’t take bad penalties. But a healthy Ferland would give the line a heavier look and better forechecking.
Ferland declined an interview request Thursday and will wait until camp before commenting on his challenges. It’s somewhat understandable.
Five days before his season ended in Utica, he spoke of how educated he had become of the complex vestibular sensory system. It provides the brain with information about motion, head position and orientation. It also affects motor functions for balance and stability of the head and body.
Ferland was buoyed by how well he was competing in contact practices and had reason to believe he could be relieved of concussion concerns.
“I’m not really worried about it,” he said.
“Once I fix this, I think I can go back to being the player I was in junior and not having little things like this that bump my system off. I’ll be able to hit guys and play my style and not worry about being hurt. I think I’m close.”
Fast forward and what are we to think? Will five months from his latest concussion-related episode be sufficient time to heal? Multiple concussions, whether by a blow to the head or whiplash effect, make you more susceptible to the next big one that could be career threatening. And there’s no such thing as a mild or medium concussion. A concussion is a concussion and there’s no definitive timeline for a brain bruise to heal.
Yet there is always hope. Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins has had four career concussions, all of the whiplash variety. The last one occurred on April 2, 2013, when the centre took an elbow to the head in a puck pursuit.
He came back the following season, played 80 games and scored 30 goals.