never really been rated as highly<\/a> as similarly positioned defencemen such as Devon Toews, Thomas Harley or even Brock Faber. His form held up better than most of Vancouver\u2019s other blueliners in the disorganized, permissive defensive environment the club slogged through under Adam Foote last season, but in truth, Hronek isn\u2019t really a defensive driver in his own right at five-on-five.<\/p>\nLast year, for example, in Hronek\u2019s minutes playing with Hughes or Marcus Pettersson, Vancouver outscored its opposition by a healthy 30-25 margin \u2014 which is pretty remarkable given the team was outscored by a whopping 79 goals at five-on-five last season. However, in his minutes with younger blueliners \u2014 Zeev Buium, Tom Willander and Elias Pettersson \u2014 Vancouver was massively outscored by a 20-42 margin.<\/p>\n
Where Hronek really excelled was when he supplanted Hughes and Buium on Vancouver\u2019s top power-play unit down the stretch. Installed on the right side, Hronek cooked as both a shooter and facilitator at the top of Vancouver\u2019s 1-3-1, and led all NHL defencemen by power-play points rate (minimum 150 power-play minutes).<\/p>\n
The contours of Hronek\u2019s five-on-five and power-play profile outline what a further breakout could look like this upcoming season. It starts with carrying a pair at even strength, without the help of a star-level partner or a second top-pair-calibre blueliner on his left side. It continues with sustaining the power-play brilliance he demonstrated down the stretch over the course of a full season.<\/p>\n
Likelihood: 4\/10<\/p>\n
Pettersson: Enigmatic disappointment back to being a fringe top-10 centre<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t keep waiting for Elias Pettersson to bounce back to the franchise-level form he demonstrated throughout most of his early 20s.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s either going to happen, or it\u2019s not. Either Pettersson\u2019s skating speed and burst will return, allowing him to arrive ahead of the play the way he used to and beat defenders one-on-one with clinical regularity, or it won\u2019t. Either the shot velocity and precision will return to his finishing game, or it won\u2019t.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no significant utility analyzing Pettersson\u2019s game beyond that. Even at his lowest lows the past two seasons, he\u2019s still largely been a capable top-six two-way player, but he\u2019s no longer winning his five-on-five minutes and he\u2019s no longer producing offence at a top-six level.<\/p>\n
He gets credit for being willing to go to the hard areas of the ice and to pay the price to block shots, but that\u2019s not how a player with Pettersson\u2019s raw abilities helps an NHL team win games. Until the physical tools \u2014 the skating speed, the shooting velocity, the dekes \u2014 return on an every-night basis, I don\u2019t know that Canucks fans should keep holding their breath for the old Pettersson to return.<\/p>\n
Likelihood: 2\/10<\/p>\n
Rossi: Underrated middle-sixer to star-level, top-line center<\/p>\n
Marco Rossi\u2019s potential to be a breakout performer for Vancouver this upcoming season is being slept on.<\/p>\n
Around the league, he just isn\u2019t thought of as a guy with star-level potential at this stage of his career. This is a player, however, who is just entering his prime, has generally been a productive, play-driving presence at the NHL level, has dealt with a variety of injuries and illnesses that have likely affected his development path, and has the sort of bullish profile \u2014 an elite CHL scoring profile, high-end production in both the AHL and NHL in his early 20s \u2014 worth buying stock in.<\/p>\n
Though he\u2019s undersized and is a below-average skater for the position, his willingness to go hard to the blue paint, his playmaking intelligence and his skill level in tight areas have made him a productive player when healthy.<\/p>\n
Now throw in a situation where Rossi will orchestrate Vancouver\u2019s power play, play huge five-on-five minutes and is entering the season fully healthy, and you\u2019ve got all of the ingredients for Rossi to produce offence at a point-per-game clip (or near it) this season.<\/p>\n
Likelihood: 7\/10<\/p>\n
Karlsson: Useful depth forward to top-of-the-lineup option<\/p>\n
This one just comes down to fitness and speed.<\/p>\n
Linus Karlsson did it all for the Canucks last season, leading the team in five-on-five scoring and managing easily the best two-way results of any forward in the lineup. The only problem is that he did it while playing fourth-line minutes at five-on-five, and never really got an opportunity to do more further up the lineup.<\/p>\n
It has to be a different story this season. Entering the first year of a two-year extension inked midway through last season, Vancouver needs to figure out what they have in the soon-to-be 27-year-old. Even if he tops out as a solid bottom-six defensive specialist and net-front power-play ace, Karlsson will be one of Vancouver\u2019s best second-wave trade assets over the next 18 months. If Karlsson can do what he did last season, however, in 17 minutes a night instead of 12 \u2026. well, then the conversation around his value \u2014 both to this team and on the trade market \u2014 shifts significantly.<\/p>\n
This is a player Manny Malhotra trusts. Good thing too, because Karlsson has earned the opportunity to play a featured role.<\/p>\n
Likelihood: 5\/10<\/p>\n
\u00d6hgren: Strong energy-line forward to top-six power forward<\/p>\n
Between his 90th-percentile shooting velocity and remarkable top-end speed relative to his weight, Liam \u00d6hgren has some genuinely freakish physical tools. Vancouver wasn\u2019t sure \u00d6hgren would stick with the NHL team when he was first acquired in the Hughes trade last season, but he earned a full-time NHL spot and rounded out his game down the stretch. In particular, the potential he showed as a penalty killer opens a path as an impactful bottom-six type \u2014 in the mold of a Drew O\u2019Connor \u2014 even if his offence never develops.<\/p>\n
If that offence develops, however, the Canucks could have a star on their hands.<\/p>\n
\u00d6hgren is still just 22, and his profile \u2014 first-round pick, stellar AHL production \u2014 is promising. The skill level is also evident when you watch him play, especially in the shootout. When it works for him, it really works.<\/p>\n
Last season, however, even if he scored five-on-five goals at a fringe top-six rate, his overall point production was pedestrian. He\u2019s now played 97 career NHL games with just 25 points to show for it. It\u2019s worth noting too that while \u00d6hgren passed the eye test when alongside skilled guys \u2014 he seemed to have chemistry on a line with Conor Garland, and with Marco Rossi and Brock Boeser \u2014 by the underlying numbers those lines generally fared poorly.<\/p>\n
If he can put it together and be a speedy top-six worker bee capable of skating with skilled players, he could be a huge supporting piece for this rebuild. What level he can find offensively, however, will determine whether he can break out or not.<\/p>\n
Likelihood: 6\/10<\/p>\n
Buium: Promising offence to one of the best young blueliners in the game<\/p>\n
Zeev Buium has the intelligence, the attacking juice and the mentality to be special. To break out further, however, he\u2019s going to need to add weight and muscle \u2014 more for the purpose of playing through contact than to aid him on the defensive side \u2014 which may be a matter of maturity and time more than a skill development matter.<\/p>\n
On the hockey side, Buium has every tool you could ask for, but because he\u2019s left-handed and only 6-0, there\u2019s fragility in his profile. If Buium doesn\u2019t develop into an elite power-play weapon, history tells us his path to being valued as an elite defenceman is a prohibitively narrow one.<\/p>\n
Given Hronek\u2019s power-play excellence down the stretch, the bigger Buium breakout \u2014 the one that requires him to get significant power-play reps and be a major point producer \u2014 may have to wait a bit.<\/p>\n
Likelihood: 5\/10<\/p>\n
Willander: Inconsistency on third pair to two-way difference maker<\/p>\n
Tom Willander gets a lot of praise for his tools and athleticism, but the mentality \u2014 his willingness to defend \u2014 is arguably his strongest asset. This is a player who wants to defend aggressively, and takes pride in that phase of the game. That gives Willander and Vancouver\u2019s coaches a strong baseline to start from.<\/p>\n
The questions for Willander arise, however, when it comes to his puck skills and his overall two-way awareness. Willander doesn\u2019t need to be a star-level puck handler to be a strong top-four option who doesn\u2019t take too much off the table offensively in his minutes. He just needs to be sharper about handling passes and more decisive on the breakout.<\/p>\n
On the awareness angle, who knows how much of what we saw last season was a product of Willander\u2019s abilities and hockey IQ and how much of it was the product of a dysfunctional on-ice environment. What\u2019s clear is that Vancouver got caved in with Willander on the ice at five-on-five against both top competition and in third-pair minutes last season, and that will have to change if Willander is going to break out as a credible top-four-calibre defenceman in his sophomore season.<\/p>\n
Likelihood: 3\/10<\/p>\n
Lekkerim\u00e4ki: Incomplete AAAA scorer to top-six NHL regular<\/p>\n
Jonathan Lekkerim\u00e4ki has throttled AHL competition consistently, but he\u2019s struggled to replicate that impact at the NHL level. More than anything else, Lekkerim\u00e4ki needs to stay healthy. In his draft plus-one campaign, he dealt with mononucleosis. In his first year of North American professional hockey, his season was waylaid in the playoffs by an infection following a dental procedure. Recovering from that episode caused him to lose 10 pounds. Then last season, Lekkerim\u00e4ki\u2019s season was ended prematurely by shoulder surgery.<\/p>\n
Lekkerim\u00e4ki needs to add core strength more than anything else. He\u2019s not big enough or fast enough to hold up against NHL competition, which has limited his ability to break through in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
Given that his offseason was at least partly compromised by recovery, it\u2019s hard to imagine that he\u2019ll be ready this fall to address his physical shortcomings. Patience may be required, and given Lekkerim\u00e4ki is still a year away from requiring waivers, patience is something Vancouver can afford in this instance.<\/p>\n
Likelihood: 2\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breakouts occur in a variety of different shapes and sizes. As much as we focus on the singular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85,2371],"class_list":["post-879746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-vancouver-canucks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}