If this NHL season is a road trip, and the Vancouver Canucks are behind the wheel of the bus, I’m the one sitting in the back pestering the driver.
“Is Jannik Hansen better yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“OK. Is Jannik Hansen better yet now?”
For years he has been typecast as a speedy third-line winger, but Canucks fans know better. He’s been the true unsung hero for Vancouver for many seasons now. Literally, in fact; Hansen has won the Fred J. Hume Award three times, the most in Canucks history.
(At this point that award is a bit of a misnomer. The praises have been sung.)
Management knows what they have with Hansen. Expect him to be protected during the upcoming expansion draft. Granted, he is now 30, and he plays a type of game that doesn’t always ensure a lengthy career. But his skillset is rare in this lineup, and that’s worth a great deal. Let’s break down why he’s so valuable.
Hansen is a top-six forward. He scores at roughly a half-point-per-game pace, and can be relied upon for somewhere between 15 and 20 goals each season. That’s well within the typical scoring range of a second-line winger.
And despite often playing in a checking role, Hansen puts up solid possession numbers, with a Corsi For of around 48% this season, similar to Bo Horvat and just a hair below the Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
That being said, I understand why he could be viewed as a third liner. Hansen plays a fast, gritty game that’s typical of a checking forward. It’s just that he also happens to score lots of points and make players around him better.
So he’s a top-six forward. What else? Well, he’s a highly versatile top-six forward. That means Willie Desjardins can plug him in anywhere in the entire lineup and he does the job. Shifts on the fourth line? No problem, he’s built for that. Penalty kill? Perfect, can do. First-line duties alongside the Sedins? Best fit on the team. Second-line duties? The line of Markus Granlund, Brandon Sutter and Hansen looked fantastic most nights. Taming angry bears? He trained for that in the summer.
He does everything, and does it well. Let’s just say, if there’s a zombie apocalypse, I’m heading to the Honey Badger’s house and following his lead. Then we'll go to Bill Murray's house.
Probably the biggest reason Vancouver needs him back is his chemistry with the Sedins. Hansen fits on that top line better than anyone on the team. It’s funny, because I’m willing to bet Vancouver acquired Loui Eriksson in free agency thinking he’d fill that role. But Loui isn’t really the kind of player the Sedins thrive with. They need someone who is fast, gritty, and abrasive. Someone who’ll give them space and go hard to the net. And someone with enough scoring touch to finish on those sweet Sedin backpasses.
Vancouver currently has just two roster players that fit that bill: Alexandre Burrows and Jannik Hansen.
So there’s no doubt that his absence is felt across the team. A Hansen-less roster forces the lineup into awkward permutations that don’t quite click.
When Hansen suffered a cracked rib during a tilt with the Toronto Maple Leafs (during which he also scored an assist and clobbered Nazem Kadri), Vancouver activated the Line Blender 3000 to compensate. When that questionable smoothie was finished, Brandon Sutter lined up alongside Daniel and Henrik. And while Sutter is fast, he hasn’t looked nearly as sharp with the twins as he did when centring Markus Granlund and Loui Eriksson.
I can somewhat understand why Desjardins tagged Sutter for that top line role. They really don’t many other options, and needs must when the devil drives.
Burrows is showing some real chemistry with Bo Horvat so the Canucks would be loath to separate those two. (Besides, it’s pretty clear that Burrows and the Sedins have had their day.) And putting Eriksson up there might make for a top-heavy team. But as Daniel Wagner has explained, Sutter isn't an ideal fit.
Desjardins is doing what he feels he has to do. But there’s no denying that the trickle down effect of Hansen’s injury has impacted the rest of the lineup. The only good news to result from it is the emergence of Horvat. His ice time has increased as he stepped into a role as Vancouver’s de facto second-line centre.
So what happens when Hansen returns? Good things.
He should probably slide right back into his role alongside the Sedins. That will allow Brandon Sutter to return to play centre alongside Loui Eriksson and Markus Granlund, while Bo Horvat can carry on feeding tasty saucer passes to Alex Burrows.
Alternately, Jannik showed serious flash with Sutter and Granlund on the “GranBranHan” line. That’s a legitimate option too. But I personally believe he’s best deployed with Daniel and Henrik.
Just like that, Vancouver will have three pretty effective lines to roll. Sprinkle in a healthy Sven Baertschi and Anton Rodin, and line combo speculators suddenly have an awful lot of grist for the mill.
So, Is Jannik Hansen better yet?
