Vancouver Canucks: TCW’s Team Award Picks
The votes are being tallied for the 2015-2016 Vancouver Canucks team awards. Here are our choices.
Fan voting recently closed for the Vancouver Canucks team awards for the 2015-2016 season.
There are four different awards that fans could vote on:
- Cyclone Taylor Award — Most Valuable Player
- Walter “Babe” Pratt Award — Best Defenceman
- Pavel Bure Award — Most Exciting Player
- Fred J. Hume Award — Unsung Hero
The awards will be handed out during the Canucks’ last home game — their season-closing tilt against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, April 9.
True, this year has not been kind to the Canucks. At the same time, last year’s 101-point campaign was far from perfect; likewise, this year has not been entirely negative.
Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin remained leaders, carrying the team’s offence for large parts of the season. Daniel leads the team with 28 goals and 61 points while Henrik is second with 11 goals and 54 points.
Youngsters Jared McCann, Jake Virtanen, and Ben Hutton all made the team out of training camp, kick-starting the youth movement in Vancouver.
They have been joined in the last few weeks by Andrey Pedan, Nikita Tryamkin, Brendan Gaunce and Alex Biega. Several other Canucks players have made their NHL debuts this season and played a brief stint with the big club.
Sven Baertschi rewarded Jim Benning‘s faith in him with a breakout year, recording 15 goals and 28 points this year, and becoming a reliable top-six forward.
There are many players who have put up noteworthy performances this season. But which players have stood out the most? Several of our writers have made our picks for the year-end awards.
For the record, here are the winners from last season:
- Most Valuable Player — Radim Vrbata
- Best Defenceman — Christopher Tanev
- Most Exciting Player — Radim Vrbata
- Unsung Hero — Derek Dorsett
What a difference a year makes.
Spoiler Alert: Radim Vrbata and Derek Dorsett do not feature heavily in our picks for this year’s awards.
Next: Cyclone Taylor Award -- MVP
Cyclone Taylor Award – Most Valuable Player
Our picks:
- Jeff Godley — Daniel Sedin
- Janik Beichler — Daniel Sedin
- Sarah Laug — Daniel Sedin
- David Joun — Ben Hutton
- Gerald Morton — “Oh boy. Umm….Er…..Daniel?”
Consensus MVP: Daniel Sedin
There is a clear consensus for this pick: Daniel Sedin was the Vancouver Canucks’ Most Valuable Player this season.
It’s hard to argue with this. On a Vancouver team that has scored the fewest goals in the Western Conference (180) Daniel has scored 28 of them, or 16 percent of his team’s total. With 61 points, Daniel has contributed to one third of his team’s goals this year.
Without that production, it’s painful to imagine where the Canucks would be.
Daniel Sedin’s value, however, extends beyond his on-ice feats. It was not too long ago that Daniel, in a very un-Sedin-like fashion, openly criticized his team for a lack of effort.
Read: Daniel Sedin Unhappy with Teammates’ Effort
After his team managed to record three straight wins versus the powerhouse teams in California, Daniel was all smiles, and was just as open in his praise of his teammates for their play:
I just like the way we’re playing. Forget about wins and losses. We’re competing, we’re playing well, and it’s a good feeling. We want to show ourselves we can play — even going into next year — that playing the right way, working hard is going to pay off in the long run.
Daniel Sedin has more than earned the “A” he wears on his jersey this season. Aside from his twin brother, could there be a better mentor to the next crop of young Canucks players?
The question answers itself.
Dark Horse: Ben Hutton
David was the lone dissenter in our writer’s poll: he picked rookie defenceman Ben Hutton as Most Valuable Player.
Hutton leads all Canucks defencemen in points and assists this season. And, in a year where injuries have plagued the back end, Hutton is second among defencemen in games played with 73, trailing only Matt Bartkowski‘s 78.
More on Ben Hutton later.
Next: Walter 'Babe' Pratt Award -- Best Defenceman
Walter “Babe” Pratt Award — Best Defenceman
Our Picks:
- Jeff Godley — Christopher Tanev
- Janik Beichler — Christopher Tanev
- Sarah Laug — Ben Hutton
- David Joun — Ben Hutton
- Gerald Morton — Nikita Tryamkin (“Because, why not? Let’s crush the poor giant with MORE unfair expectations!”)
Consensus Pick #1: Chris Tanev
Can the value of Chris Tanev to the Vancouver Canucks be overstated?
Tanev has missed 14 games due to injury this season; in those games, the Canucks have a 3-8-3 record and have been outscored badly, 43-19.
In the four games since Tanev has returned from an injury, the Canucks are 3-1, outscoring their opponents 15-12 — this on a team tied for last in the league with a minus-45 goal differential.
Consensus Pick # 2: Ben Hutton
Ben Hutton makes a repeat appearance in our picks.
As if leading the Canucks in assists and points by defencemen was not enough, in the second half of his first NHL campaign, Ben Hutton was charged with taking the place of runaway ice-time leader Alexander Edler on the Canucks’ top defensive pairing. An enormous task, particularly for a rookie.
For all that, Hutton has hardly looked out of his depth. His stick handling is a joy to watch, and he seems to have no panic to his game. More often than not, Ben Hutton has been the player starting the Canucks’ offense.
The future is bright for this poised young D-man.
Conspicuously Absent: Dan Hamhuis
Interestingly, no one picked veteran Dan Hamhuis, though it’s safe to assume he was near the top of everyone’s list. After Jim Benning couldn’t deal away the veteran defenseman at the deadline, Hamhuis has proved to be invaluable to the Canucks.
He is third in ice-time on the Canucks (Hutton is fourth), and has given leadership to a very young defense corps, with Edler and Luca Sbisa missing significant time.
Related: Re-Signing Dan Hamhuis is the Canucks’ Only Option
Tongue-in-Cheek Pick: Nikita Tryamkin
It may be a stretch to consider a player with 11 games of NHL experience the Canucks’ best defenceman. Yet the hulking Russian has provided some much-needed physicality, and while he clearly still needs to adjust to the NHL game, Tryamkin’s long reach has helped him make up for most of his early mistakes.
Also, this happened:
Next: Pavel Bure Award -- Most Exciting Player
Pavel Bure Award — Most Exciting Player
Our Picks:
- Jeff Godley — Jannik Hansen
- Janik Beichler — Daniel Sedin
- Sarah Laug — Sven Baertschi
- David Joun — Sven Baertschi
- Gerald Morton — N/A (“Seriously, I’m only going to stretch this ‘awards’ thing so far. They should just leave this blank this year”)
Consensus Pick: Just kidding. There isn’t one.
There may not be a clear consensus in our picks for this award, but there is a clear theme: goals, goals, goals.
Daniel Sedin, Jannik Hansen, and Sven Baertschi are 1-2-3 in Canucks scoring this season.
At home, where the Canucks play has tended to be worse (to the chagrin of many fans, such as Gerald), these three have usually been the ones igniting the crowd at Rogers Arena. Of the 91 goals Vancouver has scored at home, this trio has combined for 30 of them.
Daniel Sedin’s offensive contributions were documented in the discussion about the MVP award.
Jannik Hansen has eclipsed 20 goals for the first time in his career. He became the Sedins’ go-to wingman, taking over that role from more traditional linemates like Alexandre Burrows and Radim Vrbata.
Gone are the days when Hansen was a perennial contender for the “Unsung Hero” award. His value to the Canucks is no longer a well-kept secret – everyone is singing praise of Hansen.
Sven Baertschi has also broken through — and his emergence is even more exciting given how much he had left to prove when he began the season.
Baertschi took two months to really figure things out offensively, and he drew criticism during this time, when he only put up two goals through the first 20 games while playing on the second line. Since December, he has been good for 13 goals and 21 points in 49 games.
His awakening has catalyzed an excellent second half for linemate Bo Horvat. A quick glance at this WOWY (With You, Without You) chart, courtesy of puckalytics.com, shows that Baertschi and Horvat have complemented each other nicely:
At 5-on-5, Horvat and Baertschi have combined to score 2.2 goals per 60 minutes. Additionally, Horvat’s goals against per 60 minutes balloons when playing away from Sven Baertschi. This tandem has tilted the ice in the right direction for the Canucks.
Next: Fred J. Hume Award -- Unsung Hero
Fred J. Hume Award — Unsung Hero
Our Picks:
- Jeff Godley — Christopher Tanev
- Janik Beichler — Jake Virtanen
- Sarah Laug — Jake Virtanen
- David Joun — Jacob Markstrom
- Gerald Morton — Rollie Melanson
Consensus (?) Pick: Jake Virtanen
It would be tempting to look at Jake Virtanen’s 13 points in 53 games and conclude that his rookie season has been nothing special. But his points total doesn’t tell the whole story.
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Virtanen is among the Canucks’ leaders in Corsi-for percentage, keeping company with veteran players such as the Sedins, Brandon Sutter and Radim Vrbata. When Virtanen is on the ice, the Canucks are getting more scoring chances than they are giving up.
Virtanen is among the Canucks’ leaders in hits; his physical game is something that Willie Desjardins has consistently praised. In a Western Conference full of big, scary, physical players, Virtanen is almost irreplaceable.
Jake Virtanen is a talented, physically mature player from whom Canucks management — and fans — expect great things of.
Alternative pick #1: Christopher Tanev
Honestly, I almost pick Tanev for Canucks MVP, but a cooler head, and Sedinery, prevailed.
As a consolation prize, I’m going to give Tanev the double honour of unsung hero, simply because I think his worth is continually underestimated.
Tanev is not a huge offensive contributor, like the Ottawa Senators’ Erik Karlsson; nor is he physically imposing like Nikita Tryamkin.
What Tanev does provide is quiet, accurate defensive play. As I outlined under the Best Defenseman section, when forced to play without him, the Canucks lose — and lose badly.
Alternative Pick #2: Jacob Markstrom
Perhaps either goaltender could have filled this spot. But like Sven Baertschi, Markstrom had a lot left to prove in the NHL before this season started. The Canucks’ goalie of the future gets the nod here.
Markstrom’s struggles early in his career have left him with a career goal-against of 3.01, and a save percentage of .904 — numbers hardly becoming an NHL starter. After a banner year with the Utica Comets in 2014-15, Markstrom finally established himself in the big league, with a 2.73 goals-against average and .915 save percentage.
This is especially impressive given that his team is in the bottom 10 in goals surrendered, and that he is playing behind a defensive corps that has lost 118 man-games to injury.
Next: Canucks improve their lottery odds at Rexall Place farewell
Tongue-in-Cheek Pick: Rollie Melanson
In case you didn’t know, Rollie Melanson is the Vancouver Canucks’ goaltending coach. And given how many of the Canucks losses have been kept close even when the team was badly outshot, Melanson’s work with Markstrom and partner Ryan Miller earns him a nod — even if it’s in jest. It’s a shame to think he might not be with the club come September.
These are our picks for the Canucks 2015-16 Team Awards. The trophies will be handed out this Saturday before the Canucks’ final game.