Vancouver Canucks: TCW’s Team Award Picks
By Jeff Godley
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