Vancouver Canucks: What Drew Shore Brings to the Team
The Vancouver Canucks have signed former Calgary Flames forward Drew Shore from Kloten of the Swiss NLA.
What we covered as a rumor this morning has been made official: Drew Shore will join the Vancouver Canucks for the remainder of the 2016-17 season.
From the press release:
"Shore, 26, earned a team-high 48 points and 24 goals in 50 games for Kloten HC of the Swiss-A League this season. His 24 assists on the year ranks second on the team. In 2015.16, the 6-3, 200-pound forward appeared in two games for the Calgary Flames (0-1-1) and 59 games for the AHL Stockton Heat (10-28-38). His 28 assists led all Heat skaters while his 38 points ranked fourth on the team. In 80 career NHL games split between Calgary and Florida, Shore has collected 24 points (9-15-24) and 24 penalty minutes."
Reading through Shore’s stats in the AHL, he looks like nothing outstanding. You certainly need some kind of skill to record 39 goals and 140 points in 205 games, but for an all-around offensive forward, that usually isn’t enough for the NHL.
In Switzerland, Shore recorded almost a point per game — which is great, but again, no guarantee for NHL success.
So why did the Canucks sign him?
That question is quite easy to answer: they are lacking depth.
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In last night’s loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Canucks lineup included three players that have spent the majority of the 2016-17 campaign in the AHL. Joseph LaBate, Alexandre Grenier and Joseph Cramarossa combine for 15 NHL games played this season.
Then there was Reid Boucher, who has hardly played at all this year (unfortunately) as well as Jayson Megna and Michael Chaput, who should not have played nearly as much as they did — at least not in extended roles.
The Canucks’ fourth line last night was Cramarossa-Chaput-Grenier — a full AHL line in a goodish organisation. Add to that LaBate-Megna-Boucher (though Megna played on the second line), and you have six players that probably wouldn’t be in the lineups of most playoff teams.
As a logical consequence, the Canucks were shut out 3-0 and got outshot 48-27.
This team is lacking scorers, and Shore is the only free option at this point in the season.
Will he push this team into the playoffs? Certainly not. But the Canucks, despite being in a transition phase, need every help they can get.
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With Shore only signed until the end of the season, they can always let him go if he doesn’t deliver. If he does, however, he could be a cheap option for next season as well.
His success in Vancouver is hard to predict, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Shore provides a tad more depth and could get a chance on any one of the forward lines.