The “Easy Move”
Perhaps the easiest move that I’ve seen people discuss is that of trading or sending down a player like Tyler Motte or Brandon Sutter. I for one believe that the Canucks become a worse team if Sutter is taken out of the lineup, Motte, not so much.
A fourth line of Schaller, Jay Beagle, and Sutter could prove to be an extremely effective shutdown line, all the while allowing for a more offensively minded third line, consisting of the likes of Gaudette, Sven Baertschi, and Josh Leivo. I’m just spitballing here, but the point is, getting rid of Sutter in favour of keeping Motte or Goldobin in the lineup makes the team worse.
The Canucks should not be getting rid of Sutter to make room for Gaudette. Moving to the wing is something Sutter himself is not opposed to, and it will help the Canucks, in the long run, to have Sutter at their disposal for penalty killing duties, while having Gaudette for third line center duties.
We’ve talked over and over about how this team needs to transition from having a clear top six and bottom six to a top nine forward group. Three lines who can all score and one that makes it incredibly challenging for opposing teams’ top lines to do just that. That’s what the Canucks are going for, and Gaudette can help them achieve that.
I like Motte as much as the next guy, and you have to respect his hustle, but as Harman Dayal of The Athletic suggested, Beagle actually performs better in his role alongside Schaller than he does with Motte:
Interesting that we've Beagle and Schaller getting an extended look together in preseason. I wrote in May about how they drove play well last year
— Harman Dayal (@harmandayal2) September 26, 2019
Beagle w/ Schaller
50% shot share
55.6% expected goal share
Beagle w/o Schaller
37.2% shot share
35.8% expected goal share
I’m not typically someone who writes much about trades, but it feels as though if the Canucks don’t make a move here in the coming days, then they could be sending down Gaudette. Personally, I feel that doing that will leave a sour taste in the mouths’ of Canucks fans.
Everyone wants to see the Canucks’ young players succeed and earn spots in the lineup. Fans want to see their team do well, and everything Gaudette has shown would suggest that not only as he earned a spot, but he will also improve the team. In my opinion, it would be a bad move to send Gaudette to Utica after the way he played in the preseason.
We should find out in the coming days what the Canucks’ plan is, but the team has more than a couple of options when it comes with how they’re going to go about keeping Gaudette at the NHL level, some of which I haven’t even mentioned here. How do you think the Canucks will go about keeping Gaudette up with the big club? Do you think they’ll send him down? Let me know in the comments section below!