The Vancouver Canucks need a veteran presence on their third line and Brandon Sutter is the man for the job. Many players may not deserve their place in the lineup but Brandon Sutter definitely does.
The Vancouver Canucks have a logjam of “bottom six” forwards after waiving Sven Baertschi and Nikolay Goldobin. There is a lot of debate about who deserves to be where in the lineup, one of those people who gets his ability questioned is Brandon Sutter. I’m going to delve deep into the career of Sutter and analyze exactly why he has the talent to be a solid depth forward and play an important piece in the Canucks lineup.
Brandon Sutter is going into his 12th NHL season and he has averaged .38 points per game over his career. This is more than ex-Canuck Jared Mccann who holds a .36 points per game as well as being classified as a scorer with limited defensive upside. There are also lifetime third liners such as Jamie Mcginn, Lars Eller, as well as former fan favourite Manny Malhotra, who all have a lower career PPG than Sutter.
Sutter has been victim to his coach’s deployment the last two seasons, starting in the offensive zone just 22 and 31 percent in each of his past two seasons, respectively. It’s no question that shifts in the defensive zone are more physically demanding, and having a player prone to injuries playing a majority of their shifts in the defensive zone just asks for trouble.
This looks like it’s going to change this season as Travis Green has said that he wants the third line to score and thinks that they are poised to score more goals than they have in the past. (see tweet below 1:08)
"I've known Sven for a long time, since he was 17 years old and this was not an easy decision." Coach Green talks roster news and opening night lineup. pic.twitter.com/tuGvM20cOx
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) September 30, 2019
When Sutter has been put in a transition role with a more even offence/defence draws ratio he has put up close to even CF%. In 2016-17 Brandon Sutter scored 17 goals and added 17 assists and had a CF% of 46 while still starting only 43% of his draws in the offensive zone.
The addition of Jay Beagle should have created more support for Brandon Sutter, but instead of transitioning back into a 43% offensive zone starts it only jumped up nine percent from 22% to 31%. Look for an even bigger jump this season with the team looking to score more from all fronts.
Sutter looks to anchor the third line alongside many options: Jake Virtanen, Josh Leivo, Adam Gaudette, or Loui Erikkson. All these players have (or had) offensive upside and can look to push the play towards the opposition. Sutter is an advanced stat anchor, I mean that figuratively and literally, this is no fault of his own as he’s been branded as a shutdown center since the beginning of the Green era.
Looking back on last night’s game it’s obvious that Sutter needs a supporting cast of offensively-minded wingers who will push him to be better, Loui Eriksson, unfortunately, was that choice last night but it needs to change, Eriksson is not going to make the third line produce anything. Dress Gaudette.
In order to successfully create the third scoring line that all the fans have been clamouring for this boils down to Travis Green making the correct deployment decisions for Sutter. Giving Sutter the green light to access that inner 20 goal scorer that he once was is going to be integral this season. The Canucks cannot have two shut down centres in this league, it’s dinosaur thinking and if that’s all that they can use Sutter for then it may be time to move on.