51 Reasons the Vancouver Canucks shouldn’t trade Troy Stecher
10. He’s proved his worth. This one kind of ties in with numbers seven and nine, but Stecher has proved his worth to Canucks’ management. Travis Green has talked time and time again about how much he likes Stecher’s hustle and what he brings to the table.
11. He hustles. This is pretty self-explanatory.
12. RHD are hard to come by. In a league where reliable right-handed defencemen are seemingly a commodity, having a player with Stecher’s abilities on the right side of your third pairing is a very, very good thing.
13. He knows he needs to work harder than others. At the Canucks’ season introductory media day back in September, I asked Stecher what he worked on over the offseason. He replied, “just improving my all around-game. It sounds cliche, I’ve said it every single time before the season, but I’m 5’9 180 pounds; if I take an offseason off, I’m not going to be able to play in this league.” That’s a work ethic and a mindset that you wish every player on the Canucks possessed.
14. The painting of his dog will be hard to move. If you didn’t know already, Stecher’s Bernese Mountain Dog, Phoebe, is a bit of a celebrity in her own right in Vancouver. Last year, a fan surprised Stecher with an incredibly well done and incredibly large original painting of Phoebe. If you trade Stecher, you risk something happening to that painting during the moving process, and that’s a risk nobody wants to take.
15. He dabs, rather than claps, when the plane lands. Don’t worry, I don’t think this is a habit. Any sort of celebration when your plane touches down should be subject to scrutiny, but if you’re going to celebrate, at least don’t clap. A much quieter, more personal alternative is a dab, executed perfectly here by Stecher.
https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1184576845414465541
16. He’s a Travis Green guy. When your coach likes you and you like your coach, that’s a good thing.
17. He’s a Jim Benning guy. Jim Benning signed Stecher as a free agent out of college and was thrilled that Stecher chose to come to Vancouver. Jimbo loves him some Stecher. A real meat and potatoes kind of player.
18. He’s a Francesco Aquilini guy. I have no idea if this is true, I’m just spitballing. I mean, Stecher does like Italian food, maybe Aquilini will take him out for dinner sometime. Stecher also likes ridesharing, which scores him huge points in Aquilini’s books — but more on that later.
19. If they trade him, they might have no BCHL players soon. Stecher, along with defence partner Jordie Benn, are the only two players on the Canucks who have played in the BCHL. Maybe I’m biased because I cover the Coquitlam Express, but having some BCHL representation on BC’s only NHL team is pretty neat. It’s not set in stone that Benn will re-sign with the Canucks when his two-year deal is up, meaning that the Canucks may have no BCHL representation in two years. The horror.
20. They’d split up the “Born in BC” defence pairing.
Again, Stecher is a player who is all about his city, and his defence partner Jordie Benn, along with forward Jake Virtanen, are the only Canucks who are from BC. It’s even cooler that Benn and Stecher play together on a line, and it’d be a shame if that pairing got split up so soon before any t-shirts were mass produced.