Canucks: What to expect from Tanner Pearson in the playoffs

Tanner Pearson is a former Stanley Cup champion who can help push the Vancouver Canucks deep into the 2020 playoffs. Here’s what to expect from him.

The Vancouver Canucks will be a team entering the newly approved 24-team playoff format actually having very little playoff experience amongst players throughout their roster. Tanner Pearson having been crowned a Stanley Cup winner back in 2014 as a member of the L.A. Kings, will be expected by management to help guide this team’s young core of players into this best-of-five play-in series versus the Minnesota Wild.

Like the 2014′ Kings, depth is what will win the Stanley Cup this year. Because for the first time in the history of the National Hockey league, the most prestigious trophy in all of sports will be awarded to the team that can outlast 23 other clubs and wins five consecutive rounds of grueling all-out hockey warfare.

Luckily for Pearson, he’s been down a familiar road before and he knows what it takes to win. The Canucks will be happy to have his playoff knowledge and experience when the time comes. He’s a proven depth scorer who knows how to seal the deal when it matters most. Here’s what they can expect from him once the playoff towels start waving from fans’ living rooms.

Playoff experience

At the age of 21, Pearson was not only a Stanley Cup champion, but he was also playing a big role as part of one of the most dangerous lines in the NHL. That 70s Line consisted of himself, Jeff Carter and Tyler Toffoli and was absolutely terrorizing anything and everyone in its path. They were arguably the best two-way line in hockey that season.

It took 24 games to capture the Stanley Cup. Pearson served as an excellent secondary scorer and posted 12 points (four goals, eight assists) for a half a point per game pace. His chemistry with fellow young-gun Toffoli had a lot to do with the team’s success. If it wasn’t for the excellent jobs done by the team’s depth players, the Kings probably would have had ended their season with a different result.

Other than Pearson’s ring from 2014, he’s been on the losing side of the first round on three separate occasions. Nonetheless, experience is experience, and the Canucks will take it where they can get it. Pearson laced up the skates for just a single game in 2013, saw five games in 2016, and another four in 2018. Across 34 playoff games, Pearson has five goals, 10 assists, and one Stanley Cup.

What to expect

You can pretty much take what you saw from Pearson’s run in 2014 and more or less just copy and paste it onto the 2020 Canucks. With the addition of Toffoli (Pearson’s good friend and better teammate), it would seem that Jim Benning’s plan of attack is to take what he saw from the Kings and make it into something better for Bo Horvat.

That line hasn’t actually been put together just yet, but with Pearson and Toffoli both being familiar with each other, it might be worth looking at when the playoff plan makes its full return. They’ve won a cup playing together so it makes perfect sense to partner them up again as Vancouver’s go-to secondary scorers.

He proved this season that he’s still very capable 50+ point performer, but he’s also grown tremendously on the defensive side of the puck. Partnered with Horvat for the majority of the season, the two were open to the task of shutting down the opposition’s top players. Add another proven Stanley Cup champion in Toffoli and the Canucks are in good shape.

Expect Pearson to remain a staple to Horvat’s wing. They’ll be together at even-strength, the second unit power play, and the second unit penalty-killing unit. Chalk him up to be a good secondary scorer if the Canucks make it deep.