The Canuck Way
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Canucks: 3 underdogs who could start 2021 in the top-six

By Brayden Ursel

VANCOUVER, BC - NOVEMBER 05: Alex Pietrangelo #27 of the St. Louis Blues moves the pucks past Bo Horvat #53 of the Vancouver Canucks while being checked by Tanner Pearson #70 at Rogers Arena on November 5, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, BC - NOVEMBER 05: Alex Pietrangelo #27 of the St. Louis Blues moves the pucks past Bo Horvat #53 of the Vancouver Canucks while being checked by Tanner Pearson #70 at Rogers Arena on November 5, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images) /
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Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson search for the puck. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson search for the puck. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images) /

The departure of Tyler Toffoli leaves a hole to be filled inside the Vancouver Canucks’ top-six. Here are three underdog candidates for the position.

The Vancouver Canucks‘ “649 Lotto Line” is one of the best trios in the National Hockey League and Jake Virtanen may not be defensively responsible enough in the mind of Travis Green to play shutdown minutes with Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson.

So who does the head coach choose to fill the role? Let’s take a look at three darkhorse candidates you may not have seen coming. Some may intrigue you, while others may have you running the other direction…

1. Brandon Sutter

Honestly, as boring as it sounds having Brandon Sutter inside the Canucks’ top-six, he’s a better than average defensive forward, and next to a talented centre like Horvat he might be able to find somewhat of an offensive scoring touch.

I know he hasn’t been the goal-scorer Benning hoped he’d one day become, but if Green decides to go with a modified “insurance line”, in my mind, Sutter is the first man who could fill in for what Loui Eriksson brings to the right-wing. The only difference being that Sutter might actually be able to contribute more in terms of point production, but not by much.

I don’t see this being Green’s first option, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he went with something like this to start the season. He likes giving minutes to his vets, and even though Benning says more youth will be injected into the lineup next year, it might take a few weeks of failure to change the mind of Green.

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