PENTICTON, B.C. — With two days of on-ice sessions and drills now in the books, Vancouver Canucks training camp is now up and running.
The practices have been fast-paced and detailed, with a particular focus on breakouts, rush attacking and the transition game. Some of the performances too, have been standout.
Sometimes one major story will emerge at an NHL training camp. More often, however, the real value of observing an NHL team at the outset of the season in a training camp environment is that there’s a lot of subtle, telling information that you’re able to pick up about various players and the team itself if you’re watching closely.
Here are 10 observations based on what we’re seeing at Canucks training camp through two days.
1. What’s the best lineup fit for Vincent Desharnais?
Desharnais is a giant human being. He’s impossible to miss and we’ve observed a lot from his first look in Canucks colours.
Let’s start with the positives. Firstly, his defensive play down low is authoritative and sharp. He’s extremely competitive and physical. During the two-on-two drills down low, it was nearly impossible for attackers to beat him and get to the net. It’s not just the physical attributes either, he makes good defensive reads. There was a two-on-two play down low where Carson Soucy was defending a puck carrier. Desharnais recognized that the puck carrier was in a vulnerable spot so he made the bold decision to double-team the attacker and stole possession away.
Desharnais’ lack of agility as a skater has looked suspect in other situations, however. He got burned by an Arshdeep Bains spin-o-rama on a zone entry off the rush. He was hit and miss on breakouts too — sometimes he’d successfully make a simple play, and other times forecheckers were able to win the puck against him on dump-ins.
Desharnais is currently skating on a pair with Carson Soucy. He definitely brings defensive value, but what’s the optimal lineup fit for him?
We’re not convinced he’s quick enough to play with Soucy in a matchup role against top lines. A third pair role would be ideal for him, but would he and Forbort be too slow together? Desharnais would flourish with an elite puck-mover like Quinn Hughes, but would that negatively impact the performance of Vancouver’s No.1 defender?
During a battle in front of the net late in Group A’s session on the academy rink at Canucks training camp on Friday, Mark Friedman was hurt.
What happened wasn’t immediately clear. It could’ve been a shot or a slash or a battle, given the way Friedman had been in the thick of it. What was definitely apparent is that his arm went limp, Friedman doubled over, and eventually after the sequence ended, Friedman skated it off slowly, labouring over it, his glove removed from his hand.
In the moment though, Friedman didn’t quit on the drill. He tried to stay in position, without his stick and his arm by his side. He kept moving his feet.
Then, after shaking it off, he was ready for the next rep. And made a really solid catch in traffic to hold the blue line and play the puck down low so that the cycle could continue.
Players at an NHL training camp are competing for all kinds of roles, whether it’s a top-line wing spot, a third-pair defense spot, a fourth-line centre spot or just an NHL contract. Minutes, money and making a good impression are on the line.
For a player like Friedman though, part of his value to an NHL team is derived from two key attributes: his excellence in practice and his versatility.
An undersized right-handed defender who rarely takes penalties, but draws a ton of them, just as comfortable playing the left-side point as he is the right-side point and filling in at wing too if need be. He actually tends to get pretty good results and gave the Canucks a few really solid weeks in the top four early last season too.
This is the sort of competitor that, even at an NHL training camp, keeps moving his feet after getting hurt and doesn’t miss a rep — in fact, makes a key play during the next one.
When Canucks brass are in the boardroom trying to decide on final cuts, it’s sequences like that, it’s the versatility that Friedman brings, and the internal drive that he displayed again on Friday, that will keep him in the mix as a consideration to win the 22nd or 23rd man on the club’s NHL roster.
Rick Tocchet is looking for more than pure offensive potential when identifying complementary wingers to potentially round out the top line with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser. Miller’s line is often tasked to duel head-to-head against the other team’s best players — that means details like winning puck battles, being reliable defensively and disrupting plays on the forecheck are essential for a complementary winger to nail.
With those criteria in mind, Danton Heinen has impressed through the first couple of days in camp alongside Miller and Boeser.
Defensively, Heinen was a monster during two-on-two battle drills down low. He has an insanely long wingspan and reach. He paired that with a smart, active stick to constantly kill the other side’s plays. He picked off passes because of his anticipation and also had sequences where he schooled Kiefer Sherwood, who’s an elusive, high-motor player down low, by muscling him off possession and stealing the puck.
Heinen’s pace, length, board work and ability to win pucks back could make it easier for Miller and Boeser to control possession and drive offensive play.
4. Why Heinen could have the offensive IQ to stick on the top line
Heinen’s two-way details are sharp but if you’re playing in a top-six role that’s going to come with certain offensive expectations too. Suter’s an example of a player who had just enough skill and offensive chops to stick on the top line.
What separates the complementary wingers who can stick with star players compared to the ones who get bumped down the lineup?
“I think the ability to think the game,” responded Heinen. “(Stars) like that are so smart in their own way. They think the game at such a high level that you got to be able to think and process almost as fast as them.
“For me what I’ve experienced is you’ve got to make plays quick. If they’re open and they’re in a prime scoring area, it’s got to be bang bang. If you’re too slow to make those plays it’s gone.”
Heinen’s puck skills aren’t anything to write home about, but we’ve noticed that his IQ stands out as a plus attribute. On Day 1 of camp, there were sequences where he had the puck down low in the offensive zone and was able to get his head up to make a poised, smart pass to continue the cycle.
The Canucks have several wingers vying for these complementary top-six roles, so the competition will be steep, but Heinen’s landed a solid first impression.
5. Pro reps
It’s a hard thing to explain to fans who don’t tend to watch NHL players practice regularly, but as excited as you are about your favourite team’s top prospects, the truth is that the veteran player fans are far more likely to criticize are at a totally different level as professional hockey players than most of their preferred 18- or 19-year-old prospects.
One major thing we’re watching for over the course of training camp is which young players look like professional players, and are giving the team “pro reps” in various drills in this practice environment.
“I like the word pro reps,” Tocchet said when we asked how he evaluates young non-NHL players in a training camp environment. “Because I think it’s important. We’ve done a lot of video in between and before practice. We’re spending a lot of time on transition and regroups and there’s a certain area that we want you to go and there’s a reason for it. So you’re looking for those guys to take that information, and then when they do it, can they make the play? That’s the hard part of the young guy. Sometimes with a young guy, you’ll see him do it the right way, but then the second time he doesn’t. Whether it’s a bad habit or hard to sustain, I don’t know, but that’s what I look for.”
The consistency side of this is crucial. On Thursday, for example, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser were out of sync on a two-on-one that opened up a rush drill. The next four reps they went through were picture-perfect, as they scored each time in a variety of impressive ways.
That’s the big gap between your NHL-level guys, and those guys striving to get to that level.
Danila Klimovich, for example, was shockingly electric on the first day of training camp. Then he had a much more frustrating performance on day two.
Christian Felton, a 24-year-old college free agent signing, is appearing in his first NHL training camp after a strong Young Stars tournament. There have been moments, particularly in battle drills, where he’s impressively held up against star NHL players. There have been other moments where he’s seemed a bit nervous, or a bit behind the pace. Still, it’s been a strong camp for him.
Riley Patterson looked like a dog with a bone when he held up in a two-on-two battle rep against Christian Wolanin and Tyler Myers on Friday, but hasn’t necessarily been at that level consistently. Player development can be a long road.
This is one reason why Elias Pettersson, the defender, has stood out positively to us as camp has gone along is that he’s consistently been able to give Vancouver reps in drills that aren’t remotely out of place for a professional player at this level. That’s impressive for a 20-year-old.
Tocchet offered up a couple of other names that have stood out to him in the early going at training camp on Friday.
“Kirill (Kudryavtsev) I don’t mind him, I like watching him out there,” Tocchet said. “I think he’s going to push that Abbotsford defense.
“Sawyer Mynio, he’s a good player, he’s got a lot of potential. He’ll make some mistakes, you’re going against Miller one-on-one as a 19-year-old kid, that’s tough. He’s performed well.”
There is uncertainty around Thatcher Demko’s health. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press via AP)
6. Canucks goalies off to a shaky start
With the uncertainty around Thatcher Demko’s health, there’s going to be an extra spotlight on the depth of Vancouver’s goaltending. It’s difficult to fairly judge the netminders in camp because the environment has been so shooter-friendly — the Canucks have run a ton of rush attacking drills where there isn’t much defensive support — but for the most part, the goalies have been getting lit up.
PTO invite Dylan Ferguson has looked like the weakest out of the professional netminders. He made some decent stops on his glove-hand side but has looked very vulnerable blocker side and has had multiple shots leak through him into the net. He looked visibly frustrated at times.
Artūrs Šilovs looked rusty on Day 1. He started to settle in and find his rhythm during the second half of Day 2’s session, though. He was more sharp tracking plays and moving in his crease.
Jiri Patera has had a rough start to camp, especially on Day 1 where he was routinely beat off the rush.
Nikita Tolopilo has probably been the steadiest of the bunch. He takes up a ton of the net because of his size, moves smoothly and hasn’t surrendered too many bad goals.
It’s way too early for any of these observations to have a major impact on the club’s goaltending depth chart. But big picture, you’d like to see Vancouver’s netminders find their groove over the following days because they’ve generally looked shaky in this challenging environment.
It was a big day for Nils Höglander, who Tocchet suggested would be in the mix to play a top-six role and complement some of Vancouver’s stars as training camp and the exhibition schedule roll along.
Tocchet also disclosed that Höglander had come into camp in great shape, and had the best results of any Canucks player in the club’s skating test.
On the ice on Friday, Höglander was his usual high-motor self. He excelled in battle drills, was arguably the most comfortable forward on the ice with the touch pass entry drills that the club was running in the first half of Friday’s sessions and scored a lovely goal on a massive, heavy shot that flummoxed Jiri Patera in the final battle drill rep of Friday’s session.
The battle drill that ended Canucks practice on Friday was a hidden bag skate. It’s a two-on-two down-low battle at one end, and then the attacking team skates quickly to the other end and defends against the next group going. By the end of the drill, almost everyone is on one knee or keeled over.
As the group settled around Tocchet to end practice, Tocchet challenged Höglander to hit the crossbar on a shot or the team would have to do another skate.
“It was actually a lot of pressure on Högs,” Tocchet laughed, while revealing that there was no way he was going to skate the group further, it was really just for fun.
Höglander stepped up and calmly dented the crossbar, as his teammates celebrated and mugged him in a happy end-of-practice scrum.
You can sort of tell with Elias Pettersson, the centre, right off of the bat at training camp.
In those seasons where he’s gone on to be a dominant force in the regular season — like in 2019 and in 2022 — he’s also dominated at camp. When he’s dialed in, there’s just a certain presence that he has on the ice. He looks explicitly like a man on a mission.
We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves after the second day of camp, but he’s got that sense about him in Penticton this week. Some of the plays that he’s been connecting with Jake DeBrusk on, a deflected behind-the-back touch pass on day one and a preposterous deke that he used to set up another lovely DeBrusk goal in a two-on-two drill on Friday, have been outstanding.
While Pettersson revealed on Thursday that the tendinitis in his knee is still nagging at him and that he had to train around it this summer, his pace looks normal. His skating actually looks a bit more powerful than it has in years past.
Far from being concerned about Pettersson, this is an exciting start to the 2024-25 campaign for the Canucks’ freshly signed, star centre.
Sprong’s shot is a heat-seeking missile. The puck explodes off his stick quickly, deceptively and accurately. He’s terrorized the goaltenders during camp so far.
There was a play on Day 2 where Sprong circled behind the net. From a seemingly impossible angle just above the goal line, he wired a goal top shelf on the short side that left Tolopilo completely perplexed. He’s very gifted offensively and unquestionably deserves a chance next to Pettersson and DeBrusk at some point in camp or preseason.
Tocchet also praised Sprong for coming into camp in excellent shape.
Sprong has major defensive warts though, and that continues to be a work in progress. He hasn’t made any egregious mistakes in camp, but Tocchet highlighted a forecheck where Sprong was F3 and dove in too deep which led to a dangerous chance the other way.
We’re eager to see Sprong in a scrimmage-like environment where his play without the puck will be tested more rigorously.
Sammy Blais was perhaps the standout performer for Canucks Group A in the battle drills on Friday afternoon.
As we’ve already discussed, these battle drills are really a hidden bag skate. They’re a serious test of a player’s fitness level, skill level and pain tolerance.
Blais handled both the defensive side and the attacking side of the drills brilliantly. He combined with Felton for a lovely goal on Friday — it was a really nice pass from the first-year Canucks defender, and Blais did well to get to the puck — and then scored a second with an absolute laser beam finish top corner that beat Šilovs.
Tocchet called out Blais’ contributions as especially impressive following the session on Friday, and it’ll be interesting to track what opportunities that tryout player is given as the exhibition schedule starts next week. He’s certainly made a strong first impression.
(Top photo of Nils Höglander: Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)
