I wrote a story for Bleacher Report yesterday, predicting the 10 most-penalized players in the NHL next season.
Click here to check it out.
It was a bit of an eye-opener when I realized that the Vancouver Canucks were the only team to place two players on my list—and I couldn't rationalize dropping either Derek Dorsett or Brandon Prust.
Dorsett finished third in the NHL last season with 175 penalty minutes, while Prust was sixth at 134. Dorsett's 17 fighting majors were second in the league behind Cody McLeod of Colorado, who had 19, while Prust was right behind with 16 majors.
When Tom Sestito led the NHL in penalties with the Canucks in 2013-14, he did it the old-fashioned way—collecting 19 major penalties in just 6:27 of ice time a night in a pure "enforcer" role. But Dorsett and Prust actually play hockey.
Last season, Dorsett scored a career-high 25 points with Vancouver and averaged 12:02 per game. Over in Montreal, Prust averaged 12:57 a game—more than double Sestito's ice time. A big chunk of that came shorthanded, where he averaged 1:45 a game on Montreal's very respectable seventh-ranked penalty kill. He should help to fill the void left by Brad Richardson's departure for the Canucks in that department.
With Dorsett and Prust sharing the duties on Vancouver's Department of Enforcement next season, I predicted that their individual penalty totals would drop next season. That should also reflect the overall trend of less and less fighting as the NHL pendulum continues to swing back to the speed and skill game.
But Vancouver ranked 26th overall in penalty minutes last season, averaging 10.9 minutes a game. Only St. Louis, Columbus, Winnipeg and Pittsburgh were penalized more often.
The Canucks were 22nd with their 32 major penalties, and ranked 21st with 304 minors. For Pittsburgh, their numbers were dramatically skewed by the nine misconducts earned by Steve Downie as he agigated his way to top spot on the 2014-15 penalty list—easily besting Sestito's number from the previous year with 238 minutes despite a relatively moderate eight fighting majors.
Where Vancouver set itself apart last year was in the bench minor category—tops in the league with 16 although the Chicago Blackhawks were second, with 13.
If you remember back to the Summer Summit, here's how Jim Benning summarized the role he expects to see Dorsett and Prust play next season:
I like the idea of the Canucks playing with more snarl in their game next year. For all the great things that the Sedins do on the ice, their overwhelming niceness requires a strong counterbalance from their teammates to get the playing field level with other teams.
But as fighting goes the way of the dodo bird in the NHL, I wonder if the Canucks are putting themselves in a hole if they put too much emphasis on grit—and potentially set themselves up to be a league leader in penalties.
The idea takes me back to when the Canucks bottomed out with 58 points in 1998-99—finishing 26th out of 27 teams in the standings and also with the second-highest total penalty minutes. That squad racked up 78 major penalties thanks primarily to Donald Brashear (17 majors) and Jason Strudwick (14 majors).
What's amazing is that Ottawa was the most gentlemanly team in the NHL that year with 10.9 minutes a game worth of penalties—exactly the same number than made Vancouver fifth-worst last season.
I'm curious to see if the Dorsett-and-Prust patrol leads to opposing teams taking less liberties and ultimately creating that time and space the skill players need to work their magic, or if the whole turns out to be greater than the sum of the parts in terms of on-ice mayhem next season.
One thing we know—Dorsett's continuing his mentorship of Bo Horvat during the summer. Bo and his dad were out in Dorsett's hometown of Kindsersley, Saskatchewan for a charity golf tournament this week.
Ryan Stanton Signs with Washington
One other quick Canucks-related note in case you missed it:
Stanton was picked up off waivers by the Canucks at the beginning of the 2013-14 season and enjoyed a solid rookie NHL campaign under John Tortorella, recording 16 points and a plus-five during a tough season for the Canucks.
Under Willie Desjardins, Stanton's role diminished and his confidence appeared to suffer. He was scratched from the lineup for 14 of Vancouver's last 15 games and didn't see any action in the playoffs.
Still just 26, Stanton will likely get one last chance to establish himself as a full time NHL player. Best of luck to him in Washington.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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