Troy Stetcher checks in as the 14th ranked player in our consensus rankings

After going undrafted, Stecher became a highly sought after free agent at the conclusion of his junior season with the North Dakota Fighting Hawks. A Richmond, B.C. native, Stecher had previously attended Canucks prospect development camp in 2014, so there was a relationship between the Canucks and Stecher. Given the history Stetcher and Vancouver shared, the connection was an all too obvious one to make as soon as the bidding began.

Other teams were in the mix but ultimately a few short days after capturing the NCAA title with North Dakota, the Canucks signed Stecher to a contract.

The ease with which the Canucks were able to snag Stetcher shouldn’t take away from what a quality prospect he is. Stetcher is a legitimate prospect and a sound bet to make an impact at the NHL level, as evidenced by the ample interest he received league-wide.

Elite prospects summarizes Stecher’s game nicely:

Highly skilled two-way defenceman that displays tremendous poise with and without the puck. Soft hands that can pass as well as let rockets fly. Excellent vision and a playmaker’s knack for the game. Very aware and responsible defensively, but is not comfortable having the puck in his own end for too long and will take it upon himself to get the puck out of the defensive zone. His impact upon the game occurs at both ends of the ice as an offensive and defensive force.

While the highlight package below shows off his aforementioned offensive skill set:

“Boeser to Stecher, he scores!”

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“Stecher to Boeser, he scores!”

That has a nice ring to it, right? Moving on, though.

What I noticed when viewing Stetcher was his ability to hold onto the puck in the offensive zone and his willingness to go to the net. The video clip I’ve linked to shows just that on multiple occasions. A lot of defencemen will just take the shot or fire the puck from the point of retrieval. In Stetcher’s case, he’s either in motion towards the net and often he’s bringing the puck with him.

This tactic exudes confidence in his abilities and has the added benefit of forcing goalies from their original position.

Regarding Stetcher’s puck possession skills, there’s plenty to like. He would regularly walk the line or skate down the wall or pivot and push back to draw a defender. This forces the defending team to move with him, in theory creating lanes and holes in the coverage. If you want a specific example from the video, this one illustrates it perfectly:

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Boeser collects his 50th point of the season on Stecher’s goal!!! pic.twitter.com/bUVDItIn5F — WTG (@WinThaGame) March 18, 2016

That was 5-on-5.

Both of those are promising signs for an offensive defenceman who projects to play on the powerplay. Even if he isn’t the one who gets the points on the scoreboard, he is trying to force the other team’s structure to change and ideally creates breakdowns.

In regards to his defensive zone play, he isn’t a liability. He effectively uses his elite skating abilities to angle attackers to the outside, constantly hounding them and their stick. When he does retrieve the puck, he isn’t afraid to carry it out.

Image: Jeremy Davis / Canucksarmy

Rather than create my own sub-par chart, I pulled this one from Jeremy’s post from the day that Stecher signed. As we can see, there was some fairly consistent production throughout the season with two times of four game pointless streaks, one of which was when Drake Caggiula and Nick Schmaltz were injured.

Stecher finished the season ranked 17th in the NCAA in points-per-game among defencemen, but finished the season with the 6th highest point total among that group due to North Dakota playing the most games in the NCAA.

His +26 was ranked seventh amongst defenceman in the entire NCAA.

It will be interesting to see his production at the conclusion of the upcoming season merely because as you can see his season was only 45 games, while this season if there are no injuries, he would be playing 65+ games plus possibly playoffs. That’s what we don’t know about Stecher, is how is he going to transition to the AHL?

Given his 5’10” and 190 lbs frame, how is he going to handle playing against men?

I can’t predict what can and will happen, but given Stecher’s skillset – there are reasons for optimism. He possesses a toolbox that teams covet, and he should be given a chance to succeed in Utica next season.

The Comets appear to be going young on the right side with Jordan Subban, Stecher and Tom Nilsson likely occupying the three spots. It’s fair to suggest that they are coming in with an equal chance at ice time. Subban has one year of AHL experience, Nilsson has two years in the SHL with a season in the AHL sandwiched in there but lacks the offensive upside and Stecher has three years of NCAA experience.

I would lean towards giving Subban the upper hand and occupying the ‘#1’ pairing spot, but injuries, slumps and shuffling occur throughout the long season.

It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out because the Comets will rely on Subban and Stecher to help create offence in 5-on-5 situations and especially on the power play.

When we use pGPS to look at Stecher, an underwhelming 6.2% went onto becoming NHL regulars. This is due to Stecher being in his D+4 season last year and not hitting a very high PPG rate. Once again, it’s important to remember that pGPS is just a tool in our repertoire that we use to evaluate and isn’t the only way to rate a player.

There have been suggestions that Stecher could go ‘Ben Hutton’ and steal a spot in training camp, and I think it’s possible, although very unlikely to happen. Setting aside the log jam in numbers at the NHL level, Stecher will need some time in the AHL to adapt to the pro game. That said, it wouldn’t be crazy to see him with the big club at some point this season, it may just be a press box tour as an extra, but it’s very plausible.

That shouldn’t be a worry, Stecher is entering his 22-year-old season, and has time to round out his game. The expectation should be that a prospect will spend some time at the AHL level at some point.

Personally, I am high on Stecher as I had him ranked 10th and curious to see how this season will go for the young right-handed rear-guard. There may be something here, or maybe not – we will have to wait and see.





