The hockey season may be over and done with, but the wound that is this last season as a Vancouver Canucks fan is still relatively fresh. There’s plenty of meat left on these bones and with the draft and the opening of free agency now in the rear view mirror, it’s time we got cookin’.





The process starts with a series of player-by-player reviews for the season that was. Today’s will be centered on Old Probiotic himself, Derek Dorsett.





Let’s break it all down on the other side of the jump.

(Derek Dorsett’s season, in a nutshell.)

Acquired in the first flurry of moves to mark Jim Benning’s tenure as the Canucks general manager, Dorsett was brought in to “rub shoulders” with the younger players, protect his teammates and provide defensive value from the fourth line. Of late, Canucks brass have gone on to suggest that Dorsett helps to “carry their culture” as well – sometimes two-gallons of Activia at a time!

Dorsett represented an increasingly rare breed of NHLers, capable of punching faces and playing the game at near parity from a prescribed bottom-six role. Given the reduced role of enforcers in this generation of the NHL, acquiring a player of Dorsett’s ilk represented an acceptable middle-ground between the more progressive fan and the grit, heart, soul and compete level crowd.

Further to Dorsett’s ability to keep his head above water at evens, he presented upside shorthanded, and in a limited sample of data collected by Corey Sznajder he proved a solid neutral zone contributor. Interestingly enough, these abilities seemingly left Dorsett’s game in a matter of weeks, as he proved a significant drag in nearly every aspect of the game that once made him such a rare and coveted asset.

Playing in a role that wouldn’t facilitate the best of underlying results, Dorsett spent most of the season on the left flank of rookie center, Bo Horvat and opposite Jannik Hansen. Rookies often take time to round out their two-way games and can struggle to push play at evens as a result; Horvat was no exception, especially in the first-half of the campaign.

While the context is worth noting, it would seem wholly disingenuous to blame Dorsett’s territorial shortcomings last season on Horvat. A cursory glance at Dorsett’s WOWY statistics shows that Dorsett was actually benefiting from playing alongside Horvat, from a strictly territorial perspective. Digging deeper, it became apparent that exactly zero of Dorsett’s teammates benefited as a result of skating alongside Dorsett. When looking at Dorsett’s dCorsi, which takes into account usage, linemates, deployment, team effects, etc. to show how the player performed against expected results, Dorsett posted an almost unimaginably awful -160 dCorsi impact.

Then again, while Dorsett’s often unnoticed ability to thrive from the bottom-six was a welcomed addition to the package on the whole, it’s his fists that endeared himself to management, I am sure. With 17 fights on the season, Dorsett did exactly that. It was the second-highest number of fights in Dorsett’s NHL career and by www.HockeyFights.com voting, he won eight of them. I consider face punching to be one of the less important facets to winning a hockey game, but for a team that places value on this (because, if nothing else, the acquisition of Brandon Prust makes this perfectly clear) that’s an impressive wrinkle to Dorsett’s game. And even someone as opposed to fighting in hockey as myself can’t help but appreciate Dorsett’s willingness to take and deliver punches for his teammates.

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Looking strictly at his offensive production, Dorsett continued to produce at a highly efficient rate for a player in his role. Actually, his offensive output increased by almost half a point, per 60-minutes of even strength ice-time. Meanwhile, his personal shot-rate remained relatively impressive. Of course, context is key here and I’d hardly suggest that Dorsett is an offensive force in the making. By that same token, one would expect that Willie Desjardins would have been cognizant of as much. Instead, Dorsett saw the occasional shift in spot duty on the second-unit of the Canucks power play as the net-front presence. Amazing what being a former Medicine Hat Tiger can do for your usage…

In the playoffs, Dorsett performed more or less how one might expect. He fought a fair amount and left with his head above water in territorial play, despite a significant slant in defensive zone starts. The sample is small and the opposing team a possession disaster, but it was an encouraging six games all the same.

Crunching Numbers

Boxcars:





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Dorsett’s 25-points clear the benchmark generally set for what one might expect from a third line winger. One wonders if this couldn’t have been higher, if not for a low even strength sh% – although, that is slightly mitigated by his PDO of 101.8. These 25-points marked the single highest Dorsett has ever posted in a single season over the seven year span of his NHL career.

Corsi:





With a CF%Rel of -7.8%, Dorsett had the lowest mark of any Canuck not named Top Sixtito. That is… less than ideal. It was the fourth straight season Dorsett found himself in the red by this metric, but never to this extent. Dorsett’s raw Corsi For of 43% was also the lowest mark of his career. Unsurprisingly, both his ability to help drive attempts and suppress them depreciated immensely to result in these low grades.

Goal-based:





The underlying goal-based data shines a much more favourable light on Dorsett. With a Goals For of 48%, it’s hardly an ideal mark, but an improvement on his Corsi results all the same. By GF%Rel, the Canucks actually fared marginally better with Dorsett on the ice than off. Although, I’d caution against putting too much stock in this data, as Dorsett was clearly benefiting from an elevated on-ice sh%.

Scoring Chances:





Scoring chances aren’t giving Dorsett a particularly good look. Vancouver bled chances, to the tune of nearly 28 SCA/60 with Dorsett on the ice. For a player who’s game is based on strong defensive play, that’s a little less than encouraging.

The ten-bell scoring chance data more or less reflects Dorsett’s performance where standard scoring chances are concerned. Again, the Canucks are hemorrhaging these types of scoring chances with Dorsett on the ice.

Shot-based:





I didn’t think I could find a metric that reflected more negatively on Dorsett’s season than his possession numbers, but the shot-share is even more grim. That SF%Rel of -9% is nearly 5% lower than his previous career low of -4.1. These results are driven by Dorsett’s ghastly 32.2 SA/60.

Going Forward

Last season has to be concerning for the Vancouver Canucks, who opted to re-sign Dorsett to a four-year deal, with an AAV of $2.65-million. Dorsett is only 28-years old, but he’s played some grueling, fisticuffs filled years and one can’t help but wonder how that affects the long term trajectory of Dorsett’s career. These are just some of the many reasons why I am so opposed to the type of contract the Canucks opted to offer Dorsett. While Dorsett is a valuable fourth line piece, he is still a fourth liner. Ideally, these players shouldn’t be given any sort of term, as even the most marginal reversion and they become a replacement level player.

That said, Dorsett is traditionally a very strong player at even strength for someone in his role. A good bet is that last season was an aberration and not a newly developing trend, but again though, there is legitimate reason for concern here. What I find especially disconcerting though is how his body will respond to the high toll it has suffered these last two campaigns.

One instant from the last campaign sticks out in particular. Dorsett was hit by a blindside elbow, delivered by none other than Ryan Kesler. He suffered an “upper body” injury then proceeded to fight in his first two or three games back from said injury. Dorsett’s body wouldn’t be wrong in hating him and it might exact its revenge as Dorsett ages into his thirties.

I would expect that the load is lessened for Dorsett next season, though. The Canucks acquired Prust to help share the workload with Dorsett and form the opposite flank on what should, in theory, be a defensively slanted fourth line. Assuming the parts remain constant, Dorsett should spend most of the season with Linden Vey as his pivot. The pair were carried a CorsiFor of nearly 48% last season, so there’s potential for them to form a more consistent and steady fourth unit.

I remain a little skeptical that a Canuck who willingly had his face punched on 17 separate occasions will be in the best physical shape for the next campaign, but then again it’s knuckleheads running the show anyways, so Dorsett might be the least of our fist related concerns.





