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Who is the best French hockey player of all time?

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Some might suggest Maurice “The Rocket” Richard, others might point to Jean Beliveau or Guy Lafleur, but it’s hard to argue against Mario Lemieux. Which means I should have been more specific: who is the best hockey player of all time from France?

It might just be new Canuck Antoine Roussel.

You could make an argument for Paul Maclean, who was born in France to Canadian parents and moved back to Canada at the age of two. He had a fantastic NHL career that was cut short by injuries, tallying 324 goals and 673 points in 719 games, before moving on to his coaching career. As French-born hockey players go, Maclean can’t be beat.

But when it comes to players born and raised in France, Roussel is the best of a pretty small group, with only Cristobal Huet’s brief three-year stint as one of the top goaltenders in the NHL offering any competition.

Sure, that mostly speaks to the paucity of French hockey players in the NHL, but Roussel has managed to craft a solid NHL career out of his multi-dimensional play. In this case, “multi-dimensional” means he’s a pain-in-the-neck to play against.

As much as Roussel’s contract is a year or two too long and for a million too much per year, that should not reflect poorly on Roussel himself, who should quickly become a fan favourite with his pesky, aggravating style that should bring to mind another feisty Frenchman: Alex Burrows.

Roussel’s similarity to Burrows was apparent right from his first appearance in a Canucks jersey seven years ago. As an undrafted and unsigned invitee to Canucks camp, Roussel stuck around a lot longer than expected. He was the last invitee cut at training camp and was offered an AHL contract with the Chicago Wolves in hopes that he would work his way up to the NHL.

He did, albeit with another team, finding a home with the Dallas Stars.

“Vancouver was the first team that gave me a chance early in my career,” said Roussel. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t make something happen after my year in the minors with the Canucks, but I felt like I had a soft spot for the organization; I felt like I belonged there.

“I stayed in the city for a little bit for the training camp and I fell in love with the city.”

Roussel’s connection to Vancouver continued throughout his time in Dallas thanks to training with Burrows in the off-season.

“I've been training with Alex Burrows for the past 8 years,” he said. “Every summer he talks about how great the organization and city is. To me it was a no-brainer.”

Roussel isn’t an exact replica of Burrows, of course. For instance, his accent is much less thick. He’s also more purely a third-line agitator, playing that role at every level, whereas Burrows showed his top-six upside in the ECHL and AHL before he broke out as a first-line forward alongside the Sedins.

While Roussel isn’t likely to be a first or second-line forward, he does have more skill than the average agitator. While he’s coming off a career-low five goals, he’s also coming off a career-low 5.9% shooting percentage. A return to his career shooting percentage of 11.6% should see him score 10-15 goals, while also providing good puck possession at even-strength and solid penalty killing.

A gritty, penalty-killing Frenchman, who gets under the skin of his opponents and has a penchant for putting up points in a depth role? That’s a recipe for a fan favourite in Vancouver.

Big Numbers

721 - Over the last five seasons, only Tom Wilson has more penalty minutes than Antoine Roussel’s 721. He may be a great penalty killer, but he’s frequently the reason his team is on the penalty kill in the first place.

2.51 - Fortunately, Roussel draws as many penalties as he takes. Literally. Roussel took 2.51 penalties per hour last season, but also drew 2.51 penalties per hour. That means a lot of coincidental minors, but he’ll give the Canucks some power play opportunities as well.

Stick-taps and Glove-drops

Somehow missed this in last week’s column, but a tap of the stick to Alex Burrows as he announced his retirement and joined the coaching staff of the Laval Rocket of the AHL. As the Sedins will tell you, Burrows thinks the game at a high level and should make a great coach.

A stick-tap in memory of Ray Emery. The 35-year-old goaltender tragically drowned on Sunday morning, the day after playing in a charity hockey game in Hamilton, Ontario.

