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You better believe this, if Erik Gudbranson were healthy he would have also been given Desjardins’ benefit of the doubt. He would have been playing and it would have been one of the so-called kids sitting, that kid likely being Nikita Tyramkin.

All of this worked for Desjardins, until it didn’t.

Since Jan. 21, a 33-game stretch, the Canucks have been the worst team in the league. In this slide to 29th, they have had the fewest wins, points, shots and goals. Their 19 points in those 33 games is a 47-point pace over an 82-game schedule.

Over the course of this season, some in the media have accused the bench boss of unreasonable stubbornness, and suggested it hurt his team, an allegation he responded to late in the season with real passion.

Desjardins pointed out he has had success making young players “earn it.” He isn’t wrong.

But there is a flip side to this, a cold, unforgiving flip side.

While Desjardins may have been doing right by some of the kids’ development, he was leaning too heavily on his vets, and they flopped.

But in a season that will go down as one of the Canucks’ worst, Desjardins had wins and losses among his players.

Here we break down the top three in each category:

WINS

Photo by Jeff Vinnick / Getty Images

1. Bo Horvat

There is no player Desjardins had more success with, and you can understand why when you see they are two men cut from the same cloth.

Horvat is driven by the motivation to do the right thing on the ice, rooted with a strong defensive conscience.