It wasn’t all that long ago that Brendan Gaunce was all but written off as a Canucks prospect. In the span of a single season, however, Gaunce has suddenly emerged as the most likely candidate to graduate from the Comets to the Canucks this season.

In the wake of a preseason injury, there is an extra spot open. After impressing at the Young Stars Classic, is the door open for Brendan Gaunce to make his NHL debut?

The Forgotten Prospect

Gaunce, the forgotten first-rounder, assigned to AHL. — Jason Brough (@JasonPHT) September 27, 2014

Brendan Gaunce was selected by the Canucks 24th overall at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. He spent the following two seasons in the OHL, split between the Belleville Bulls and the Erie Otters. As captain of the Bulls, he put up 60 points in 60 games in 2012-13. The following season he produced at slightly above a point per game average, and was traded part way through the year from the Bulls to the much stronger Erie Otters, where he played more of a depth role on a team that also deployed Connor McDavid, Connor Brown, Dane Fox and Andre Burakovsky.

He wasn’t overly impressive in his OHL seasons, but he wasn’t unimpressive either. This is somewhat of a representation of how Gaunce is viewed: he’s just somewhat above average on paper. His PCS percentages in those two seasons were 16.5% and 11.7% respectively. Nothing to write home about.

By the time September of 2014 rolled around, Gaunce was tumbling down the Canucks prospect rankings – not necessarily due to any fault of his own, but the team had drafted two players in the first round of both the 2013 and 2014 drafts, including two top 10 picks. Gaunce, a player discernibly lacking in flash and pizzazz, was largely ignored in favor of shinier toys like Jake Virtanen, Hunter Shinkaruk, Jared McCann, previous call-up Nicklas Jensen, and the NHL ready Bo Horvat.

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So Gaunce was shipped to Utica for his first professional season, and there he started to change perceptions.

A Year With the Comets

The fact that Brendan Gaunce played much of the year on the Comets’ fourth line did little to endear him to the average Vancouver fan. The same went for his position move from centre to left wing – one that allegedly represented his inability to keep up in the middle. Those who were keeping closer tabs however would hear the consistent praise being heaped on Gaunce by Comets staff and Canucks executives.

There were a number of things that accounted for Gaunce’s positioning in the lineup and subsequent ice time. For one thing, it was his first pro season and most young players need to get acclimated to the speed and difficulty of the game. For another, this iteration of the Comets was particularly deep – on the left side he was up against older players with more experience, as well as higher pedigreed skill players like Jensen and Shinkaruk.

Additionally, the way Green structured his team was not as simple as one might assume a developmental team’s lineup would be. Rather than just put players you want to be good closer to the top of the order, Green seemed to be creating lines with a specific purpose in mind. Gaunce played most of the season with Carter Bancks and Wacey Hamilton, a couple of career AHLers that possessed a work ethic and edge to their game – something that management wanted instilled in Gaunce.

The skills that made him a first rounder were not ignored. He wasn’t immediately given powerplay time, like Shinkaruk was, but he did appear there sporadically. He got his first powerplay assist in game 15 and his first powerplay goal in game 31. By the end of the season and into the playoffs, he was a regular fixture on the second unit, and he made himself known. In game 5 of the opening round against the Chicago Wolves, Gaunce scored two powerplay goals, including the game-winner.

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Gaunce’s 2014-15 Statline

Player GP G A1 A2 P PIM PPG SOG eTOI Brendan Gaunce 74 11 12 6 29 31 2 154 11:16

(Stats from theahl.com)

His production last season may not be a proper indication of what Gaunce is truly capable of, or how far he has come. The ice time that wasn’t always there in the beginning was certainly given in the playoffs – by the time the Comets were deep in the run, playing the most important games of their season, Gaunce was a 20 minute, all situations player. Powerplays, penalty kills, final minutes of games whether leading or trailing, Gaunce had become a go to guy.

His improvement from the beginning of the season to the end was noticeable enough to earn him recognition from the Comets.



Brendan Gaunce wins the Ian Anderson award for the most improved player. #Comets — Utica Comets (@UticaComets) April 10, 2015

So just how far has Gaunce come?

The “Best Player at Young Stars”

Quite a ways, as it turns out. After working diligently in the offseason, Gaunce came in and dominated the Young Stars Classic in Penticton. Of course, he’s 21 and it was his fourth time there, so of course he should appear strong. And strong he was.

#Canucks president Trevor Linden says forward Brendan Gaunce was the best player at the Young Stars tournament. — Matthew Sekeres (@mattsekeres) September 16, 2015

(The full Linden interview can be heard here.)

Gaunce was noticeable nearly every time he stepped on the ice. When he had puck was in the offensive zone, it seemed to result in some sort of scoring opportunity more often than not, even through passing plays or driving to the net. He also scored a nice goal with a dangerous looking wrist shot.

Brendan Gaunce puts the Canucks on the scoreboard: pic.twitter.com/B4Bd5ch2mg — CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) September 12, 2015

The fact that Gaunce sat out the third Young Stars game, against the Calgary Flames, was ostensibly a reward from the Canucks staff for his impressive play in games 1 and 2.

Defensive Zone

Labeled a strong two-way player, Gaunce has always taken pride in his play in his own end. True to that, when he gets on pucks in his own zone, he rarely makes mistakes in removing from that area. The following chart shows Zone Exits statistics manually tracked by Josh Weissbock in the two games Gaunce played at the Young Stars Classic.

Player GP Total Carry Out Dump Out Pass Out Pass Out (Miss) Chip Out Battle Out Gaunce 2 9 3 1 1 0 3 1

Touches were not tracked, so I’ll have to augment this data with what I witnessed – that being that Gaunce’s touches almost always led to zone exits. However, the data here indicates that his zone exits were not always conducted in a manner that would lead to offense in the other direction. This is shown by a number of chip out and dump out exits, which typically result in a loss of possession.

This could be due to a number of things. Perhaps he isn’t fast or agile or enough, or his hands aren’t slick enough to skate the puck out of the zone on a regular basis. It’s also a two game sample, so we’ll have to pump the breaks on analyzing these numbers too deeply anyways.

Neutral Zone

Gaunce’s play in the neutral zone was a bit more impressive, when viewed through a possession oriented lens. He had no probably entering enemy territory with possession, resorting to a chip in just a single time in Penticton.

Player GP Total Carry In Dump In Pass In Pass In (Fail) Chip In Battle In Gaunce 2 7 4 0 2 0 1 0

This is an area in which Gaunce’s size and puck protection skills lead to improved possession numbers. While he doesn’t always look quick exiting his own zone, he can certainly gain speed through the neutral zone, and can beat guys to the outside from time to time.

Offensive Zone

Gaunce has never been lacking offensively – he was a first round pick after all. He has a hard shot, a high hockey IQ and excellent positioning. Since moving to the wing, one of his biggest improvements has been strength on the wall: he’s finally using that size of his to his advantage, knocking opponents off of pucks and creating chances out of takeaways.

The knock on him has often been his skating and footspeed – something that appears to have improved greatly over the last 12 months. Here’s an example from the Kraft Hockeyville game:

Possession stats were tracked only for the Winnipeg Young Stars game, but Gaunce certainly came out looking extremely well in this small sample size.

Player For Against Corsi +/- CorsiFor % off-ice CF% rel CF% Gaunce 16 4 12 80 74.0 6.0

The Open Door

As good as Gaunce has been, he has suffered from the same disadvantage as Hunter Shinkaruk and Nicklas Jensen – namely that he is eligible to play in the AHL waiver free and is so easy to reassign, while the Bo Horvats and Jake Virtanens of the world get bumped up a rung. This likely indicated that the 13th and 14th forwards would be Ronalds Kenins and the WHL eligible Jake Virtanen. But then a door opened.

INJURY UPDATE: Further tests revealed a bone fracture in Chris Higgins’ foot. He will be re-evaluated in three weeks. #Canucks — Vancouver Canucks (@VanCanucks) September 23, 2015

With a vacancy on the left wing of the third line, there is a sudden opportunity to carry an extra player. Sure, the Canucks coaching staff could stick Kenins or Virtanen in that spot, and they may do so.

However, Brendan Gaunce may, in fact, be the best fit if the goal is to replace Chris Higgins. Like Higgins, Gaunce is defensively responsible, he kills penalties, and he can contribute offense when need be. Clearly this comparison has not gone unnoticed, as Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins was quick to agree with a media member’s assessment that Gaunce would be a favourable replacement for Higgins to start the year:

Question: It does open the door for some players, and Gaunce has had an extremely good camp. Do you look at a younger player, do you think you need a veteran presence on that line, or –

Desjardins: No, I think you’re real accurate with that, i think Gaunce has had a great camp, and I think it’s a natural fit, he’s a great penalty killer, he can play in that role, he skates well.

Willie went on to say that they have lots of guys to look at, though he didn’t mention any others by name. I would have to say that it certainly appears that Gaunce has an inside track to crack this lineup in the wake of a Higgins injury. This has been echoed by the majority of media members in the last few days, including Canucks radio colour analyst Dave Tomlinson, who wrote this on canucks.com.

The battle that is the most intriguing to follow at this point, with the news that Chris Higgins is out for the time being with an injured foot, is about who can step in and play responsibly and effectively on the Canucks third line with Bo Horvat and Jannik Hansen when regular season plays begins in October.

Typically a team will try and replace a veteran with another veteran in such cases, but with a mandate to get younger, faster and perhaps bigger all at the same time, the spot is there for Brendan Gaunce to take.

Is he ready? The only way to find out is to see him in NHL game action. Like most of last season in Utica, Gaunce skated on a line with Carter Bancks and Wacey Hamilton last night in Calgary. Now that’s he’s survived another round of cuts I’d be pretty interested to see what he can do with some closer-to-NHL caliber linemates.

One thing that appears to be making itself clear? This is quite likely Gaunce’s best opportunity so far at cracking the NHL lineup. Let’s hope he makes the most of it.





