Dan Murphy and Thomas Drance examine versatile forward Jannik Hansen, who has flourished in his opportunity with the Sedin twins on the Vancouver Canucks‘ top line.
Dan Murphy (Naked Eye): So here is the text I got from the Drance on the weekend:
Trick question right? When Thomas gives you two options for a Naked/Nerdy column and one of them is Jannik Hansen then he really isn’t giving you an option at all. There is only one right answer. Hansen.
Drance has been frothing at the mouth over Hansen being a good fit for the twins before it became remotely sexy. But there is no doubt Hansen has been nails in his latest deployment with the Sedins.
Head coach Willie Desjardins decided to put Hansen with the twins on November, 10 in Columbus and the move paid immediate dividends. Hansen had a career high four-point performance and the top-line picked the Blue Jackets apart in a 5-3 win. Following the game, Desjardins complimented Hansen’s play but it didn’t exactly sound as if he was going to be on the line long term.
“With that line, it seems like we’re going to have to rotate guys. Guys have a big game and then the line seems to tail off,” Desjardins said.
It hasn’t. And when the Canucks hit the ice at The Pond in Anaheim Monday night, Hansen was alongside Daniel and Henrik for a tenth consecutive game. Notable, considering the longest run he had on that line previously was three games.
Hansen meshes with Daniel and Henrik very well. He does a lot of what Alex Burrows did when he was so successful on Vancouver’s top line. Alain Vigneault saw it. John Tortorella saw it. And Desjardins always knew Hansen could be an option on the top line as well. Why?
Hansen is a puck hound and a great puck retriever.
He is a pretty good distributer of the puck as well.
And despite the fact people like to make fun of his finishing ability, he possesses a pretty fine shot.
Daniel and Henrik can make any linemate look good, but to have sustained success with them you need to be able to read the game as they as well as be proficient in the cycle game do and Hansen has proven capable of doing both.
So, should he be a fixture in Vancouver’s top-six? I’m not sure that’s the question we should be asking. Let’s be honest, the Canucks really have a top-three and bottom-nine scenario going on these days. That said, I’m not ready to say that Hansen deserves top line billing for the rest of the season because of a three-week run of solid play.
I love the idea of Radim Vrbata on the top line. He is clearly a shoot first player and that can work with the Sedins. Heck, we saw it work for much of last season. The only problem with Vrbata and the twins is that if they don’t start with the puck, who is going to get it?
Hansen, right now, and probably moving forward, is the best option Desjardins has to ride shotgun with Daniel and Henrik. I’m not sure I’m into rotating a boatload of guys in that spot but if you want to argue for Vrbata, Burrows or even Jake Virtanen to get a shot now and then, I’m cool with that too. But there is no question that the head coach should wait until Hansen cools off before he decides to shake things up.
On a Stanley Cup contending team Jannik Hansen would be a perfect third line forward. And since I think we all can agree that the Canucks won’t be contending for the Cup this season, Hansen on the top line doesn’t bother me at all. His greatest strength is his versatility. The coach can plug and play him just about anywhere, and for now the top line is where he belongs.
Thomas Drance (Nerdy Guy): Jannik Hansen is on pace for a career year offensively.
A dependable grinder, Hansen is used to bouncing around the lineup, and has slotted in everywhere from the first- to the fourth-line over the years. This season though, Hansen seems to have cemented himself as Henrik and Daniel Sedin’s triggerman on Vancouver’s top line.
With the way the Sedin twins are rolling of late, it’s difficult to imagine Hansen being bumped from that spot any time soon.
Hansen’s results in a top-line role have been stupendous through the first two months, to put it mildly. Hansen has seven goals and 15 points in 24 games. He’s leading all Canucks skaters in even-strength point scoring rate, and is in the top-20 in the entire NHL by this category. He’s producing 5-on-5 goals at the same rate as Dallas Stars super sniper Tyler Seguin…
His production is eye popping enough that it poses the question: should Hansen be a fixture in Vancouver’s top-six going forward?
The first thing we should examine is how sustainable Hansen’s current elevated level of production is. Has he found a new level of sustainable performance, or this is a hot streak that’s more likely to prove ephemeral over the balance of the season?
By the numbers, we can conclude that it’s most likely that Hansen has been benefiting from a burst of favorable offensive bounces. The 30-year-old forward is converting on 14.6 per cent of shots taken this year, which is elevated significantly from his career 10.7 per cent conversion rate.
In terms of Hansen’s shot rate, it’s virtually unchanged this season over what he managed in the four campaigns from 2011-12 through 2014-15. The difference in Hansen’s production this year appears to be mostly percentage driven, and the burst in his shooting percentage is even more dramatic at even strength.
Generally speaking, the most gifted offensive players in the NHL do drive on-ice shooting percentage. The Sedins used to be elite at this, for example, but that’s fallen off a bit in recent years as they’ve hit their mid-30s. Hansen has never been the sort of player capable of sustainably driving shooting percentage.
This season though, the Canucks are converting on 12.86 per cent of shots taken with Hansen on the ice at 5-on-5. It’s the sixth best rate in the league. With Hansen on the ice the Canucks have been in Patrick Kane/Thomas Vanek territory in terms of their offensive efficiency in the early going this season. In all probability, that isn’t going to last.
Even when the offensive bounces dry up – and they probably will – Hansen will be an enormously useful two-way player. It’s worth noting though that his primary value is derived from his versatility; from his ability to pitch in regardless of whether he’s entrusted with putting the puck in the net in a prime offensive role or if he’s deployed as a matchup line’s primary forechecker.
Pigeonholing Hansen as a bottom-six or a top-six forward is sort of beside the point then. The reason he’s been so useful in Vancouver for so long, is that he’s capable of contributing anywhere.
