Heading into training camp, the Canucks had a wealth of defencemen battling for jobs, but a fairly clear path ahead of them. As much as some Canucks writers might have speculated about a certain Swiss defenceman in danger of losing his job, the reality of the situation is that there are eight spots on the roster for defencemen and there were eight players likely to fill those spots.
Alex Edler, Chris Tanev, Ben Hutton, and Erik Gudbranson are the top-four, while Luca Sbisa, Philip Larsen, Andrey Pedan, and Nikita Tryamkin were the most likely candidates to fill out the roster. A combination of NHL-readiness and waiver eligibility made this the most likely result.
Then Troy Stecher showed up to prospect camp, shone in the Young Stars tournament, and put up three points in his first pre-season game. He and Alex Edler have looked marvelous together on the power play and his strong skating and sublime skill have made him one of the most exciting players to watch in the pre-season.
As Willie Desjardins said, “Stech has probably thrown a wrench in it.”
Even still, it looked like Stecher would start the season in the AHL, where he could play significant minutes and develop his game. It’s simple: Stecher doesn’t have to go through waivers to get to Utica; Andrey Pedan does have to go through waivers.
On Thursday morning, Andrey Pedan was put on waivers.
That leaves nine defencemen in camp, with Alex Biega still hanging on. The Canucks could still send Stecher down to Utica and keep Biega up, but there’s really no argument: Stecher is the superior player.
In practice, the Canucks have been rotating Stecher and Larsen at the point on the first power play unit. If Stecher makes the team, he’ll most likely be battling with Larsen for a regular spot in the lineup.
What’s been most surprising isn’t necessarily how Stecher quarterbacks the power play or how he uses his strong skating to jump up on the rush or transition the puck up ice. No, the most surprising element is how effective he’s been with the defensive side of his game. He’s bigger than advertised—at least 5’10” rather than 5’8” like he’s listed on the training camp roster—and he’s far stronger in puck battles than you might expect.
Basically, every element of his game looks NHL-ready. There are definitely flaws to work on and ways he can develop, but he looks like a player that needs to be in the Canucks lineup this season rather than slowly develop in the AHL.
There are a couple caveats (a few provisos, a couple of quid pro quos): Stecher has yet to play with a defence partner that he would be paired with in the regular season, like Luca Sbisa. He’s looked good alongside Alex Edler, but that’s at least partly because Edler is a very good defencemen who makes his partners better.
The other issue is that Stecher isn’t the first rookie to make hay in training camp, as Ed Willes so pessimistically pointed out, invoking the names of Steve Kariya, Sergei Shirokov, and Fedor Fedorov. Plenty of rookies stand out in the pre-season, when the level of play is lower, with plenty of players bound for the AHL or Junior ranks in the lineup. When the regular season starts, many of these players just disappear.
But Willes conveniently neglects mentioning last year’s standout pre-season rookie: Ben Hutton.
Like Stecher, Hutton came to camp at the age of 22 after three years in the NCAA. Both have been praised for their strong two-way game and offensive upside. Hutton tied with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi for the team-lead in pre-season scoring with 5 points, while Stecher is third on the team with 3 points behind Anton Rodin and Alex Edler, with likely one more game to improve on that total.
Sometimes pre-season success stories become regular season success stories and Stecher can look to Hutton’s example for inspiration.
