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The Canucks are going to miss Brandon Prust’s... playmaking?

Prust is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with ankle injury
Brandon Prust grimaces in pain while holding his injured ankle.
Brandon Prust grimaces in pain while holding his injured ankle.

If there’s one player who I didn’t expect to be a pleasant surprise this season, it’s Brandon Prust. I was predisposed to dislike him: he’s an overpaid, fourth-line grinder, who was literally acquired so that Derek Dorsett wouldn’t have to fight as often.

His first few games certainly didn’t endear him to me: apart from his slow-as-molasses skating, he dropped the gloves for a pointless staged fight with Brandon Bollig in the season opener, then fought Clayton Stoner less than two minutes into the game against the Ducks and Andy Andreoff less than three minutes into the game against the Kings.

It was frustrating: Prust had a $2.5 million cap hit and seemed to be doing little more than engage in staged fights and rub shoulders with the rookies.

But then I started to notice that when Prust isn’t fighting, he has at least one surprising skill: he can pass the puck incredibly well.

That’s not something fighters and grinders are generally known for. Even the more skilled fighters out there are known more for scoring goals, using their size to get to the net. But Prust can legitimately pass the puck and has excellent vision.

Before his injury, Prust was actually leading the Canucks in assists. That injury, suffered against the Montreal Canadiens after he had tallied two assists in that game, will keep him out of the lineup for 4-6 weeks, which is tough news for Prust, who was just finding his stride after an off-season ankle surgery kept him off the ice until late August.

It’s also tough news for the Canucks, who could use his playmaking ability on the fourth line, particularly with a goalscorer like Jared McCann centring that fourth line. That may seem odd to say, as Prust has never piled up points, but just look at his assists this season.

First we have Jared McCann’s first career goal, which I broke down earlier this season:

Jannik Hansen does most of the work here, but you can’t overlook Prust’s smart pivot off the wall and short pass to Hansen that creates the opportunity.

His assist on Adam Cracknell’s first goal as a Canuck was just plain luck, but take another look:

Prust gets the assist for the shot hitting him and bouncing back to Cracknell, but his little give-and-go pass earlier in the play has its merits, as he has to hook the pass under the swinging stick of Clayton Stoner.

His assist on Cracknell’s next goal is far better:

That’s just a great pass and you can tell Jonathan Quick does not expect it at all. He’s prepared for the fourth-liner to take a hopeful shot, maybe aiming to get a rebound, not to send a cross-ice tape-to-tape pass to Cracknell.

Prust was then held without a point for four games before setting up two Jared McCann goals against Montreal:

Okay, this is pretty lucky. You can’t say that about McCann’s second goal, however.

Seriously, look at that pass. LOOK AT THAT PASS. He’s not even looking at McCann. That’s a no-look pass completely avoiding P.K. Subban’s attempted stick-check, finding McCann all alone in the slot. That’s superb.

Those are just the passes that have led to goals. Prust’s passing has been on-point all season and it’s helped the Canucks a lot on the possession front.

While Prust’s 46.15% corsi percentage* doesn’t look impressive on its own, when you factor in his usage, it’s surprisingly good. Prust has faced relatively difficult competition while starting predominantly in his own end of the ice.

Any player, given his usage, would likely wind up with a corsi well below 50%. That Prust’s isn’t lower, like Dorsett (40.25%), McCann (40.96%), or Cracknell (43.08%) actually says a lot. Every Canuck forward that Prust has played with for at least 15 minutes this season has a better corsi with him than they do without him.

Honestly, it really surprises me that I’m saying this, but the Canucks are really going to miss Brandon Prust.

 

*All statistics from war-on-ice.com