Island Nucklehead wrote:
I see Kassian challenging Hansen for the 3rd line RW spot. I think he's got more upside than Hansen so he'll move past him eventually, but it really depends on Kassian's conditioning. I expect he'll see time on the PP, battling in front of the net. In fact, he might be a good fit with the Sedins in that role, allowing Kesler to move to the 2nd PP.
Unless Hansen's game suffers a drastic dropoff, I honestly don't see ANYONE moving past Hansen for a 3rd line spot, especially not Kassian who is inexperienced and plays a different game than Hansen. Of course, I might be biased here as I view Hansen as one of the best third line players in the game. To me, Higgins and Hansen were perhaps the most consistently effective even strength players on the team. Kassian's upside is higher as far as his top 6 potential, but Hansen is really good at what he does and AV has come to trust him. Hansen might not be a consistent offensive producer, but he was 4th behind the Sedins and Burrows in even strength points. As we witnessed during the Cup run, Hansen can be a beast.
CaptainTrev wrote:FAN wrote:In the case of Kassian, he's obviously too good for the AHL
Are we sure about that? AV
was willing to experiment with moving Kassian up and down the lineup, and it took all of 20 games for him to play his way right out of the lineup.
He's still only 21 years old, and has played a grand total of 74 professional games. I don't see that more experience in the AHL would be a bad thing for him, especially compared to playing 6 minutes a night with the likes of Malhotra and Weise.
Obviously he'll get a shot at camp, but I won't be too disappointed if he gets sent to Chicago to start the year.
Kassian put up 15 goals in 30 games in the AHL and 4 goals 10 points in 44 games in the NHL in his first professional season and is expected to improve. I don't think he was ready for top 6 duty, but I didn't get a sense at all that Kassian was not ready for the NHL. But ya Kassian is really young and a player like Kassian can really improve by leaps and bounds once he figures where his size and strength is at in relation to other guys in the NHL.
I'm usually all for giving prospects at least a full season of AHL time, but in the case of Kassian, I'm a bit hesistant to say that more time in the AHL will benefit him and the Canucks. The main goal is to turn Kassian into a physical, intimidating powerforward who can control the puck in the offensive end and score goals. The fact that Kassian could be a floater and score the way he did in the AHL and the fact that Kassian can play a bottom 6 role in the NHL makes me think that the AHL won't benefit him much. Can Scott Arniel light a fire under Kassian's ass and motivate Kassian to pound the living hell out of everyone in the AHL while dominating on the offensive end? If he can't, are the Canucks better off having AV turn Kassian into a defensively-responsible-hit-first-asks-questions-later forward and let Kassian's offense take care of itself?
Personally, I would be very surprised if Kassian isn't given a chance to earn a top 6 role next season (unless Doan signs with us
) and I would bet money that Kassian is on the Canucks roster come opening night.