"I think he can score more": Beauvillier set for top-line debut with Canucks

Feb 6 2023, 6:59 pm

When the Vancouver Canucks take the ice against the New Jersey Devils on Monday night, they’ll look a little different.

Not only will the Canucks approach a gameday without a club captain for the first time since the opening days of the 2019-20 season, but head coach Rick Tocchet has also shifted players around in the lineup.

It wasn’t a quiet NHL All-Star break for the Canucks, who traded Bo Horvat for Anthony Beauvillier on the NHL roster while adding a first-round pick and prospect Aatu Raty. Additionally, they’d promoted Nils Åman, Vasily Podkolzin and Phil Di Giuseppe back up to the big leagues.

The Canucks practiced with new lines on Sunday in Newark, with Elias Pettersson centering a top line flanked by Beauvillier and Andrei Kuzmenko. Meanwhile, J.T. Miller took up the second-line centre position for the first time since a slow start to the season, playing with Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland.

“He’s a pressure type of guy where he gets on the pucks. He gets loose pucks. I think he can score more. I think here that we’re going to put him in positions where he can score,” Tocchet said about Beauvillier. “He’s just an energy guy; it’s a hole that we plug here with the Canucks, and a guy who can really take off in the neutral zone.

Beauvillier had nine goals and 11 assists in 49 contests for the Islanders this season.

Per Sportsnet’s Iain McIntyre, here’s what the Canucks’ new-look lines look like:

Forward lines

  • Andrei Kuzmenko – Elias Pettersson – Anthony Beauvillier
  • Dakota Joshua – J.T. Miller – Conor Garland
  • Vasily Podkolzin – Sheldon Dries – Brock Boeser
  • Phil Di Giuseppe – Nils Aman – Curtis Lazar

Defensive pairings

  • Quinn Hughes – Ethan Bear
  • Oliver Ekman-Larson – Luke Schenn
  • Riley Stillman – Tyler Myers
  • Travis Dermott – Kyle Burroughs

For Beauvillier, the plum assignment with two of Vancouver’s top players could help him elevate the game that has lagged this season at 20 points in 49 games with the Islanders, potentially lifting him to a level for a possible flipped trade or on-ice benefit for the Canucks and their last-gasp hope of qualifying for the NHL playoffs.

With Podkolzin back in the lineup, the club also showed a little savvy, bringing their top young player up from Abbotsford after allowing him to iron out his game amid a period of immense chaos and turmoil with the NHL team.

The Canucks haven’t changed much on the back end, and Beauvillier will likely take Horvat’s former bumper spot on the top powerplay unit. However, there’s no doubt that the cap-strapped Canucks aren’t a contender with the lineup they’re set to roll out for the rest of the season.

The Canucks face the Devils at 4:30 pm PT/7:30 pm ET on Monday night with Collin Delia starting in net.

Ben SteinerBen Steiner

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