Nils Höglander has quietly turned his Vancouver Canucks season around
Nils Höglander had a forgettable first half of the season. He entered the year looking to build upon a breakout season in which he scored 24 goals, all at even strength. Instead, he found himself fighting just to stay in the lineup.
The 24-year-old scored just once in his first 15 games and slowly slid down the lineup. He wasn’t producing offensively and making far too many mistakes in his own zone, leading to multiple benchings.
Things were not improving as Christmas approached on the calendar, and it started to feel like Höglander was not a fit with head coach Rick Tocchet. He started to find his name in trade rumours as it looked like the Canucks might dangle the ferocious winger on the trade market.
But over the past few months, and especially the past few weeks, Höglander has worked extremely hard to turn his season around. The results have started to go his way. He’s still not producing at the individual level he did last season, but good things happen for the Canucks when he’s on the ice.
With Höglander on the ice at five-on-five since Jan. 1, the Canucks are outscoring opponents 15-5, the best ratio of anyone on the team, and scoring three goals per 60 minutes, also the best mark on the team.
The 5-foot-9 energy winger has been more noticeable on a night-to-night basis. He’s using his burst to forecheck and cause havoc in the offensive zone. While it’s not resulting in goals for himself just yet, it’s creating a net positive result for the team.
“The last month, his effort is really high. He’s trying. We’ve talked a while ago, he’s not worried about the first 40 games, you can tell he’s trying to make his second half mean something so I have to give him a lot of credit, he’s working hard,” said Tocchet after a recent loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
Höglander still has just five goals and 16 points in 61 games, far fewer than expected heading into this season. But three of those points have come in the last five games, and looking at his performance beyond the box score shows a lot of reasons for optimism heading into the future.
The Canucks signed Höglander to a three-year extension, which kicks in next season, back in October. His cap hit will nearly triple to $3 million per season. If he plays like he did for the first few months of the season, that deal will be a burden. However, if he can keep this positive momentum up, Höglander will be well worth that modest cap hit.