Höglander among the most productive fourth liners in Canucks history
Being the best team in the NHL comes with its own issues.
Take the Vancouver Canucks for example. They have nine players that have scored double-digits in goals already this season. There’s simply not enough ice time to go around.
That’s where Nils Höglander’s situation comes to the forefront. The crafty winger certainly has a case to spend more time in the Canucks’ top six, and on the power play.
However, he’s averaged just 11:04 of ice time and has been stapled to the fourth line for most of the season.
Nils Höglander has been productive despite lacking ice time. In fact, he’s one of the most productive fourth liners in Canucks history.
The NHL tracks time on ice statistics back to 1997-98. We took a look back at the most productive Canucks from that season and beyond, with the criteria that they had to have 20 games while averaging no more than 12 minutes per contest.
Most productive fourth liners in Canucks history
After digging through the old statistics, we found out that Höglander is nearly the most productive fourth liner in the team’s history.
Here are the top 10 Canucks who fit our criteria in terms of points per-game.
NHL.com
Based on the numbers, former Canuck Harold Druken is the only player in team history who averaged more than a half point per-game while averaging less than 12 minutes per night.
Druken, much like Höglander is now, was a productive and promising young player for the Canucks. However, ankle and knee injuries, along with three shoulder surgeries, derailed his career. He’s the only Canucks player to appear on this list twice.
The list is almost split 50/50 between younger players who proved they could play, along with veterans who managed to produce in limited minutes.
Along with Druken and Höglander, Dakota Joshua, Dave Scatchard, and Alex Burrows appear on this list with their impressive performances during their first year with the Canucks. Joshua has proven this season that he’s more than a fourth-liner, while Burrows parlayed his rookie year into becoming one of the biggest legends in Canucks history. Scatchard had a solid rookie season in what was a dismal year for the Canucks franchise.
Among the other four, Todd Warriner and Richard Park made the most of their short stints with the Canucks, while Alex Chiasson and Antoine Roussel are more familiar names to those who watched the Canucks in recent seasons. Chiasson actually managed a good chunk of his production later in the 2021-22 season when he was elevated to the top-six, while Roussel achieved a modestly productive campaign after returning from a major knee injury.
Most productive fourth liners in the NHL this season
The NHL has changed, and evidence of that can be found on teams’ fourth lines.
Past eras often had slow, plodding bruisers who didn’t produce much making up the bottom of the lineup. Now, there are guys like Höglander on other teams’ fourth lines as well.
This season, Höglander has been the fourth-most productive NHLer to play limited minutes.
NHL.com
The three players at the top of this list all profile similarly to Höglander.
Nicholas Robertson is also a talented, spark-plug-like winger who is under 5-foot-10. He’s been in and out of Toronto’s lineup, however he’s made the most of his minutes when healthy.
Michael Carcone was once with the Canucks organization. He was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Josh Leivo over five years ago. Carcone spent most of his career in the AHL but has emerged as a surprising fourth-line scoring threat for the Arizona Coyotes.
Jack Drury, much like Höglander, is a smaller forward who was selected in the second round of the NHL Draft (one year before Höglander, in 2018). Despite his promise, Drury has his struggles, which even extended into this season. He’s had one assist in his first 15 games, but has caught fire lately despite limited minutes, registering eight goals and 20 points in his last 32 games.
Unlike Höglander, Drury gets power play time with the Hurricanes and has six points with the man advantage. Höglander has registered each and every one of his points at even strength.
Is Höglander fourth line material?
It’s pretty clear that, if Höglander were on most other teams, he’d likely be playing more.
And hey, with Andrei Kuzmenko struggling and Ilya Mikheyev going a bit cold, there’s definitely an argument for Höglander to get more ice time.
At the very least, get this guy some time on the second power play unit.
It is worth noting that while the talented Swede is a rare player, he’s not completely unique in today’s NHL. Other teams (and specifically good ones like the Maple Leafs and Hurricanes) have pushed talented young players down to the fourth line where they’ve still managed to contribute to a winning hockey team.
Gone are the days of Markus Granlund, Loui Eriksson, Nikolay Goldobin, and Sven Baertschi in the top-six. The Canucks can afford to have Höglander on the fourth line, although I’m sure many don’t doubt that he could have success higher up in the lineup.
Follow Channels and Categories