Player Discussion Tanner Pearson

[Mr. Canucklehead]

The best thing about Pearson is that he’s not Erik Gudbranson. Full stop. I felt our team defense was instantly better once Gudbranson moved on.

Pearson producing in the manner he did was a welcome surprise and bonus. While I don’t expect him to be able to sustain that type of production over a full season, he did show some chemistry with Horvat, and being that he’s eclipsed 20 goals and 40 points in the past, I would hope he could do so again.

 

[lawrence]

What a beaut. Didn’t expect him to play his way onto the horvat lime, not to mention he was on a 38 goal pace with the canucksand not cherry picking, he also had tons of scoring chances that were misses or good saves by the goalie.

 

[bandwagonesque]

Canucks fans need to stop overhyping garbage time performers.

Agreed. Fortunately, Pearson's career to this point makes it impossible to credibly draw the conclusion that this is what he is.

 

[Fire Benning]

Agreed. Fortunately, Pearson's career to this point makes it impossible to credibly draw the conclusion that this is what he is.

Meh, one 20 goal season, an outlier in his career. Dreadful skater in a game that's as fast as it's ever been.

 

[Blue and Green]

I don't get the garbage-time references. If a player has a good March, so what if the team surrounding him wasn't good enough to be in the playoff hunt? If the guy played well, good for him. Also, garbage time to one team isn't necessarily garbage time to another; the Predators and the Blues, for example, were highly motivated teams with plenty to play for in these last two games. Wasn't like they were resting guys and coasting around out there.

 

[bandwagonesque]

Meh, one 20 goal season, an outlier in his career. Dreadful skater in a game that's as fast as it's ever been.

We're all looking at the same stats. He's averaged 18 goals a season over the last 4 years and the season before that scored at a 23 goal pace over 42 games. Calling a 20 goal season an outlier is obviously disingenuous.

 

[Fire Benning]

Jussi Jokinen scored at a 60 point pace down the stretch last year.

 

[bandwagonesque]

Jussi Jokinen scored at a 60 point pace down the stretch last year.

And at the time the most anyone expressed was a mild interest in possibly resigning him, because due to age and history that production was understood to be unsustainable, whereas Pearson is young and has consistently been a 15-20 goal winger his entire career. The two situations are clearly different and drawing a simple parallel between them doesn't make any sense. I'm pretty sure you understand all of this. Also, no one here has suggested Pearson is likely to continue scoring at this rate.

Expressing optimism about a specific event or player, or even just failing to find some way to express pessimism about it, does not undermine justified pessimism about other parts of the team or about the team in general.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

I mean he was a 2nd liner on a cup winning team. It's not unreasonable to think that he could be a genuine 2nd line player.

The league has got a lot of faster since that. The entire LA Kings team, this side of Doughty & Kopitar is a relic of the past basically.

 

[ScottishCanuck]

Welp, I think the people (like y2k) who were angrily insisting that they would rather have had a 6th round pick in the Gudbranson trade rather than Pearson need to tentatively eat a bit of crow here. 9 goals in 19 games is pretty solid. 20 goals is not at all an unreasonable expectation for next year, and that's legit top 6 production. (by definition there are 186 "top 6" forwards in the NHL, but only about 100 forwards got 20 goals or more this year).

Fat chance of that happening on here.

 

[Fire Benning]

The league has got a lot of faster since that. The entire LA Kings team, this side of Doughty & Kopitar is a relic of the past basically.

Yep, the Sutter era cup winning Kings played a lumbering style of game that wasn't really predicated on speed and quickness. Pearson was a solid player in that era but the game has changed a lot in the time since, he still has decent tools in his game but that doesn't mean as much when you can't skate. No coincidence that the Kings dealt him when they were trying to become younger and faster.

 

[Grantham]

I don’t like the garbage time talk.

This is the most difficult time in hockey, with the most physical play and tightest checking.

He has been an absolutely awesome surprise. I felt so bad for Bo all season having to play with scrubs while Pettersson got to play with Boeser. Finally some real chemistry for Bo and a player that thinks along the same wavelength. Bo’s line has been our best down the toughest stretch of the season, and we hung in with some top teams.

Next year got a lot more interesting now, and I’m excited to see how Pearson does.

 

[bandwagonesque]

The league has got a lot of faster since that. The entire LA Kings team, this side of Doughty & Kopitar is a relic of the past basically.

Except Dustin Brown, who had the best season of his career last year at 33. And Justin Williams, who had his best season in 6 or 7 years this year at 37. And Jake Muzzin, who's having his best season in 4 years at 30 and went for a 1st+ at the deadline. The players from that team who regressed mostly aged out, and many of them, even ones who couldn't skate well, continued to contribute.

 

[StreetHawk]

Don't expect any explosion over what he has done over his career. His prior 3 years in LA he was basically a half a point a game guy.

If he can give you 17-20 goals and around 20-23 assists, he'll be a 37-40 point guy. Would not expect much more than that.

 

[MS]

The rate he scored at to close the season is clearly unsustainable but he did enough to re-establish himself as a solid middle-6 forward and to think he could be a useful linemate for Horvat next season.

 

[Jay Cee]

Tanner Pearson and Josh Leivo have been great pickups this year. In a bubble Pearson makes too much, but when you consider his value to the team and what he was traded for, it is very important contextually. I'll take it.

 

[Oliewud]

Tanner Pearson and Josh Leivo have been great pickups this year. In a bubble Pearson makes too much, but when you consider his value to the team and what he was traded for, it is very important contextually. I'll take it.

the cap is going up to 83 million next year. pearsons cap hit is 3.7 million. I really don't think hes overpaid if he can be a consistent 20 goal guy for us. hes impressed me every game.

Now spooner at 4 million is disgusting and needs to be bought out or traded for a bag of pucks

 

[PuckMunchkin]

Except Dustin Brown, who had the best season of his career last year at 33. And Justin Williams, who had his best season in 6 or 7 years this year at 37. And Jake Muzzin, who's having his best season in 4 years at 30 and went for a 1st+ at the deadline. The players from that team who regressed mostly aged out, and many of them, even ones who couldn't skate well, continued to contribute.

I was so excited to see youve quoted my post.

 

[bandwagonesque]

I was so excited to see youve quoted my post.

Sometimes I think you make sweeping, incorrect generalizations just to have an excuse to talk to me.

 

[me2]

What a beaut. Didn’t expect him to play his way onto the horvat lime, not to mention he was on a 38 goal pace with the canucksand not cherry picking, he also had tons of scoring chances that were misses or good saves by the goalie.

He shot over 21% with the Canucks. That is twice his career average, expecting him to regress. Let's look at his whole season, even with all the best games in LA his 12.2% on the year is still slightly above his career average. 18g 9a, is about what you'd expect.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Jussi Jokinen scored at a 60 point pace down the stretch last year.

I don't recall one single person saying he should be brought back by the organization. Pearson is a slightly different kettle of fish than Jokinen was, IMO.

 

[Raistlin]

He was a factor on a cup winning team, how many of those do we have in our roster this side of 30? He provides an element that is missing in our top six. He's definitely worth another look on Horvat's wing next year, ...if only Virtanen had enough hockey sense, he would've been perfect on the other wing with his speed. .....

 

[VC]

His shooting percentage may not be sustainable but next to Bo I think he will hover around the 20 goal pace over the course of a season. I think the makes for an okay stopgap winger on that line or at least an improved trade value of what Gudbranson was. Of course Pearson could always flop again with his terrible skating, I'm guessing he will turn out to be a useful stopgap/trade asset.

 

[GetFocht]

I think Pearson is great in the top 6 as long as he's the lowest level of skill in the top 6, in other words, we need two more bonafide skill players in the top 6. Pearson is great at complementing skill, he plays a power forward game and retrieves the puck against the boards.

 

[M2Beezy]

Typical HFBoards "pessimism for the sake of pessimism" horses***. The guy had 40 and 44 points in 2 of the last 3 seasons and now, after finding some chemistry at the end of a down season, he's a "garbage time hero" who's going to finish next season with 10 points?

Yeah I agree with you. He played decent here. Im happy with his play esp considering the trade. Him and Bo together next year is decent. If Leivo can take another step thats a ok 2nd line