VANCOUVER – A late-bloomer who didn’t play a full National Hockey League season until he was 28, Kiefer Sherwood earned his way. The Vancouver Canucks’ rebuild will be helped if Max Sasson and Linus Karlsson can do the same.
On the day Sherwood was traded to the San Jose Sharks for a pair of second-round picks, a casualty of the rebuild and the Canucks’ salary-cap math, Karlsson set up Sasson for a pretty opening goal in Vancouver’s game Monday night against the New York Islanders.
The good times didn’t last, however, as the Canucks lost 4-3 to extend their winless streak to 11 games, the franchise’s longest run of ineptitude since a 12-game coma in 1988. But Sasson and Karlsson, on the fourth line with Nils Hoglander, made the most of their shifts and looked again like NHLers.
The problem Monday wasn’t the inexperienced Canucks.
“Our veterans are the ones that feel defeated first,” coach Adam Foote said in his post-game press conference. “It’s been going on here for a few years. You know, we get off our game, we get frustrated and we overcomplicate it and, you know, slamming the gate and things like that.
“It’s something we’ve got to get out of our culture, where our culture is not going to be that anymore.”
Their career trajectories are similar to Sherwood’s. Sasson is 25 years old and Karlsson 26, but Monday was just NHL Game 75 for Sasson, No. 73 for Karlsson. Sherwood, who will sign a multi-year contract this summer (or sooner if he re-signs with the Sharks) for something close to $5-million annually, was also 26 when he passed the 70-game threshold in the NHL.
Protective to a fault of his players this season, even as the Canucks plummeted to the bottom of the standings, Foote finally seemed to run out of patience.
“It’s our vets,” he said, “they’ve got to hang in there.”
Sounds like opportunity for the kids. The transition happening in Vancouver may be more widespread, and messy, than anyone yet realizes.
“I mean, me and Woody have talked about that, too,” Karlsson said after the game. “That’s the hard way to do it, and I’m really looking at him and how he did it. He’s such a good example for how you can succeed even if you are a late-bloomer. And he’s such a nice guy; I’m happy for him and what he has done.”
Sherwood leaves behind a template.
“One hundred per cent, yeah,” Sasson said. “I had a long talk with him today, and I’ll continue to stay in touch. He’s given me a lot of advice ever since Day 1 up here. Even when we were in Abbotsford (playing in the American League), that’s a guy that we talk about all the time — that we can learn from and strive to be. Maybe just because you weren’t in the NHL at 21, you can still find it. He’s playing his best hockey right now… so yeah, we’re going to miss him. He was a great friend, but also an unbelievable leader to all of us.”
Although their best two prospects in the organization are defencemen — 20-year-olds Zeev Buium and Tom Willander are already in the NHL — the Canucks have not accumulated the elite prospects or enough high draft picks required to fuel their rebuild up front without help in other areas.
That’s why players like Sasson and Karlsson are so important, despite just starting their NHL careers in their mid-20s.
Sasson was an undrafted free agent out of Western Michigan University, which didn’t offer him a scholarship until he was 21. Karlsson is a third-round pick from Sweden whom the Canucks acquired in 2019 as a second-tier prospect in a minor-league trade.
Each earned one-way NHL extensions with the Canucks this season. But the pressure is on them to keep developing and evolve into something more in the second half of their 20s.
“I don’t really think about it like that,” Karlsson said. “I try to stay in the lineup all the time, and every time I get on the ice, I try to do my best and do the best for the team. That’s what I’m going to keep doing. I’m just trying to win hockey games.”
For all the rebuild planning and projections, all the theoretical exercises reporters go through, it felt worth remembering Monday how the Islanders got their new franchise cornerstone.
Teenage defenceman Matthew Schaefer set up a pair of goals for New York (and scored a beauty that was overturned for offside), skated all over the ice and finished with 25:04 of playing time.
But the Islanders didn’t tank or rebuild to get him. They simply were mediocre and got lucky in a draft lottery that the NHL long ago transformed into a fan-engagement spectacle. A .500 team last season, the Islanders moved to first from 10th in the draft order and selected Schaefer, who is likely to be more impactful than any of the players the Canucks’ might choose in the top three in June.
There is always an element of luck to these rebuilds.
The Canucks, at least, are doing everything they can to give themselves the best odds of drafting well.
Monday’s loss was the eighth straight in regulation by Vancouver, which is 0-9-2 in its last 11.
After Sasson scored just 2:49 into Monday’s game, Evander Kane’s deflection put the Canucks up 2-1 at 14:48 of the first period.
But Anthony Duclair, Ryan Pulock and Tony DeAngelo scored consecutive goals for the Islanders before Drew O’Connor brought the Canucks back within one as Vancouver skated six-against-five with 1:51 to go.
The Canucks are stuck on four home wins all season. It was a more resilient effort than they had in Saturday’s 6-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
“We’re fighting hard,” veteran defenceman Marcus Pettersson said. “It’s a tough go, and it’s easy when you go through a losing streak… you kind of find ways to lose, right? But I think we can’t stop up and feel sorry for ourselves, I’ve said before. I think our effort was there tonight. Yeah, an unfortunate result.”
Those are the only kind they’ve had in a long time.
One-quarter through an eight-game homestand, the 16-28-5 Canucks are seven points behind the next-worst team in the NHL and at least 10 points behind 29 of 31 other clubs.
The Washington Capitals visit Rogers Arena on Wednesday.
