The Canucks shocked the world when they announced that they had traded their captain Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders. At first, it seemed as if the major part of the trade were the 1st Round Selection and Aatu Raty, while Anthony Beauvilier was just a salary dump. However, since he joined the Canucks, he's proven that he belongs to the NHL and that he could be extremely valuable to the team moving forward.
Tocchet addressed the media today after announcing that Beauvilier would be skating on the team's top line with Andrei Kuzmenko and Elias Pettersson. The team's head coach was asked what they thought they were getting out of him, but also what they expected and that's where things get interesting:
Tocchet mentioned something about being a ''pest'' a guy that's always in somebody's face, and who does that remind you of? Yes, the one and only Brad Marchand. As much as everybody hates him, he's the kind of player you like to have on your side. When you look at their progression, Marchand became the offensive threat that he is when he reached 28 years old. In 2015-2016 he scored 37 goals that year, but prior to that, he had only been searching for his true identity on the ice.
Beauvilier on his end, will turn 26, and although he may never reach Marchand's offensive production, their progression is very much alike prior to Marchand hitting his prime. Had Beauvilier been with the Nuck for the whole season he would've reached the 50 points barrier for the first time in his career.
Beauvilier is reportedly 2 inches taller than Marchand, but if he were to model his game after the Bruins' pest, the Canucks would definitely come out ahead in this trade. Marchand developed into one of the league's best two-way forwards, could we witness a similar development with Anthony Beauvilier? Surely is intriguing.
