Despite Pettersson, Horvat, and Gaudette, the Canucks are not set at centre

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There’s a sentiment floating around the Canucks fandom that I find concerning. It’s the idea that the Canucks are set at centre for the foreseeable future and shouldn’t worry about acquiring more young centre prospects, either at the draft or via trade.

It’s why many Canucks fans were fine with the team moving Tyler Madden to the Los Angeles Kings in the Tyler Toffoli trade, even before Toffoli quickly clicked with Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller on the top line. It’s why many Canucks fans are eager to see the team draft defencemen and scoring wingers ahead of centres when the NHL Entry Draft finally arrives.

On the surface, it’s not an unreasonable stance. At the NHL level, Pettersson is a legitimate franchise forward, Bo Horvat is a strong two-way second-line centre, and Adam Gaudette is an up-and-coming scoring threat from the third line. With that youth up the middle and a veteran fourth-line centre, the Canucks should be set for years, right?

The truth is, the Canucks depth at centre is nearly nonexistent.

Beyond the NHL, the Canucks have limited potential at centre. Tyler Graovac is an AHL player; Carson Focht, Linus Karlsson, and Lukas Jasek have limited upside and may never make the NHL; and arguably the team’s most talented prospect at centre is Arvid Costmar, who is a long shot as a seventh-round pick. 

At least Costmar tore up the SuperElit Under-20 league in Sweden, leading the league in points-per-game with 26 goals and 50 points in just 29 games. Against adults in the SHL and Allsvenskan, however, Costmar managed just one goal in 14 games, albeit in limited minutes.

The point is that the Canucks don’t really have any help on the way at centre. If the Canucks have injuries in future seasons, there are no promising prospects in the wings (er, at centre) to step in and pick up the slack. 

More importantly, some of the best teams regularly use centres out of position on the wing. 

Take a look at the St. Louis Blues, who won the Stanley Cup last year. Of the 14 forwards that played for them in the playoffs, nine of them were listed at centre by Hockey Reference. That includes one of their top scorers, Jaden Schwartz, who plays left wing on the team’s top line. Schwartz was a centre in his draft year when he led the USHL in scoring and is versatile enough to play all three forward positions: in the NHL, however, he’s primarily played on the wing.

The Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018. Five of their top six scoring forwards are listed as centres. T.J. Oshie played on the wing on the second line, but he was drafted as a centre and has played a decent amount at centre in the NHL. 

Jake Guentzel led the Pittsburgh Penguins in scoring enroute to the 2017 Stanley Cup. He played on the left wing alongside Sidney Crosby on the first line, but he was drafted as — you guessed it — a centre. 

This is just a small sampling, of course. There are plenty of other examples of players drafted at centre that have gone on to excel on the wing and teams that have thrived with such players. 

Heck, the Canucks’ J.T. Miller is an example. Already a versatile forward that could play all three positions in his draft year, scouts thought Miller would be middle-six centre at the NHL level. Instead, he’s thrived most as a winger, while still taking the majority of faceoffs for his line this past season. That versatility has made him indispensable for the Canucks.

Perhaps the ranks of wingers are filled with one-time centres because they are more likely to be well-rounded two-way players in junior, making them more reliable as wingers in the NHL, where positions frequently fly out the window and simply become F1, F2, and F3 in the course of play.

An added benefit, of course, is that a team loaded with centres on the wing doesn’t have to fret quite as much when one of their top centres goes down with an injury. One of their plethora of other centres can step into the breach.

All this is to say, the Canucks should not shy away from adding to their prospect depth at centre in the coming year(s). Not only will the team need injury insurance, the best of those centres could wind up being key wingers for future playoff runs.