The biggest Vancouver Canucks acquisition last offseason was Jake DeBrusk. After spending seven seasons in Boston, the Edmonton native chose to come to Vancouver in search of a bigger opportunity.
DeBrusk was moving up and down the lineup throughout his time in Boston and was consistently considered a middle-six winger. Coming to the Canucks gave him a bigger opportunity to flourish into an everyday top six role.
Though the Canucks season was a disappointment, DeBrusk was not. He reached a new career high in goals despite playing alongside an underachieving linemate and played a significant role on the team’s top power play unit.
DeBrusk’s Season Narrative
Coming into the season, the narrative surrounding DeBrusk’s on-ice play was his streaky scoring. He started the year giving Canucks fans a bit of scare, going goaless in his first nine games of the season, while only registering four points during that stretch.
The narrative shifted from him being a streaky scorer to everyone wondering when he would finally find the back of the net. Thankfully, that first goal came against the San Jose Sharks, in the first of a three-game California road trip. Canucks fans got a taste of that streakiness, after he scored in each of those three games.
This was a big sigh of relief as he was finally able to score, but still hadn’t done so on home ice. The next six games were all at home, and Rogers Arena was excited to finally cheer him on for a goal, believing he would get one during this stretch.
Well, he didn’t.
Goalless for another six straight. But once the team went on the road, the goals started racking back up. On the six-game road trip that followed the home stand, DeBrusk scored eight goals. This stretch included a hat-trick, including an overtime game-winning snipe against the Detroit Red Wings.
The next game following the road trip, DeBrusk finally found the back of the net in Rogers Arena. Scoring against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Canucks 5-2 win on December 6, 2024.
It took DeBrusk 10 games to score his first of the season and 12 home games to score at home. Despite this, he managed set himself a new career high in goals, leading the Canucks in that department.
Where DeBrusk found most of his success was on the power play. Half of his 28 goals on the season came with the man advantage, where he found most of his success as a netfront presence.
Whether he showed off his hand-eye coordination with a tip-in goal:
Or he displayed his quick hands around the net:
DeBrusk brought an added element to the Canucks power play, one they hadn’t seen in some time.
He was brought in to be Elias Pettersson’s top-line winger and successfully filled that role. He spent most of the season playing with Pettersson and either Brock Boeser or Kiefer Sherwood. He also spent time on the wing of both Pius Suter and JT Miller, excelling most on Miller’s wing.
Pettersson was massively underperforming this year, which may have led to DeBrusk being at his best with someone else down the middle. There was some concern during the year that he may not be the best fit alongside Pettersson.
The problem here, though wasn’t DeBrusk; the expectation wasn’t that he would take Pettersson to new heights necessarily, but that he would be a reliable everyday top-six winger that the Canucks haven’t had to pair with Petey. He held up his end of the bargain on that front. He proved to be an everyday top-six winger and was the team’s best goal scorer this past season.
The positive thing is that the two did start to gel even more as the season went on. Although DeBrusk remained fairly streaky scoring-wise, he did get a bit more consistent at finding the back of the net.
Following the Miller trade, DeBrusk scored 11 goals and seven assists for 18 points in the last 32 games of the season. A solid stretch considering the Canucks had just traded Miller, along with Filip Chytil and Pettersson going down with injuries at some point as well.
Throughout the season, DeBrusk had many scoring streaks and many stretches without scoring. However, even with the inconsistencies, he still was one of the more impactful forwards for the Canucks this season.
The Final Stats
Games: 82 | Goals: 28 | Assists: 20 | Points: 48 | Plus/Minus: -15 | Avg. TOI: 16:39
The best ability is availability.
In a season where the Canucks were faced with many injuries and lots of adversity, DeBrusk was one of two Canucks that were in the lineup for all 82 games. Playing over 16 and a half minutes per night, DeBrusk was immediately slotted in the top six and rarely moved out of that spot.
He wasn’t a dominant play driver by any means, but his nose around the net allowed him to beat his previous career high in goals by one with 28.
One goal certainly isn’t a big step, but when you look at what was going on around him in his first season as a Canuck, it’s impressive that he still managed to produce at the level he did.
As mentioned, his power play numbers took a massive jump this past season compared to any other year he’s been in the NHL. Scoring 14 goals and registering 19 points on the power play. The Canucks’ power play middle of the pack compared to the rest of league, DeBrusk’s ability to score in tight and be a good net front presence helped the teams top unit to be a successful as it was.
It may not have been the big jump in point production that many had hoped from DeBrusk when he signed with the Canucks last offseason, but it certainly was a step in the right direction for the 28-year-old when you consider the turmoil surrounding his new team in his first season.
