The Kes effect: Booth to hit 30? [With highlight package]

[bure's triple deke]

http://burestriplede...-to-hit-30.html

Of all the Canucks players not named Luongo or Schneider this off-season, perhaps the only one to make any noise has been David Booth (See: Hunting video misguidedly published online). Whether the Canucks winger should be condoned or criticized or his bear-hunting practices is borderline irrelevant completely up to non-hockey-related debate.

For that reason, it’s unfortunate that any mention of him until training camp will likely redirect attention to that incident (one Province column even facetiously asked in a headline, “Would Canucks trade David Booth after bear bait incident?”), cause speaking hockey, Booth represents the Canucks' central X-factor for the upcoming season. If there's one player whose impending breakout year the team will benefit most from, it's Booth. So to the multitudes on the Canucks.com forums heralding Zack Kassian for that role, sorry, but no.

When Gillis traded for Booth last October, the Canucks essentially flipped Mikael Samuelsson and change for a younger, more exciting version of the aging Swede. At his best, Samuelsson represented valuable second-line scoring and upwards of fifty points you can bank on. By comparison, Booth delivered 16 goals and 30 points over 62 games in a first year with Vancouver interrupted by major injury. On a points-per-game basis, that ranked sixth among team forwards, behind the Sedins, Burrows, Kesler and Higgins. That’s not quite as eye-popping as one of his forays to the front of the net can be, but it’s not a hugely underwhelming performance. It's also consistent with his expectation to contribute top-six numbers.

Still, the organization and fans will undoubtedly, and even justifiably, want more in 2012–13. The need is even greater with Kesler sidelined for the first month-and-a-half… though playing without a bonafide centre to start the campaign will logically work counteractively towards that.

On the flip side, consider that even with a winger capable of scoring, Kesler became even more unwilling to make a pass last season. (I don't care how many goals you scored two years ago, you can't shoot the puck through the defenceman's skates on every single rush.) With Kes gone until mid-November, it could spark Booth to take more responsibility for his performance on the second line. He will conceivably have more puck-time and, consequently, more opportunity to prove why fans voted him for the Most Exciting Player Award at the end of the regular season. For the former Panthers cornerstone, a return to 30-goal form is not out of the question, even after his multiple concussions in 2009–10.

Though he's been inconsistent in his short tenure with the Canucks, the upside to Booth is that when he does make something happen, everybody notices. It's legitimate reason to hope he can be a major part of this team for a long time. A little over a month ago, I wrote an article highlighting Henrik Sedin’s top five assists from the previous season. So without further ado, as determined by Bure’s Triple Deke... Booth’s top five plays from 2011–12:

It makes Canucks fans and management alike salivate at what level he could attain if he did it on a consistent basis.

-HC

[ButterBean]

Definitely looking forward to what he can do next season. Almost everyone on CDC gave up on him because they think he's overpaid, yet he still put up decent numbers and he had a bad injury.

[CanucksFanMike]

Booth definitely has the potential to score 30 goals consistantly year after year in this league

[Durl Dixsun]

That hit on Doughty was .... wow

[Walking Paradox]

Booth has sick hands.

[Jägermeister]

He just needs to play against Phoenix more.

[CanucksSayEh]

When he trucked Doughty i turned to my buddy and said, this is gonna be a good playoff run........ didn't turn out that way but still an awesome hit.

[Sedinry]

I love Booth.

[ilduce39]

I still have fairly high hopes that Booth turns out to be a player for us... I also agree with the column that perhaps playing without Kesler will boost his numbers a bit, since Kes is a bit of a puck-hog at times.

[John.Tallhouse]

Can't wait to see him develop and find his place as a Canuck

[buddhai]

When he trucked Doughty i turned to my buddy and said, this is gonna be a good playoff run........ didn't turn out that way but still an awesome hit.

[John.Tallhouse]

When he trucked Doughty i turned to my buddy and said, this is gonna be a good playoff run........ didn't turn out that way but still an awesome hit.

[Everybody Hates Raymond]

Booth, given a full, healthy season could push 40 imo... Especially if he's given a playmaking winger. He was on pace for 30 playing with Kesler, so something HAS to give. Versteeg would be awfully nice

[Down by the River]

Keith Yandle's defence was/is atrocious.

[jigsaw99]

he just needs to learn how to finish those breakaways he gets every game.

[Tragoedia]

We on CDC sometimes make to big of a deal out of the contracts and ignore the potential of the players. The problem with that mentality is the grass is always greener on the other side, where someone is succeeding on another team for slightly less, so we want them and we want to dump our guys to get them. Unfortunately, often when players switch teams it takes time for them to find success and generate chemistry and rebuild confidence, but we are already drooling over the next guy.

In my books he has the season to figure it out. He came into the team a quarter of a way through (missed training camp and preseason) and then when he started to get going had a major knee injury (dirty hit, nothing he could have done to stop that). And even the whole year he was playing with a half healed and frustrated Kesler who seemingly had forgotten how to pass a puck. No wonder he didn't have a stellar year.

He has the year for me to show he can play for us, or else we can find someone else to do his role. Seems like a really nice guy though. (Not that that has much bearing on anything).

[Raiun]

That move he made past the Oilers guys in April was just sick, he absolutely undressed them. I would love to see him play like that all the time. seems like he tries that a lot, but doesn't make anything of it.

I think the reason CDC doesn't like him is because of his really long goal-drought that he had, but I think he's a great top six guy.

Just need someone to play on the other wing, because Raymond doesn't really fit there with the way he's been playing.

[bure's triple deke]

We on CDC sometimes make to big of a deal out of the contracts and ignore the potential of the players. The problem with that mentality is the grass is always greener on the other side, where someone is succeeding on another team for slightly less, so we want them and we want to dump our guys to get them. Unfortunately, often when players switch teams it takes time for them to find success and generate chemistry and rebuild confidence, but we are already drooling over the next guy.

In my books he has the season to figure it out. He came into the team a quarter of a way through (missed training camp and preseason) and then when he started to get going had a major knee injury (dirty hit, nothing he could have done to stop that). And even the whole year he was playing with a half healed and frustrated Kesler who seemingly had forgotten how to pass a puck. No wonder he didn't have a stellar year.

He has the year for me to show he can play for us, or else we can find someone else to do his role. Seems like a really nice guy though. (Not that that has much bearing on anything).

[thehamburglar]

He can get quite a bit better.

[KING ALBERTS]

Definitely looking forward to what he can do next season. Almost everyone on CDC gave up on him because they think he's overpaid, yet he still put up decent numbers and he had a bad injury.