Jannik Hansen's Value.

[Junkyard Dog]

Top 6 D like McQuaid or a 3rd rounder, maybe a 2nd if we are lucky.

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

After the worst season of his professional career, Jannik Hansen's trade value has been greatly reduced. But given his aberrantly poor results in 2013-14, it's almost guaranteed that he'll see improvement in 2014-15. It would be foolish to trade Hansen now when the odds are very strong that his value will increase steadily throughout the season, right up to the trading deadline.

It would be better to "showcase" Hansen this season, and do so in a way that would also help the team win. There's a very simple gameplan for this:

(1) Put Hansen back on the 1st PK unit. Before "he who shall not be named" (to borrow a certain blogger's affectation) decided to give Hansen's PK minutes to the Sedins, #36 had been the Canucks (forward) minutes leader on the penalty kill, averaging well above 2 minutes of SHTOI/G. And the funny thing is, the more Hansen killed penalties, the better he seemed to play at 5-on-5. You can plot his SHTOI/G against his 5v5PTS/60 and you'll see an almost linear relation. While I don't believe it's as simple as a 1-to-1 relationship, I do believe that playing on the penalty kill keeps Hansen "on his game" and focused on playing the way he needs to to be successful. And taking him off the PK last season was a big factor in his drop-off in even strength production (which interestingly seemed to improve somewhat whenever his "filled-in" on the PK last season).

(2) Play Hansen around 12 minutes per game at even strength. Hansen's motor runs perfectly at around 12:00 ESTOI/G. Play him significantly more or significantly less and you see his game suffer negative effects. He's fine occasionally playing 14-16 minutes (even more) of even strength, but he shouldn't average 14+ minutes at evens over the entire season. He just doesn't maintain the same level of pace and energy. Similarly, when he's left on the bench for too long, he cools off and loses his intensity and focus. 12 minutes per game (ESTOI) is the perfect Goldilocks zone for Hansen's even strength icetime.

(3) Play Hansen with other fleet-of-foot forwards. Hansen needs to fly out there. He's not suited for a half-zone game cycling with the twins. But he can produce well off the rush (even with all the missed chances). He needs to play the game with pace. The more he's skating, the better he's playing the game.

(4) Play Hansen with your "heavy hitter" forwards. Maybe not with the goon-types but definitely play Hansen with any "wrecking ball" type of forwards who go after the opposition players. When Hansen plays with hitters, he hits (a lot). The year he played mostly with Torres (2010-11), Hansen led the entire team in hits (149). Whenever he played with Lapierre, Hansen hit everything that moved. But he needs to be on a "hitting" line for him to really bring his physical game. Play him too often with skilled but "softer" forwards and his physical game tends to evaporate.

(5) Play Hansen in a defensive/checking role (defensive zone starts and middle QoC) but alongside quality two-way players who can transition well on the counter-attack. Hansen was one of the Canucks' best defensive forwards for years before he was "re-made" last season into a top-six forward and "offensive-minded" player. Just like he needs PK minutes, Hansen seems to need a defensive matchups at even strength for him to unleash his full scoring potential. He's at his best when he's shutting down opponents and stopping plays in his own end, and then making quick strikes down the ice and attacking the opposition net with speed. But he needs those defensive zone starts to exploit his speed and his ability to force turnovers. While we might not always like Hansen's conversion rate, there's no denying that a big part of Hansen's game is fueled by his breakaways and odd man rushes, and these are usually created by defensive stops and takeaways.

Following steps 1-5 should result in a return to the "Honey Badger" days when Jannik Hansen was everyone's favourite lunch bucket player who delighted fans with his speed, hard work, and "never quit" attitude. And it should put an end to the days of seeing a despondent and defeated looking Hansen (never mind one who's getting screamed at and poked in the chest as part of an "honest" and "accountable" approach behind the bench).

Play Hansen this way and by the time the 2015 Trade Deadline rolls around, he'll be back producing offense at around a 40 points/season pace, throwing around 100 hits/season, posting an exceptional takeaway/giveaway ratio, and leading the way on the PK. That version of Jannik Hansen could fetch a pretty penny from quite a few playoff-bound teams looking to improve their bottom-six and tighten up their defensive game and penalty kill.

That all said, if we did actually get Hansen back to being Hansen, he might just prove to be more valuable staying in Vancouver than whatever he'd fetch for the Canucks in a trade.

[amitriptyline]

Very low IMO. I never liked him and I want him off the team. I'm surprised he's lasted as long as he has. He just doesn't bring enough to warrant a spot. He's hard working and has a good work ethic but that's not enough. We've got a lot of new players and prospects who would be upgrades on him, and I would like to see him replaced.

[William_Clarkson]

3rd and a 4th maybe. After last year 2nd seems too high, especially since 2015 is suppose to be a deep draft.

[Chalky]

Very low IMO. I never liked him and I want him off the team. I'm surprised he's lasted as long as he has. He just doesn't bring enough to warrant a spot. He's hard working and has a good work ethic but that's not enough. We've got a lot of new players and prospects who would be upgrades on him, and I would like to see him replaced.

As a 3rd line winger who is an upgrade?

[thema]

Sedin/Sedin/Vrbata

Burrows/Bonino/Kassian

Higgins/Matthias/Vey

Sestito/Richardson/Dorsett

That leaves Hansen out. Hansen is not a fourth liner. Sestito however is a fourth liner and fits better. He can put up 10 pts. He just needs to stop taking ridiculous amounts of PIMS. And now with Torts gone, the fourth line can now have a bit more ice time. I think our best bet would be to trade Hansen/Higgins for picks or in a package. Benning also stated numerous times that if some of our prospects are ready, then he will make some room. Those prospects are likely Jensen, Horvat, Corrado, Gaunce, and Grenier. I really hope one of them makes it. We need to inject youth. I just don't see anyone else but Hansen being the odd man out. Higgins is a reliable 40 point scorer. Hansen has been through ups and downs for the past two seasons and if there were to be a trade, I think he would be involved. His NTC hurts us though..

If Dorsett costs us a 3rd rounder, then for sure we should be able to get a 2nd rounder Hansen AT LEAST. I don't think Dorsett will be moved. Especially for the price we got him for. He could be moved though, through waivers/send down to minors, always a possibility.

What do you guys think of Hansen's value?

You lost me when you put Sestito in the lineup ahead of Hansen...

[Leadite]

Can someone explain his NTC to me? I wouldn't be in a big hurry to move him.

[hearditall]

Hansen>Matthias as a 3rd liner.

realistic projection:

Sedin Sedin Vrbata

Burrows Bonino Hansen

Higgins Vey Kassian

Matthias Richardson Dorsett

super-optimistic projection:

Sedin Sedin Vrbata

Burrows Bonino Jensen

Higgins Horvat Hansen

Matthias Vey Kassian

Richardson

Dorsett

C'MON. We all know if Hansen is your 2nd liner U are weak.

I like Hansen but he's a bottom 6 energy guy with speed & not much muscle at all. I would replace him over Higgy & with one of our younger Canadian kids for that role for sure. Hansen has had his time here & time to move forward. Kassian is where U got it all wrong.

Sedin Sedin Vrbata

Matthias Bonino Kassian

Higgins Vey Burrows

Jensen Horvat Dorsett

Sestito Hansen?

[xereau]

Which prospect do we have that could replace was Hansen does? Vey?

[oldnews]

Hansen's value is on the roster and in the lineup.

Sestito is the scratch.

Hansen is a 30-40 point depth forward who hits, kills penalties (although Tortorella preferred to bust his jewels and use the Sedins in supreme derpitude), with a career +80 takeaway/turnover differential, and consistently outstanding underlying numbers.

Hansen is the type of depth player you win with, who can move up and down the lineup and play in any situation.

People keep wanting to undervalue him and move him for a middling pick - simply a bad idea. Hansen had two shoulder injuries last year. If any of you ever suffered a mid season shoulder injury and played with it, you would not be one of the people on Hansen's back. The guy is and has been a blessing to the franchise.

Keep Hansen - if you must move someone, Sestito is the most expendable player on the roster.

[ILL BILL NECRO]

If he rides the pine, I'm ok with that. The one thing we haven't had since 2010-2011 season is depth. Having someone like HANSEN ready to jump in for injuries or pushing the others to earn their ice time is what we need more than a second or third round pick. Depth wins championships. Last year proved if you don't have it you will not do very well. We finally are starting to get it and now people want to trade it away. This is a good thing to have a surplus of NHL calibar players.

This ^

[Warhippy]

After the worst season of his professional career, Jannik Hansen's trade value has been greatly reduced. But given his aberrantly poor results in 2013-14, it's almost guaranteed that he'll see improvement in 2014-15. It would be foolish to trade Hansen now when the odds are very strong that his value will increase steadily throughout the season, right up to the trading deadline.

It would be better to "showcase" Hansen this season, and do so in a way that would also help the team win. There's a very simple gameplan for this:

(1) Put Hansen back on the 1st PK unit. Before "he who shall not be named" (to borrow a certain blogger's affectation) decided to give Hansen's PK minutes to the Sedins, #36 had been the Canucks (forward) minutes leader on the penalty kill, averaging well above 2 minutes of SHTOI/G. And the funny thing is, the more Hansen killed penalties, the better he seemed to play at 5-on-5. You can plot his SHTOI/G against his 5v5PTS/60 and you'll see an almost linear relation. While I don't believe it's as simple as a 1-to-1 relationship, I do believe that playing on the penalty kill keeps Hansen "on his game" and focused on playing the way he needs to to be successful. And taking him off the PK last season was a big factor in his drop-off in even strength production (which interestingly seemed to improve somewhat whenever his "filled-in" on the PK last season).

(2) Play Hansen around 12 minutes per game at even strength. Hansen's motor runs perfectly at around 12:00 ESTOI/G. Play him significantly more or significantly less and you see his game suffer negative effects. He's fine occasionally playing 14-16 minutes (even more) of even strength, but he shouldn't average 14+ minutes at evens over the entire season. He just doesn't maintain the same level of pace and energy. Similarly, when he's left on the bench for too long, he cools off and loses his intensity and focus. 12 minutes per game (ESTOI) is the perfect Goldilocks zone for Hansen's even strength icetime.

(3) Play Hansen with other fleet-of-foot forwards. Hansen needs to fly out there. He's not suited for a half-zone game cycling with the twins. But he can produce well off the rush (even with all the missed chances). He needs to play the game with pace. The more he's skating, the better he's playing the game.

(4) Play Hansen with your "heavy hitter" forwards. Maybe not with the goon-types but definitely play Hansen with any "wrecking ball" type of forwards who go after the opposition players. When Hansen plays with hitters, he hits (a lot). The year he played mostly with Torres (2010-11), Hansen led the entire team in hits (149). Whenever he played with Lapierre, Hansen hit everything that moved. But he needs to be on a "hitting" line for him to really bring his physical game. Play him too often with skilled but "softer" forwards and his physical game tends to evaporate.

(5) Play Hansen in a defensive/checking role (defensive zone starts and middle QoC) but alongside quality two-way players who can transition well on the counter-attack. Hansen was one of the Canucks' best defensive forwards for years before he was "re-made" last season into a top-six forward and "offensive-minded" player. Just like he needs PK minutes, Hansen seems to need a defensive matchups at even strength for him to unleash his full scoring potential. He's at his best when he's shutting down opponents and stopping plays in his own end, and then making quick strikes down the ice and attacking the opposition net with speed. But he needs those defensive zone starts to exploit his speed and his ability to force turnovers. While we might not always like Hansen's conversion rate, there's no denying that a big part of Hansen's game is fueled by his breakaways and odd man rushes, and these are usually created by defensive stops and takeaways.

Following steps 1-5 should result in a return to the "Honey Badger" days when Jannik Hansen was everyone's favourite lunch bucket player who delighted fans with his speed, hard work, and "never quit" attitude. And it should put an end to the days of seeing a despondent and defeated looking Hansen (never mind one who's getting screamed at and poked in the chest as part of an "honest" and "accountable" approach behind the bench).

Play Hansen this way and by the time the 2015 Trade Deadline rolls around, he'll be back producing offense at around a 40 points/season pace, throwing around 100 hits/season, posting an exceptional takeaway/giveaway ratio, and leading the way on the PK. That version of Jannik Hansen could fetch a pretty penny from quite a few playoff-bound teams looking to improve their bottom-six and tighten up their defensive game and penalty kill.

That all said, if we did actually get Hansen back to being Hansen, he might just prove to be more valuable staying in Vancouver than whatever he'd fetch for the Canucks in a trade.

Damn you...you beautiful beast you.

Brilliant post.

Added people need to understand that Hansens value will never be more than a early to mid 2nd round pick. Unless showcased to a bubble team needing bottom 6 help pre trade deadline ala Gaustad and packaged with a mid to late round pick for a middling 1st round pick.

That's his worth. Either apparently invaluable to the Canucks or shown like a pony and traded to the highest most desperate bidder.

[CALGARY!]

Depending on the time of year I'd say Hansen could fetch a 4th mabel 3rd right now, come deadline maybe, maybe a mid-high 2nd in the upcoming draft.

[hearditall]

Hansen's value is on the roster and in the lineup.

Sestito is the scratch.

Hansen is a 30-40 point depth forward who hits, kills penalties (although Tortorella preferred to bust his jewels and use the Sedins in supreme derpitude), with a career +80 takeaway/turnover differential, and consistently outstanding underlying numbers.

Hansen is the type of depth player you win with, who can move up and down the lineup and play in any situation.

People keep wanting to undervalue him and move him for a middling pick - simply a bad idea. Hansen had two shoulder injuries last year. If any of you ever suffered a mid season shoulder injury and played with it, you would not be one of the people on Hansen's back. The guy is and has been a blessing to the franchise.

Keep Hansen - if you must move someone, Sestito is the most expendable player on the roster.

Come Playoff time does he bring what u say he does?.

No where close to the D.Kings, K.Cliffords, T.Tyfolli's etc etc etc DO.

Time to move on.

It ain't about Regular Season. PLAYOFFS is the ONLY thing that counts after 40+ years.

Hansen has become OLDNEWS my friend........

[THERETOOL]

Come Playoff time does he bring what u say he does?.

No where close to the D.Kings, K.Cliffords, T.Tyfolli's etc etc etc DO.

Time to move on.

It ain't about Regular Season. PLAYOFFS is the ONLY thing that counts after 40+ years.

a g r e e d

[hearditall]

Depending on the time of year I'd say Hansen could fetch a 4th mabel 3rd right now, come deadline maybe, maybe a mid-high 2nd in the upcoming draft.

Take the 2nd in the 2015 draft for sure.

[GreyHatnDart]

Hansen's value is on the roster and in the lineup.

Sestito is the scratch.

Hansen is a 30-40 point depth forward who hits, kills penalties (although Tortorella preferred to bust his jewels and use the Sedins in supreme derpitude), with a career +80 takeaway/turnover differential, and consistently outstanding underlying numbers.

Hansen is the type of depth player you win with, who can move up and down the lineup and play in any situation.

People keep wanting to undervalue him and move him for a middling pick - simply a bad idea. Hansen had two shoulder injuries last year. If any of you ever suffered a mid season shoulder injury and played with it, you would not be one of the people on Hansen's back. The guy is and has been a blessing to the franchise.

Keep Hansen - if you must move someone, Sestito is the most expendable player on the roster.

This.

If I had to choose who to trade considering who we have up and coming it would be Higgins. He's coming off a good year and his value is higher ATM. Has a good touch and can meld with nearly anyone. Higgins play IMO can be replicated for cheaper and younger with what we have in our prospect pool. Hansen not as much. It takes talent to play well on the PK. And lastly, you can't teach speed. He has that in spades.

[The Bookie]

Hansen and Higgins are two of my favorite Canucks. I'm partial to third liners, of everyone they seem to get the least recognition for what they do, other than maybe pk specialist defense. That being said, I'd really be fine with trading either of them, just not now. They're the type of depth players that can fetch the most at the deadline if we're out (how did we get Higgins again? when was that?) and I like warhippy's suggestion of packaging with a mid-round pick to get a low 1st / high 2nd. That's the value at it's peak.

In the meantime, icing Sestito over either is ludicrous imo.

[Ghostsof1915]

Part of the problem with the Canucks in recent years is we've had players that are very streaky, and lack consistency. This is the knock on Kassian, Hansen, and on occasion Higgins. That's why we no longer have guys like Mason Raymond on the team.

Hansen however does have other skills like PK, and is defensively responsible.

People always dump on the Twins for not showing up in the playoffs. Yet Chris Higgins hasn't scored any points in the playoffs since 2011. Kassian also hasn't scored any points in in two playoffs. Hansen, much like Higgins hasn't scored in the playoffs since 2011.

Now is this fair on Kassian because it's not like we've had extended playoff runs recently. But when the playoffs are on it is all hands on deck. We need players that actually up their game in the playoffs.

I think trading Hansen now would be a mistake, unless the team has no other choice. We'd get a better deal at the trade deadline.

[ComfyMatter]

Part of the problem with the Canucks in recent years is we've had players that are very streaky, and lack consistency. This is the knock on Kassian, Hansen, and on occasion Higgins. That's why we no longer have guys like Mason Raymond on the team.

Hansen however does have other skills like PK, and is defensively responsible.

People always dump on the Twins for not showing up in the playoffs. Yet Chris Higgins hasn't scored any points in the playoffs since 2011. Kassian also hasn't scored any points in in two playoffs. Hansen, much like Higgins hasn't scored in the playoffs since 2011.

Now is this fair on Kassian because it's not like we've had extended playoff runs recently. But when the playoffs are on it is all hands on deck. We need players that actually up their game in the playoffs.

I think trading Hansen now would be a mistake, unless the team has no other choice. We'd get a better deal at the trade deadline.

I agree with you. Obviously if one of our prospects deserves/makes it to the team, then we outta move Hansen/Higgins/Matthias because we can't just demote them to the fourth line, they are simply not fourth liners with the exception of Matthias. I mean we could move Sestito/Dorsett and create a Higgins/Richardson/Hansen fourth line. But that is just a waste of Higgins and Hansen who are both 3rd liners.

Unless..

Sedin/Sedin/Vrbata

Burrows/Bonino/Kassian

Higgins/Matthias/Hansen

Jensen/Richardson/Vey <------ basically any prospect that makes it to the team will have to start on the fourth line which is totally fine given that we did the same thing to Kesler.

That's a good strong line up. Question is, is it a contender line up? Obviously if 3 or more prospects make it to the team (which is highly not likely), then we have to move one of them to make room.