Brendan Gaunce | C/LW

[KassianBeastMode]

I agree, but in the games that he's worn a Nucks jersey, he always seems to end up with points, even if you don't think he's been noticeable. He just seems to have that knack.

I think Gaunce is at best a 4c as well. Unless

1. He really works on his skating and starts using his legs. he coasts WAAAAY to much and tries to play the 'smart' game but you have to still work. This is why he is not creating, he is sitting back and just trying to minimize errors effectively becoming a 3rd defensman...sure it works, and he doesn't use much energy but he sure as hell isn't doing much other than being a 3rd defenseman.

2. He's going to have to find a bit of mean streak and start using his body. No one wants Taylor Pyatt 2.0 and that seems to be his game.

3. Manny competes damn hard..I can't say suggesting Gaunce can be a Manny is fair to Manny. Lets hope somewhere along the line he 'gets' it. I think the AHL may teach him that he needs to work harder and compete harder if he wants to be in the NHL.

4. I am not one to call players 'busts' at this stage, but I can't say I've been impressed with Gaunce. He does everything 'ok' but nothing great. Teams don't need a player that is just ok. You need to be good everywhere and great in one aspect. Either that's scoring, passing, hitting, checking, fighting, whatever it is but one part of your game has to be 'great' and then you have a role and will stick...right now, I just can't say I see anything that Gauce does that is 'great'

[stawns]

I think Gaunce is at best a 4c as well. Unless

1. He really works on his skating and starts using his legs. he coasts WAAAAY to much and tries to play the 'smart' game but you have to still work. This is why he is not creating, he is sitting back and just trying to minimize errors effectively becoming a 3rd defensman...sure it works, and he doesn't use much energy but he sure as hell isn't doing much other than being a 3rd defenseman.

2. He's going to have to find a bit of mean streak and start using his body. No one wants Taylor Pyatt 2.0 and that seems to be his game.

3. Manny competes damn hard..I can't say suggesting Gaunce can be a Manny is fair to Manny. Lets hope somewhere along the line he 'gets' it. I think the AHL may teach him that he needs to work harder and compete harder if he wants to be in the NHL.

4. I am not one to call players 'busts' at this stage, but I can't say I've been impressed with Gaunce. He does everything 'ok' but nothing great. Teams don't need a player that is just ok. You need to be good everywhere and great in one aspect. Either that's scoring, passing, hitting, checking, fighting, whatever it is but one part of your game has to be 'great' and then you have a role and will stick...right now, I just can't say I see anything that Gauce does that is 'great'

yeah, I pretty much disagree with everything you've said.

[CRAZY_4_NAZZY]

I think Gaunce is at best a 4c as well. Unless

1. He really works on his skating and starts using his legs. he coasts WAAAAY to much and tries to play the 'smart' game but you have to still work. This is why he is not creating, he is sitting back and just trying to minimize errors effectively becoming a 3rd defensman...sure it works, and he doesn't use much energy but he sure as hell isn't doing much other than being a 3rd defenseman.

2. He's going to have to find a bit of mean streak and start using his body. No one wants Taylor Pyatt 2.0 and that seems to be his game.

3. Manny competes damn hard..I can't say suggesting Gaunce can be a Manny is fair to Manny. Lets hope somewhere along the line he 'gets' it. I think the AHL may teach him that he needs to work harder and compete harder if he wants to be in the NHL.

4. I am not one to call players 'busts' at this stage, but I can't say I've been impressed with Gaunce. He does everything 'ok' but nothing great. Teams don't need a player that is just ok. You need to be good everywhere and great in one aspect. Either that's scoring, passing, hitting, checking, fighting, whatever it is but one part of your game has to be 'great' and then you have a role and will stick...right now, I just can't say I see anything that Gauce does that is 'great'

1) LOL Gaunce was one of the most hard working player in the youngstars tournament. yes as many have already stated skating isn't his strength but it is not as bad as many think. Playing smart doesn't mean he isn't working hard...he actually takes a lot of pride into his work ethic and if you were watching the tourney properly you would have seen he was more consistent in being involved in the play and forechecking hard with James and Wilson. Why he isn't skating like the wind you ask? Its because he sees that its better to read the play first and determine when his energy needs to be spent. Thats called having hockey IQ where he is able to read the play and his surroundings and make the right choice, instead of wasting his energy running in circles. BTW Gaunce is a center not a defensemen duh.

2) Gaunce was never brought in to bring a meanstreak and that will never be part of his game. But he is a physical player. Benning was continuously lauding over Gaunce's ability to use the body to open up opportunities to make plays for his teammates and others. On most shifts in the Prospects tourney he was making lots of hits on the forecheck if you didn't notice...or maybe you didn't watch at all because if you go back and watch on youtube the whole game, gaunce made many hits.

http://youtu.be/nQj508aCa2A?list=PLCc7bEm3TcfEVqrZfscF5T1VXCxYXlqF1

3) That goes for every single prospect not just Gaunce. People are saying Gaunce can be like a Manny...he has potential to be like a Manny Malhotra and btw it took years before manny became the player he was than. Like Gaunce he will need to season no doubt but to question that he doesn't work hard you are blowing crap our of your a**hole . Gaunce would not be were he is at if he didn't work hard...clearly he does.

4) LOL it doesn't take a smart person to realize that your whole post was to flame Gaunce and really call him a bust so far.

What you just said about needs to be good in every aspect and great in one aspect is more a fiction of your mind. Clearly not every player is in that category. Patty Kane is terrible defensively but good offensively obviously he doesn't fit your standards of being a good enough player.

You sir are out to lunch and have no idea what you are talking about....go do some research

[Guest Dasein]

I think Gaunce is at best a 4c as well. Unless

[...]

[...]

You sir are out to lunch and have no idea what you are talking about....go do some research

What I find the most appalling is that the OP is actually pretty high on Horvat while maintaining this view on Gaunce. Their play is not separated by much but his view on both players contrast drastically.

[j.olofsson]

What I find the most appalling is that the OP is actually pretty high on Horvat while maintaining this view on Gaunce. Their play is not separated by much but his view on both players contrast drastically.

Based on just this tournament I agree with KassianBeastMode. Points aside i thought Horvat was way better and that Gaunce did suffer from a lack of grith that horvat( and Manny) posesses.

A mean streak, even though unlikely to occur, WOULD put Gaunce at another level and he STILL coasts a bit too much. You cant blame this on hockey IQ. Horvath is just as smart and is always skating. This is why Horvath can keep up with fast thinking players like Shinkaruk.

However I do believe all this can be explained with just a slow start to the season and I expect Gaunce to be better at main camp. I do believe he will play for the canucks regularly in a couple of years. a 4th line C that plays a few hundred games is a big win for a late 1st round pick.

[Plum]

Based on just this tournament I agree with KassianBeastMode. Points aside i thought Horvat was way better and that Gaunce did suffer from a lack of grith that horvat( and Manny) posesses.

A mean streak, even though unlikely to occur, WOULD put Gaunce at another level and he STILL coasts a bit too much. You cant blame this on hockey IQ. Horvath is just as smart and is always skating. This is why Horvath can keep up with fast thinking players like Shinkaruk.

However I do believe all this can be explained with just a slow start to the season and I expect Gaunce to be better at main camp. I do believe he will play for the canucks regularly in a couple of years. a 4th line C that plays a few hundred games is a big win for a late 1st round pick.

Not really, you can sign a 4th liner in FA easily.

[Gstank29]

Not really, you can sign a 4th liner in FA easily.

but not player who players over a couple hundred games and consistently produces at the nhl level. I can only think of a handful of players that made a career out of it (kruger, stoll, gaustad, Maholtra,)

[Warhippy]

[Warhippy]

[Warhippy]

I hate how compressed these images look...not sure why that's happening.

[elvis15]

I hate how compressed these images look...not sure why that's happening.

They're probably too large to fit in the page so they're getting resized. Unless they look like that on your computer too, then it's you.

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

My dad surprised me by mentioning Gaunce always being in the right spot. He'll mention things like, "that guy's fast," or, "he's really big," but doesn't often pick out positional things as much as he did with Gaunce.

Yeah, that was my big takeaway as well (as you can see from my earlier post). His positioning is just at such a high level and it really showed during the tournament.

There were so many times when we'd turnover the puck with a couple of our guys looking like they were gonna get caught and I'd get that anxious sinking feeling (you know the one if you're a longtime Canucks fan) that the other team was about to hurt us on an odd man rush. But then I'd see big #50 out there in perfect position to slow things down through the neutral zone, often solely negating the opposition counterattack, and giving his mates enough time to recover and get back into the play on D.

Sometimes it almost looked like Gaunce was playing a completely different game from his linemates (in a good way).

You saw so many guys who were busy but not really getting much done. Too much running around. Too much chasing. And just so scrambley and unstructured. Peewee type stuff. Too many guys skating miles but never really following the play and pretty much always a second behind and never really catching up.

Gaunce often stood out to me as a guy who's just playing at a higher level. Not in terms of flash but smarts. His awareness and positioning really looked NHL-grade to my eyes.

He just strikes me as a guy with a really high-end hockey IQ. I'm very interested to see how he does at main camp--once he's playing with guys who can actually "think" the game at the same level.

[elvis15]

Exactly. He might not wow you with flash and offence, but he's a guy you'll be glad to have on your team.

Edited September 18, 2014 by elvis15

[Plum]

but not player who players over a couple hundred games and consistently produces at the nhl level. I can only think of a handful of players that made a career out of it (kruger, stoll, gaustad, Maholtra,)

Richardson, Thompson, Campbell, Paille, Chipchura, Drew Miller, Fiddler, Ryan White, Adam Hall. Quality 4th liners you can find in FA, I'd prefer to develop 4th liners since they'll be cheap, know the system. I would rather not have a 1st rounder become a 4th liner instead players like Lain, Archibald, Zalewski, Kenins become our 4th liners.

[Warhippy]

They're probably too large to fit in the page so they're getting resized. Unless they look like that on your computer too, then it's you.

No, it's a 2 part screw job. Upload them to Facebook, hi res to compressed facebook size, then copied here and viola. Fairly large file sizes too.

Meh, i've the full albums on my page and some gems from the Calgary game

[Warhippy]

Exactly. He might not wow you with flash and offence, but he's a guy you'll be glad to have on your team.

i've been yelled at and ridiculed for stating very clearly that trading Gaunce would be foolish. I think we will be pleased in the next three years that we didn't (if we don't)

I also really want to point out that while we have a solid depth of centers in the line up now. In 3 years when Horvat, Gaunce, Cassels and McCaan are ready to make the jump, the twins will be down the charts and available as possible wingers to a Kesler type center (shoot first) Matthias/Vey/Richardson/Bonino are far from guaranteed to even be on this team meaning that trading any single one of our centers in the system is a shade pre-emptive.

[aGENT]

i've been yelled at and ridiculed for stating very clearly that trading Gaunce would be foolish. I think we will be pleased in the next three years that we didn't (if we don't)

I also really want to point out that while we have a solid depth of centers in the line up now. In 3 years when Horvat, Gaunce, Cassels and McCaan are ready to make the jump, the twins will be down the charts and available as possible wingers to a Kesler type center (shoot first) Matthias/Vey/Richardson/Bonino are far from guaranteed to even be on this team meaning that trading any single one of our centers in the system is a shade pre-emptive.

*Unless it's for a better, still young C.

[Plum]

Players with high level of hockey IQ always have success in the NHL. There's no doubt in my mind that Gaunce becomes a top 9 player in the NHL within 2 years, size, smarts, talent, Gaunce has it all. Gaunce was ranked #13 on 2012 CSS Rankings and I was absolutely shocked he fell to #26.

[Warhippy]

*Unless it's for a better, still young C.

if we are talking about losing Gaunce or cassels for a Johansen or the worst happens and we bottom out and get a Barzal Eichel or McJesus in this years draft sure lose one of them for a solid winger or Rh PMD

But otherwise...meh

[higgyfan]

I actually think Gaunce has the best chance of making the team this year. He's physically ready and plays a very smart game. He'll get plenty of time to develop his game playing on the top 6 in Utica and will be the 1st call up for bottom 6 duties on the Canucks. I wouldn't be surprised if he's made the jump by trade deadline. Probably start off as 4th line C and eventually top out as a very good 3C.

People are really underrating him around here. He isn't the best skater, but his hockey sense makes up for it. He always knows where to position himself and rarely misreads a play. He won't be flashy, but he will be a terrific defender who can pot some goals as well.