With all that went on with the Canucks this past season, between John Tortorella barging into the Flames’ dressing room, Alex Edler’s league worst plus-minus and the Sedin’s career worst offensive numbers, you’d be forgiven for forgetting about Jason Garrison’s roller coaster ride of a season. Like many Canucks, Garrison started off strongly but started to taper off towards the end.
Let’s start on the offensive side. Jason Garrison was putting up nearly a point-per-game throughout the first 15 games of the season, but went pointless in the next 15. For the next 10 games, Garrison was on another hot streak, again posting nearly point-per-game numbers. He then went pointless for the next few weeks. For a guy who was brought in for his heavy shot and effectiveness on the powerplay, his 7 goals this year is extremely underwhelming, especially considering he had 8 in nearly half the games last season.
Defensively he was inconsistent to say the least. There were times where Garrison would like like an effective, net clearing, shutdown defender. It was a role he thrived in last season. But there were too many nights were Garrison looked lost in his own zone, had difficulty winning puck races, and left his man open in front. He also had great difficulty with his defensive zone coverage, especially at the tail end of the year. In his defense, he was paired with Alex “minus-39” Edler for parts of the year and if there were an award for worst defensive pairing of the year, it may have just gone to the Garrison and Kevin Bieksa duo, which looked atrocious.
Jason Garrison and John Tortorella
To be honest, I don’t think Jason Garrison had an identified role under Tortorella. It didn’t look like he was sure if he was supposed to be an offensive guy, or a stay at home guy (he was also pretty clearly injured). I do think there’s a quality player there, he has a heavy shot, he’s a big guy, and he can log heavy minutes. I’m just not sure if the Canucks have room for him.
Bieksa has already said he won’t waive his NTC, Dan Hamhuis probably won’t waive his, Chris Tanev has too much promise to let go, ditto Ryan Stanton, and Frank Corrado has paid his dues and deserves an NHL spot. That leaves Edler and Garrison. I’d put money on Edler being moved this off-season, which would be prefect for Mr. Garrison. Problem is, the Canucks may look to try and acquire a young prospect like a Derrick Pouliot or a young defenceman like Brendan Smith in a Ryan Kesler trade, or maybe look to free agency and sign Matt Niskanen. There’s also the outside chance that Ben Hutton has a great training camp and makes the team.
Listen, I like Jason Garrison. He’s a good community guy and his beard is top-notch. But he does have some value, and he could be traded for assets up front, an area where the Canucks are desperate for help. Some potential destinations include (realistic targets in brackets): Anaheim (Jakob Silfverberg, Patrick Maroon), Tampa Bay (Teddy Purcell, Alex Killorn), and Colorado (Jamie McGinn, Patrick Bordeleau). CanucksArmy suggested buying him out, but that just seems like a waste of a compliance buyout to me.
Trading Jason Garrison would certainly be a shakeup to the core of this team, while getting solid value at the same time. I certainly wouldn’t be against keeping Garry, but it’s certainly worth it to at least entertain the idea of moving him.
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