The off-season in Vancouver saw a market divided. Half of the fan base wanted the team to push their chips in and attempt to take a step forward toward competing while the other side wanted the team to move on from some of the pending free-agent assets and move towards a rebuild.
New GM Patrik Allvin opted to re-sign 29-year-old center J.T. Miller to a seven-year deal worth $56 million that starts next season, signalling that the team wasn’t looking towards a rebuild. The Canucks also opted to re-sign Brock Boeser to a three-year deal and added Ilya Mikheyev in free agency on a four-year pact.
Vancouver made one other notable signing, bringing over former KHL all-star, Andrei Kuzmenko on a one-year entry-level deal. The 26-year-old Russian winger was coming off a 20-goal, 53-point season in 45 games for SKA St. Petersburg but had never eclipsed 40 points since his junior hockey days.
Kuzmenko isn’t eligible for the Calder Trophy due to his age to start the season, but the Russian rookie has been one of the bright spots thus far in Vancouver as they suffer from a less-than-ideal season on and off the ice.
The Canucks were banking on Kuzemnko being a late-bloomer, hoping that he could come in and contribute to the team’s middle six as his point totals steadily increased in the KHL over his career in the Russian league. With 21 points in 22 games into the season, he’s nearly a point-per-game player alongside franchise center Elias Pettersson.
Having just snapped a five-game point streak where he racked up 10 points, Kuzmenko has been one of Vancouver’s most lethal scorers of late. Shooting an absurd 22.4 percent on the season and 40 percent through this recent streak, Kuzmenko is bound to come to earth sometime soon.
For now, the first-year Russian winger is stepping up for a Canucks team who has struggled to start the year but has recently climbed out of the basement and back into the early-season playoff picture.
Kuzmenko’s 11 goals have him tied for second on the team while his 21 points put him in fourth, behind Pettersson, Miller and captain Bo Horvat.
He and Horvat are also two of the best players in the league at getting to the net and tipping in pucks. Kuzmenko leads the league with seven goals tipped, while Horvat is second with five.
Kuzmenko has shown unexpectedly good defensive acumen as well, making some key plays in his own end to break up play and regain possession of the puck for his squad.
Kuzmenko looks quite good in some of the advanced numbers as well. He’s leading the Canucks with a 56.05 goals-for percentage at 5-on-5, outscoring opponents 20-11. He is also the top player on Vancouver when it comes to shot differentials.
The Russian winger sits second on the team in Goals Above Replacement (GAR), which tries to represent how much a player contributes to their team in a single value. His 8.1 GAR trails only Elias Pettersson (10.3) and sits well ahead of Miller (1.7) and Horvat (4.3).
Kuzmenko’s GAR is helped by grading out as the team’s second-best defensive forward. His expected goals-for percentage (xGF%) leads the Canucks at the moment at 56.54 percent, almost two points ahead of Pettersson.
The stats don’t lie. Kuzmenko has been quite good to start his NHL tenure with the Canucks. The biggest question is how has Kuzmenko been so successful so quickly.
Playing with a player the caliber of Pettersson certainly helps – especially as the young Swede returned to form this season. Much of Kuzmenko’s production has been credited to Pettersson, although it takes a special talent to be able to play with high-end skill players.
He isn’t the fleetest of foot or the most skilled player on the ice, but Kuzmenko is above average as a puck carrier and uses the tools at his disposal well.
He also uses his speed well, building up through the neutral zone to attack opposing defenders through the middle of the ice. Kuzmenko alters his rush patterns much better than expected coming out of the KHL, adapting to the more aggressive defensive pressure through the neutral zone.
Kuzmenko is a competitive player who does a solid job of working the puck off the boards by establishing body position in combination with his crafty hands in small spaces. He understands how to maneuver out of a pile and find a teammate or drive the puck to the middle on his own.
Kuzmenko finds a way to be a positive impact player in all three zones by using his work rate and speed in combination with efficient and smart routes throughout the ice. His intelligence as a 200-foot player has allowed him to pressure opponents with and without the puck, pushing play to the outside as a defensive player and inside as an offensive player.
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The Canucks’ season has slowly turned around after a brutal start, and it’s no coincidence that Kuzmenko’s play as of late has aided their effort to do so. With an elevated shooting percentage and a lack of a track record of high-end offensive output, the likelihood of this point-per-game production sticking around isn’t very high.
With that said, Kuzmenko contributes in so many other areas of the ice and has found chemistry with the team’s most talented center. Even with some regression likely on the horizon, the Canucks’ elderly rookie will still find ways to positively impact the game.
The Canucks may not have unearthed the next Artemi Panarin, but they certainly seem to have found themselves a quality NHLer with some excellent untapped potential.
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