Why Loui Eriksson Deserves Another Chance

Let me set the date: it’s July 1st, 2016. Day one of free agency. Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning wants to make his team better by adding high scoring forwards. Bening lands on veteran NHL forward Loui Eriksson, and signs Eriksson to a 6 year contract worth 6 million per year. Eriksson who was 30 at the time, had just come off a 30 goal and 63 point season and wasn’t looking to extend with his respected club, the Boston Bruins.

(Photo credit: ChowderandChampions)

Benning said that he wanted the Canucks to succeed and do better in the season that was coming up. He realized bringing in the 30 year old into the organization would be a great idea. At least to him. At the time Eriksson was able to play left wing and right wing, so Canucks fans were excited to see Eriksson make an impact on the first line with the Sedin twins. Hockey fans saw those three play on a line together on team Sweden, and suddenly were excited the three would be reunited, but this time on an NHL team.

The contract seemed like a great idea considering Eriksson had multiple 30 goal seasons and multiple 70+ point seasons earlier in his career. It seemed astute to bring in a high scoring veteran so that the young prospects could learn a thing or two from him while Eriksson could dominate with the Sedin twins. Part of that has happened.

Eriksson’s tenure with the Canucks so far has seen lots of rookies and young stars have started to make an impact in the NHL. Some of those young stars include forward Bo Horvat, defenceman Quinn Hughes, forward Elias Pettersson, and forward Brock Boeser.

Before we get into Eriksson’s time with the Canucks, we should date back to July 4th, 2013. The Boston Bruins traded budding centerman Tyler Seguin away to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Loui Eriksson along with other NHL players such as Reilly Smith and Joe Morrow. The Bruins would look to improve their already exceptional roster, and Loui Eriksson would make a satisfactory impact with Boston promptly. Eriksson would play 61 games and record 37 points in the 2013-14 season. (That was his first season in Boston). It wasn’t a remarkable season, but it was enough to help the Bruins succeed. The year after, Eriksson had a much improved season netting 22 goals and putting a total of 47 points in 81 games. The following season, which was also the final year in Boston for Loui, he put up an implausible 63 point season. That year saw him net 30 goals and tying for 14th for goal scoring in the entire league.

(Photo Credit: JOHN WOODS - AP)

This insane season was enough to gain Jim Benning’s interest in free agency, which inevitably ended in Eriksson agreeing to a 6 year, 36 million dollar contract with the Vancouver Canucks. Loui Eriksson struggled in his first year with Vancouver, there is no denying that. Eriksson had only 24 points in 65 games that year. Canucks fans started to panic thinking that Benning had given another player a horrendous contract. That’s when Eriksson started to make a bigger impact on the ice. He started helping the Canucks out when the opposing team’s goalie got pulled. Canucks fans had given Eriksson his infamous nickname “The empty net assassin” in his second season with Vancouver.

Eriksson played in only 50 games in his second season in Vancouver. This is where it all went downhill. Eriksson was stripped off his opportunity to become the player he was signed to be. He was benched for many games, and was never given any ice time. With 50 games played that year, Eriksson’s total ice time that year was 813 minutes. That’s roughly 16:26 ice time a game. That isn’t a lot. For comparison, Matthew Highmore is averaging 15 minutes a game with the Canucks. Highmore has 1 point with the Canucks in 11 games this year, while Eriksson has the same amount of points in 4 less games.

In Eriksson’s second season with Vancouver, that being the 2017-18 season, Eriksson’s expected offence goals were 2.5 per 60 minutes. He was the 7th best forward for the Canucks statistically, behind players like the Sedin twins, Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser. To simplify, there were 32 skaters that suited up for the Canucks in 2017-18, and Loui Eriksson was the 7th best on that struggling team. Not to mention the games he was benched and the games he missed with injuries. Those were perfect opportunities for him to prove himself as an imperative player on the roster, and he was stolen from those opportunities.

(Photo credit: NHLTR)

The following season (the 2018-19 NHL season) was arguably Eriksson’s best season as a Canuck. Loui Eriksson managed to record 29 points in 81 games that year, 1 point short of 30. He was 6th on the team in scoring. Eriksson impressed all Canucks fans that season due to the fact that he had 29 points while playing the majority of the season on the third line. Eriksson was finally given minutes to play after two years of being treated poorly by the coaching and management. He had 1,139 minutes of ice time that year, averaging 14 minutes a game. Even though he played more minutes a game in previous seasons, he finally earned a full time spot on the team and averaged a point every 39 minutes of playing, or better yet, his standard was a point every 2 games. Mathematically put, his PPG was 0.35, and Loui averaged a point every 2.79 games.

An important thing to remember, is that the Canucks would rather play Antoine Roussel and Jay Beagle this year, who average 0.11 and 0.2 PPG, and mathematically get a point every 8.75 games and a point every 6 games, rather than Loui Eriksson who’s averaged 0.24 PPG in his last three seasons, and a point every 4.15 games. That’s better than both Roussel and Jay Beagle.

The following season, the 2019-20 season, was dismally cut short due to Covid so we couldn’t see Eriksson finish the season. That season was a little slower for Eriksson as he played a precise 49 game season and had 13 points. If he played a full season, he would’ve had himself 24 points in a full 82 game season. That’s an average of 0.29 PPG. That’s better than Rousell, Beagle, and Jimmy Vesey have been this year. (I have yet to mention that Vesey is 0.18 PPG this year). Eriksson managed to score 6 goals in the 2019-20 season, and one thing that is noticeable about those six goals is that four of those goals were scored right in front of the net displaying that Eriksson isn’t afraid of crashing the opponent’s net and getting up close to the goalie and risking his body for a goal. That’s something the Canucks have been missing this year; a gritty, in front of the net type of player that can battle his way into scoring goals. Eriksson has 38 goals with the Canucks so far, and most of them have been greasy goals that he battled into scoring. He’s the in front, physicality-on-the-net type of skater that the Canucks have been missing. Even though he’s 35 years of age, Eriksson shows no fear when playing the game he loves and it’s obvious if you’ve seen him play.

(Photo credit: Nucksmisconduct)

In that same season, Loui Eriksson’s expected goals per 60 was once again at a 2.5. That matches his 2017-18 season’s xGF. Eriksson ended the season off at a -2, which is conceivably profound. He played on the fourth line that entire season. His linemates were Jay beagle (who was a -9 and his xGF were -2.9) and Tyler Motte (who finished the year at a -10 and his xGF was a 2.2). Eriksson was better than both of them that season on a mediocre Canucks team. That should tell you that he isn’t the worst on his team, yet those players play more than him.

This year has been frustrating for Loui Eriksson, and not because of his performance. Eriksson has suited up for only 7 games this year, so we don’t have much to go off for his statistics. The best we can describe Eriksson is by those seven games he’s played in.

So what has he done that has positively impacted his team? Well, this year he has only 1 point in 7 games, but then again he has had only 67 minutes of ice time. That’s a limited 9:50 of TOI per game. To compare that to his previous seasons, he’s averaging 5:20 of ice time less a game than he has in his previous years. That’s 5:20 less a game to prove that he’s a consistent 20-30 point player.

Yes you read me right, Eriksson is consistently decent. He has had the potential to put up 20-30 points a year in every single one of his seasons in Vancouver. For example: his first year in Vancouver he played 65 games and had 24 points. That’s 24 points alone, if he played all 82 games he would've roughly had 30 points in that season because his PPG was 0.36, or another way of putting it, he would get a point every three games. In his second season with the Canucks, he had himself 23 points in 50 games. A full 82 game season would have seen him have 36 points. That’s not only 18 points over his PPY (points per year, which is currently 18 with Vancouver), but also almost 40 points. In Eriksson’s third year he had 29 points in 81 games, which is how much he would have in a full season since he wouldn’t get many more. In 2019-20 Eriksson had 13 points in 49 games, or in a full year he would have 24 points in 82 games. Another 20 plus point season. If Eriksson played his full 56 games this season, he would have 8 points. And in a total of 82 games he would have 12 points. (And that's when he’s only averaging 9 minutes of ice a game. Imagine what he could do with his 15:30 TOI that he’s gotten with Vancouver). If he were to play every single game in every single one of his Canuck seasons, he would have an average of 0.31 PPG, or better yet a point every 3 games. Using some simple math, he would have 137 points in 410 games. That is pretty adequate considering the Canucks fourth line has aggregated a 0.18 PPG so far this year. That is arguably the worst fourth line in the NHL.

(Photo credit: Canucks/Twitter)

This is where it starts to get unfair towards Loui Eriksson. By virtue of the fact that Eriksson hasn’t been getting any games this year, he’s been robbed of two very important milestones in his career. At this moment, Eriksson sits at 977 career games and 594 career points. If he would have played this year as a regular roster player, he would have inexorably gotten his 1000th career game in this year, and assuredly gotten his 600th career point. It’s unwarranted that the coaching staff and management has done this to Eriksson. It’s almost like Babcock not letting Modano play his 1500th career game in the 2010-11 season.

Finally, there is an important key to his game that nobody mentions. And that key is his hustle and how devoted he is to winning and leaving his all out on the ice. If you understand anything about advanced hockey statistics, you would realize he works his butt off every game and creates opportunities for his team to score.

As you can see from the image above, he is above the league average for his opportunity creating scoring chances. He’s better than Vesey, Roussel, Beagle, and Sutter in all of the categories listed above. His xGF and GF are better than them all, and even defensively, there is a large difference between Eriksson and the others.

The bottom six has been horrible, and Loui Eriksson could seriously help the Canucks. Plus, there are only a couple games left and he’s obviously better than a bunch of players on the bottom 6 in VAN, so why not play him?

In this chart above, you can obviously see Loui Eriksson generates more pucks on net and takes smarter and more shots than Jimmy Vesey does. The chart above is strictly 5 on 5, as both Vesey and Eriksson do not get many minutes on the power play. On one side we have Jimmy Vesey who has a total xG (expected goals) of 4.9. On the other hand is Loui Eriksson who has an xG of 9.3. A significant difference between the two. Loui also has more fenwick shots. Eriksson generates more offence and that’s what the Canucks bottom 6 needs and has been missing all season.

In the image you see below, credit to evolvinghockey.com by the way, you can see that he is better than Antoine Roussel and Jay Beagle in almost every single aspect in these athlete’s games.

Eriksson has the worst offence out of the three, but what really catches my attention is his 60 overall defence. That’s a huge difference between Beagle and Roussel. Beagle being at a 16 and Roussel being at a 23. The Canucks need help defensively as much as they need help offensively, so why not play Eriksson, who arguably is the best defensive bottom 6 player on the Canucks, instead of all the other players who struggle in every aspect of the game?

Overall, Loui Eriksson is a commendable player who has been overlooked by the fans, management, and media. Although his contract isn’t ideal, and he isn’t the optimal player you’d want, he’s good enough to crack the Canucks roster and maybe some other NHL team’s rosters. It’s a shame that a decent player doesn’t get minutes just because of his contract. Eriksson has a couple skills that some other players on the Canucks don’t have, and giving him a chance to finish the season on the regular lineup can not only benefit the team, but also Loui himself. Even though his contract may not be the greatest, that shouldn’t take away the fact that he’s a pretty good hockey player who deserves another shot with the Vancouver Canucks.

(Photo credit: Perry Nelson / USA Today)