It wasn't long ago that Brendan Gaunce, drafted in the first round out of the OHL as a hulking two-way centreman in 2012, was seen as the Vancouver Canucks' top prospect.
Life moves fast. As the Canucks entered into an accumulation phase of their team building cycle in recent years, Gaunce has been passed on the prospect depth chart by a variety of young forwards – several of whom have already established themselves in the NHL.
On Thursday night when Gaunce makes his NHL debut in Dallas, he'll do so a winger. Against the high-scoring Dallas Stars, Gaunce is expected to line up in place of injured grinder Brandon Prust on the fourth line with 19-year-old Jared McCann and Derek Dorsett.
It has been a long road to the show for the 21-year-old forward, who was woken up by the phone call that informed him he'd be joining the Canucks on their current road trip. It's possible that he may not have even gotten the call were it not for a lower-body injury sustained by Ronalds Kenins in a game against the Hershey Bears this past weekend.
"[Kenins]'s going to be out for a few weeks at least… We're definitely not going to have him for the next two-to-three weeks," Utica Comets head coach Travis Green told Sportsnet on Thursday.
In the two years following his draft season, Gaunce remained in junior and never really threatened to crack a still-deep Canucks forward corps. During those two seasons Gaunce was moved to the wing while still with the Belleville Bulls, in order to accommodate Minnesota Wild forward Tyler Graovac. He also spent a stint propping up Connor McDavid's Erie Otters back in 2014.
Concerns about Gaunce's physical game and his footspeed dogged him even in his first full professional season with the Comets. Green moved the young forward to the wing almost immediately, believing that he would be more effective playing along the wall.
"I think it forced him to play a faster cycle game, and he's really added a mean edge," Green told Sportsnet. "And I don't mean in a dirty way, but you need that, and I felt he needed that to play in the NHL."
The 'mean edge' and the positional adjustment would seem to have paid off. That's precisely what the Canucks will be looking for the young forward to provide in Prust's spot in his NHL debut on Thursday night.
Generally speaking AHL coaches have some input on who gets called up, but that mostly happens later on in the season when the NHL-level organization needs an opinion on which players are going and can help the team win now. With Gaunce, the Canucks didn't need a reminder. After all, he was one of the club's last cuts at training camp.
"As far as the call ups go they know where I stand," Green said. "It's pretty fresh in their mind in terms of where the players were three weeks ago at training camp.
"I thought Gaunce had a real good camp, his game has gotten even stronger than where it finished last season."
Of that there's no doubt. The concerns about Gaunce's speed were put to rest quickly in September, when it became obvious that he'd added a step – maybe even a step and a half – over the summer. The physical side of the game is no longer a concern either.
The old school, non-physical shutdown centreman that Gaunce occasionally resembled in his OHL days is long gone. In his place is the decently fast winger with good hands in tight and the ability to leverage his size in puck battles along the boards. At least that's the player the Canucks and their fans saw in the preseason.
"He's played real well for us down here," Green said of Gaunce's start to the AHL campaign. "When they made the decision to call up Gaunce, I was happy for him.
"Deserving, played well, he's had a good start to his season and I'm anxious to see how he does when he gets into a game up there."
The Canucks will be too, surely. If Gaunce can handle the competition at the NHL level, the club's youth movement will gain yet another useful young forward. And an NHL team can never have enough of those.
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