LATEST | Tocchet identifies who he sees as the team's new diamond in the making

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Felip Gosselin
March 25, 2023 (11:47)

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The Canucks have upped their drafting and developing game tons lately and it's starting to show. In the 2022 summer, Patrik Allvin agreed to terms on a contract with the big-format winger, Dakota Joshua, who's been progressing really nicely since the season started.

He joined the team in July 2022 as a free agent, on a 2-year deal, after he had spent the last two years in the St. Louis Blues' organization. Over two years he had only played 42 games at the NHL level and managed 9 points over that span.

Since joining the Canucks, Joshua has only been progressing into a great bottom-6 and penalty killer and the soon-to-be 26-year-old has now spent the whole season in Vancouver collecting 10 goals and 9 assists for 19 points along the way.

Since Tocchet came in, he's been spending the majority of his playing time on the team's 3rd unit alongside Conor Garland and Nils Aman. Tocchet held promising comments on him in a interview he gave a few days ago:

'' I think the last 6 weeks, he's really improved,... I'll be honest, there's another level, like I know I keep harping on this big summer, ... he's a guy that if he really does the right thing. I mean, I don't want to put pressure on him, but he can score 20 goals in this league and he can be a really good penalty-killer for us''

Tocchet surely has high praises for the winger and that confidence is definitely growing on him. Joshua is 6'3'' and 205 pounds that play the game at a high level of intensity is the type of versatile player teams can't have enough of.

To see that the Canucks could be turning a free-agent AHLer into a glorified bottom6 forward who scores 20 goals and kills penalties would be a huge win. We may be on track to see a Nick Paul type of development. Paul has been huge for the Lightning ever since they acquired him and he's on pace for 20 goals this year.