Montreal Canadiens: Hunter Shinkaruk brings more skill but is another hopeful

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Shinkaruk saw a massive improvement from his first season in major junior. He only put up 14 goals and 28 assists in his 63-game rookie campaign and had those totals shoot up to 49 goals and 42 assists. He was never the biggest guy on the ice, but his passing and scoring abilities made him a threat in all areas of the ice.

The Calgary native also made up for that lack of physical presence by adding a feisty element to his play. Shinkaruk was hard on the forecheck and made a lot of use of his stick making little taps to steal pucks from his opponent and instantly turning them into scoring chances for his team. It would be easy to attribute the scoring to overager Emerson Etem who had 107 points (100 primary) that season. However, Shinkaruk was able to continue his scoring pace the following season with 86 points in 64 games as team captain once Etem graduated to the AHL.

After being selected 24th overall by Vancouver, Shinkaruk turned some heads at Canucks training camp that October. He scored two goals during the preseason but was sent down for another year in Medicine Hat. There was no need to rush the young forward as his skill was present, it was the size and defensive awareness that needed to be improved. But he wasn’t too far off.

Unfortunately, the then 19-year-old ran into some injury troubles. Shinkaruk had to miss three games dealing with a torn labrum in his hip after already putting up 4 goals and 6 assists in his first 7 games. That also didn’t stop him from being named to Team WHL for the Jr Super Series for the second time in a row scoring a single goal.

More issues to his hip and eventually his shoulder led to Shinkaruk being shut down for the rest of the year.

To the Pros

Despite losing more time to develop, he continued to work during the offseason once he was healthy enough which led to another impressive showing at Vancouver’s training camp.  Shinkaruk made it all the way to the final cuts but was eventually assigned to play for the Utica Comets making his professional debut.

It wasn’t the season that many had expected from him. Utica was a top team in the AHL finishing first in the North Division with 219 goals for. Shinkaruk had a decent season for a rookie with 16 goals and 15 assists in a third-line role.

The following year saw the Comets lose a decent amount of its scorers, but Shinkaruk stepped up well for the team. He was on the first line and put up 10 goals and 13 points in his first 12 AHL games earning himself a call-up to the Canucks. On the one hand, it was an underwhelming debut against the Montreal Canadiens (irony). But Shinkaruk was held to the fourth line only seeing 9:35 of ice time most playing with Adam Cracknell (more irony) and Derek Dorsett.

Vancouver sent him back down, and he was a man on a mission adding another 11 goals and 15 assists to his season. However, his days with the Canucks were over after they traded him to play for his hometown team in Calgary in exchange for Markus Granlund. Shinkaurk was assigned to Stockton but was called up to play in March when injuries were running wild within the Flames locker room.

He played on a line with Sean Monahan and Derek Grant at first but eventually had Johnny Gaudreau on the right side. Shinkaruk got his first NHL point off of a T.J. Brodie goal against Arizona and scored his first goal the next game in Anaheim. By the end of the 2015-16 season, he had 3 points in 8 NHL games and 51 points in 62 AHL games.

On the Decline

Shinkaruk again couldn’t make the cut to crack an NHL lineup starting the 2016-17 season in the AHL. However, after points in each of his seven games to start the year, the Flames brought him up. He spent most of that with Alex Chiasson and Matt Stajan and had one assist in his seven-game window.

Injuries and consistency in terms of his performance held his skill back despite being Stockton’s top line left-winger for the majority of the season. Shinkaruk finished with 15 goals and 25 assists, 16 fewer points from the year before. The curtain was starting to close on a once highly touted prospect as this past season he would spend the entire campaign in the NHL scoring at a lower rate (0.51 PPG in 17/18 and 0.67 in 16/17).

On the surface, it’s a throwaway trade. But if you think about it, so was Nicolas Deslauriers for Zach Redmon. Not to say Shinkaruk is going to walk right into the Montreal Canadiens lineup and be a top-six forward or anything. He still has a lot to prove, and he’s in a very sensitive area of his career where if he doesn’t, he’ll continue to fall further and further out of the conversation.

There’s proof in how Shinkaruk can perform when he’s pushed. Despite recovering from surgery, he made the effort to put on 15 pounds that summer to address the physical concerns the coaching staff had for him. When the pressure was at its peak in Utica, he had one of the best starts to his AHL career forcing a call-up.

Can he bring that to the Laval Rocket?

Playing Fast

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He may not be the fastest skater, but Shinkaruk definitely plays fast when he’s on his game. He has a tendency to recognize a small hole and windows of opportunity and make an attempt to capitalize on them. Whether it’s calming down a bouncing puck previously in an opponent’s possession or getting around defenders to make a drive to the net.

Another thing that stands out about him is his ability to be in the position to score on empty-netters. This happened a lot in his first two seasons in the AHL where Shinkaruk would be around the net and easily score while the goaltender is nowhere within range. It’s not as if he’s just standing there. Shinkaruk does his part as well generally with give-and-go passes behind the net that force the goalie in net to move around a lot.

Having him play with someone who was an affinity for passing may be a good way to jumpstart things for the 2018-19 season. He also gets a decent amount of shots on net which is further proof of what playing with a playmaker can do. And if it’s not an actual shot, his willingness to go and stay in the slot has led to some positive deflections go his way.

The only downside is that with the number of players on Laval this season, there’s no guarantee he gets into the lineup every night. He can change that based on what he brings to the table, but there are going to be names ahead of him. Perhaps this is the break Shinkaruk needs to get back to being a player to talk about.

It also helps that he is (was) a fan.

The easiest place to start will be where he was in 2016 after hitting 20 goals for the first time. Maybe the exact numbers won’t come Shinkaruk’s way, but consistent play is what is going to get him noticed. If he does that, there may still be hope for what the Cancucks initially saw in him five years ago.

Acknowledgements: Player stats from eliteprospects.com.