By Joel Smart (Sports Editor) – Email
A disaster on the blue line for the Canucks was a miraculous turn of good luck for a young Montreal-native. He faced a disaster of his own last September when an ordinary stroll down an ordinary crosswalk turned into a two-month journey back to hockey from a serious concussion.
Yann Sauvé wouldn’t have believed it himself a few weeks before his call-up to the number one ranked team in the be-all-end-all of professional hockey. “It’s been a long season for me, and I wasn’t expecting to be here,” he told The Province. Though the 6’3”, 220lb defenceman was a second round draft pick for the Canucks (41 overall) in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, things went into a downward spiral when he was hit by an SUV on Burrard street in Vancouver on September 4, 2010. It couldn’t have come at a worse time for Sauvé, who was attracting attention with a career season (and playoffs) in the QMJHL, playing for the Saint John Seadogs.
After a year with the Chateauguay Patriots, he began his rookie season with the Seadogs in 06-07; he managed two goals and 15 points in 60 games. Most strikingly, though, his plus-minus rating was minus 25 – not all that promising. However, following the season he was named to the 2007 IIHF World Under-18 Championships where he took home a bronze medal for Team Canada. Though he improved to six goals and 21 points in the following season, he most significantly improved his goal differential by managing a plus one rating.
Though the 08-09 season saw him improve to 30 points, an impressive total, it was the following season that his true potential shone through; in just four seasons with the Seadogs, he went from 15 points and a minus 25 to an impressive 36 points and a plus 42. The Seadogs won the Jean Rougeau Trophy for best regular season record and fought their way to the QMJHL finals, losing in six games to the Moncton Wildcats: Sauvé had five goals and 15 points in the 21 postseason games. Then, just days before training camp, the car accident happened. The struggle to recover would prove worthwhile, though, as his hockey career took a monumental leap forward.
The transition between the QMJHL and the NHL would take just 28 professional games for Sauvé: eight games in the ECHL for the Victoria Salmon Kings, with two assists, and 20 games in the AHL with the Manitoba Moose, with just three assists and an even 0 plus-minus.
But Sauvé received perhaps his greatest wish just three days before his 21st birthday, and despite giving up a breakaway in his first NHL game on a bad read, he has managed to showcase his talent on an injury-riddled Canucks team. It was his extra effort to pool-cue the puck out of the zone, past Brendan Morrow, and onto the stick of Daniel Sedin that led to perhaps the prettiest goal this season, against the Dallas Stars. While he will obviously need to spend some more time with the Moose to mature as a player, his stay-at-home style of defence shows genuine potential. Whether we see his jersey number 47 again this season remains to be seen, but it’s nice to know the organization has the depth it does. Seven major injuries in a few short games could have brought any team in the league to its knees, but for the Canucks, it has been a chance to showcase some of their young stars; Sauvé has not disappointed.
