The Canucks have to be bringing Kyle Burroughs back, right?

From HockeyViz.com

…meaning that Burroughs faced opponents of a just-slightly-below-league-average quality. It’s a considerable deployment for someone not thought of as an everyday NHLer before this season, and one look at the chart tells you that Burroughs’ quality of teammates affected him just as much, if not more, than the quality of competition.

Either way, Burroughs skates away from the season with far better results than anyone could have reasonably predicted back in October.

But in saying all this, what we’re really doing is dancing around the two primary qualities that make Burroughs such a slam-dunk to return to the Canucks next season, and perhaps for even longer after that.

Those qualities are his relentless physicality, and the sense of pride he instills in the team.

As we hinted at the outset, Burroughs currently leads the team in fighting majors with seven of the Canucks’ 33 total (fifth-most in the league). Take away the ten fights contributed by players no longer with the team, and Burroughs possesses almost a full third of what’s left.

And, sure, the role of fighting in the modern NHL is up for debate, and it’s certainly not what it used to be. But it’s still a part of hockey, and it can still make a positive difference, especially when one does it the way Burroughs does.

Burroughs almost exclusively fights to defend a teammate, or to defend himself after he just annihilated someone else’s teammate with a hit. Most will remember a segment earlier on in 2022/23 where it seemed the Canucks weren’t standing up for one another, and how demoralizing that was for players and fans alike. Once Burroughs started getting into the lineup more regularly, that changed, and the Canucks started standing taller as a result.

But it’s not all about the brawling. Burroughs made a physical impact, one way or another, every time he jumped over the boards.

The Canucks, as a whole, were very physical: tied for seventh overall in the league with 24.44 hits-per-minute. That ranking was earned on the backs of a small handful of players, and Burroughs was definitely one of them.

Burroughs’ 159 hits are the fourth-most on the team, despite his only having played in 46 games. His hits-per-60 of 11.97 is only sixth on the team, but three of the players ahead of him have since been traded (William Lockwood, Luke Schenn, Curtis Lazar) and one of them (Noah Juulsen) has only played in 12 games.

In terms of regular Canucks who are still with the team, the physical play really comes down to Dakota Joshua (14.90 hits-per-60) and Burroughs. And when we’re talking about the blueline specifically, it really just comes down to Burroughs. After him, the next highest-ranking Canucks defender on the hit-list is Tyler Myers with a paltry 3.96 hits-per-60. That’s barely more than a third of Burroughs’ rate.

It’s apparent by now that physical play is going to be a trademark of this team for as long as Tocchet is the coach. If that’s the case, then the Canucks really can’t afford to ditch the most physical element remaining on their blueline.

It’s also apparent by now that personal pride is going to be a big thing in the Tocchet Era, and that’s another area in which Burroughs brings an irreplaceable element to the table.

Hey, hometown boys aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be. A certain former first round pick is proof enough of that. But Burroughs is definitely the right kind of hometown. He speaks openly about how much it means to him to play in Vancouver. He seems to bring out a little bit extra for home games. He expresses gratitude non-stop, and that can’t help but rub off on his teammates.

That being a Canuck means so much to Burroughs makes being a Canuck more meaningful in general. And that’s a very good thing for the kind of culture that Tocchet is now trying to build in Vancouver.

Keeping Burroughs around should be no issue. It might cost the Canucks a one-way contract, but it won’t cost them a salary over $1 million or a term longer than two years. They’ve got the money and, unless several young defenders take major steps forward in the offseason, they’ve probably got the roster space, too. Burroughs, on the whole, is probably a better fit as an extra defender than someone like Akito Hirose or Filip Johansson, who could still benefit from seasoning in the minors.

Sure, there are whispers of a Schenn comeback in the offseason, but he’s the kind of defender who might get a silly contract offer thrown at him that prices him way out of Vancouver. The same happening with Burroughs seems unlikely. He’s a safe bet to stick with the Canucks, and he’s a safe bet to continue to contribute what he does for at least another season whenever he does get into the lineup, and to sit in the pressbox without complaint for the rest of it.

When a bet is this safe, there’s no reason not to take it.

And that’s why Kyle Burroughs has to be coming back to the team for next season.

Right?