Tales From The Clipped: Breaking down Mavrik Bourque's current success on the top line
At last, the former first rounder appears to be gaining momentum.
Mavrik Bourque has known success wherever he’s been. In the QMJHL, he won the Guy Lafleur Trophy for playoff MVP. In the AHL, he won the John B. Sollenberger Trophy (their version of the Hart), for being the league’s top scorer. Two years ago, if you detected my bias towards Bourque against Dallas’ elite list of then-prospects, including Wyatt Johnston and Logan Stankoven, you would be correct. Bourque is a unique, subtle, peculiar, and well-rounded talent.
But if all of those traits are truly there, we haven’t seen much of them. Or so the criticism goes. It’s certainly true that Bourque has needed time to adjust. And there have been games where you could find things to critique. But I do believe that Stars fans, consciously or not, are weighing their expectations of Bourque against those like Johnston and Stankoven — two rookie forwards who made an immediate impact. Combine that with recovering from an injury, and time on a fourth line that does zero for his game, and I would argue that Bourque’s struggles are mostly a mirage.
What follows won’t be a rundown of why I believe Bourque is about to blow up the boxscore now that he’s acquired a spot on the top line. On the contrary, the top line is still something of a mystery box, which makes Bourque’s presence second-hand tenuous. With only seven points through 28 games, he won’t get many games to be ‘subtle’ or ‘unique’ without generating points. Recall that, the NHL is not a development league. Because of that, Bourque will have to be a red-light performer from here on out.
Can he? I think so. In many ways, it’s fitting that he’s taking over the spot vacated by Joe Pavelski. While we still have no idea what Bourque’s ceiling as at the NHL level, he has a lot in common with Pavelski. Lacking raw athletic ability, he has better timing than speed. He’s equal parts playmaker, and shooter (something we haven’t seen at the NHL level but was true in juniors and the AHL). He’s mature, can forecheck, and is defensively responsible. Pavelski was always a player more sum than parts, and Bourque is like that.
However, what will that amount to? What will it be good for? Will he just be discount Pavs in the end? I have no idea. Nor do we have enough footage to say one way or the other. But we do have shifts. Maybe some of those can gives us clues about the near-future, and whether the newlook topline is here to stay.