Tanev made name for himself in Vancouver, now returns in Flaming C
Tanev #Tanev
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Author of the article:
Wes Gilbertson
Publishing date:
Feb 11, 2021 • 23 hours ago • 8 minute read 
Feb 1, 2021; Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN; Winnipeg Jets forward Andrew Copp (9) battles Calgary Flames defenseman Chris Tanev (8) for the puck during the second period at Bell MTS Place. Mandatory Credit: Terrence Lee-USA TODAY Sports Photo by Terrence Lee /USA TODAY Sports Article content
Dave Gagner had, way back when, coached Chris Tanev on a spring inline squad.
He was a talented kid, a trustworthy defender even on wheels, but he was just a little squirt, so tiny that he looked like a little brother while tagging along with his teammates.
Fast-forward several years … It’s 2010 and Gagner, after a lengthy NHL career of his own, is now working in player development for the Vancouver Canucks.
The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Tigers are on the tube and unbeknownst to his former roller hockey skipper, the once-wee Tanev has sprouted.
It’s your story, Dave, you take it from here …
“I was watching the NCAA tournament on TV and I knew we had scouts there present at the game,” recalled Gagner, who skated 16 seasons in The Show and had also worked with this youngster in the winter months in the minor-hockey ranks. “I saw Chris score a goal and I’m thinking, ‘Chris Tanev?!? That’s weird. This kid is 6-foot-2.’ So I looked on the bench and sure enough, it’s the same head but it was on a bigger body.
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“I remembered that he was always smart and fearless. As a smaller defenceman, he would go to the corner and just get pasted to make a play. It was one of those things where he was just a late grower, but he always had high-end hockey sense, loved to defend and would do anything to stop the best players on the other team. And he’d do it quietly. Everybody loved being on Chris’ team because he was just a competitor that didn’t bug anybody. He was just a very, very nice and humble young man.
“So I called one of our scouts I knew was at the game and I said, ‘Can you watch this kid and do a report on him?’ And he liked him, too.”
More of Vancouver’s talent-hounds were soon involved.
And there was growing consensus — this Tanev kid, never on the radar to be drafted but now skating on RIT’s top pairing as an NCAA rookie, could be a gem.
“So we ended up pitching Chris and his dad at the end of the season,” said Gagner, who has since switched to the agent side of the business. “He was only a freshman but I knew other teams were interested in him as well, so we convinced him to sign in Vancouver at the time. Our whole group did. And the rest is history, as they say.”
Tanev would spend a decade with the Canucks organization, the bulk of it at the big-league level.
On Thursday, the 31-year-old blue-liner — signed this fall by the Calgary Flames and so far making a heck of an impression with his new club — will for the first time return to Rogers Arena in Vancouver as one of the bad guys (8 p.m. MT, Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 The Fan).
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The Flames will stay on the West Coast for three straight dates. This is also a homecoming-of-sorts for star netminder Jacob Markstrom and right-winger Josh Leivo. Thanks to back-to-back wins in Calgary last month, they are currently undefeated against their old buddies.
“Going to the rink is going to be a little different — being on the visitors’ side of the arena,” Tanev said prior to Wednesday’s afternoon flight to his old stomping grounds. “I think early on it’s obviously going to be a little emotional. I’m going to see a lot of faces that I’ve grown to like around the arena for quite some time. But as the game progresses, I think it’s going to become just another game where we’re trying to win.”
Chris Tanev battles Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson in the first-period at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on Monday, January 18, 2021. Photo by Darren Makowichuk /DARREN MAKOWICHUK/Postmedia
There were some groans when the Flames signed Tanev to a four-year, US$18-million deal in free agency — the critics argued that is too much term for a 30-something — but the new guy in No. 8 has proved so far to be a superb addition in a second-pairing role.
The more you watch Tanev, the more you appreciate his skating and puck-moving abilities and his knack for almost always being in the right spot.
You can see what former teammate Kevin Bieksa was talking about when he quipped during the 2011 Stanley Cup final, “He could have played the game with a cigarette in his mouth, he’s so calm and cool out there.”
It’s likely not a total coincidence that Tanev’s new partner, Noah Hanifin, is playing arguably the best hockey of his career. Hanifin, 24, will tell you as much.
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“He just quietly does his job and makes everyone around him better,” said Tanev’s college bench boss, Wayne Wilson. “I’m sure when the coaches watch the tape, they probably just notice so many small things about his game that make you go, ‘Wow, great play there. That was great, a real good pass … ’ ”
That seems to be a recurring theme as you trace the trail of Tanev.
“I know (former Canucks coach) Alain Vigneault, he was just amazed there were no scoring chances when he was on the ice,” Gagner recalled.
Tanev’s countables in a dozen appearances in the Flaming C include one goal — a bouncer from inside his own blue-line — and a pair of assists. He has a plus-4 rating, a team-high 24 blocked shots and has been on the ice for only five goals against at even-strength.
Thing is, with a shutdown sort, the numbers never tell the entire story. This comment from Keith McCambridge, who helped tutor Tanev in his first pro campaign as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, best sums up the appeal of the under-rated defenceman.
“He does all the non-highlight things that might go unnoticed by some people — the little things like stick detail, body positioning, gap control, good first passes,” said McCambridge, who was drafted by the Flames back in 1994, has gobs of experience as both a skater and a skipper in the minors and is now an associate coach for the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. “The one thing that I’ve learned over the years is elite NHL players do simple better than anybody else. He does all of those things. And those little things, as coaches know, give your team a chance to play in the offensive zone and to win hockey games.”
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The Canucks, currently allowing a cringe-worthy 3.94 goals per game, certainly seem to miss both Tanev and Markstrom, who spent a combined 17 seasons with the organization before crossing enemy lines to sign in Calgary.
To appreciate what Thursday’s return must mean to Tanev, it helps to understand how the Toronto-raised rock wound up in Vancouver in the first place.
With all due respect to the Tigers, Rochester Institute of Technology is not exactly a factory for future NHLers.
Tanev, in fact, was the first of two alums to ascend to the highest level.
“People always say, ‘Whoa, how’d you get him?’ ” said Wilson, now in his 22nd season as RIT’s head coach. “We didn’t think he was going to be that good. We thought he was going to be good, but never one-and-done and off to the NHL. Never dreamed of it.”
Chris Tanev celebrates his second-period goal against the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg on Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. Photo by Kevin King /Postmedia
The Tigers were initially badgered by Rick Cornacchia — then Tanev’s coach with the Junior A-level Markham Waxers — to take a gander at a dude who’d grown a foot over a one-year span prior to high-school graduation.
Wilson and Co. trusted Cornacchia’s wisdom. He had, after all, guided Eric Lindros and the Oshawa Generals to both an OHL championship and Memorial Cup crown in 1990 and later helmed Team Canada at the world juniors.
And they trusted that he wanted the best for RIT. His son was then skating as a forward for the Tigers.
“If people were to watch the Flames and it’s just one game, you’re not going to come away and say, ‘Wow, look at him.’ He’s not Johnny Gaudreau,” Wilson said of Tanev. “We liked him but only because we got tipped off and we could really zero in on him a little bit more. So that’s how we kind of stumbled into him.”
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Cornacchia was right about this kid.
He had, however, been wrong before. Tanev had once attended a spring camp with the Waxers but the team said no thanks to a guy the coach remembers as about 5-foot-8 and “maybe a-buck-forty.” They had to swing a trade to bring him back.
Tanev’s progress was perhaps stalled as he waited for that growth spurt — he played high-school hockey when he couldn’t catch on with a AAA team — but he may also owe some of his success to what he learned as a runt rearguard.
“His positional play is unbelievable,” Cornacchia praised. “As you can see now, he doesn’t get himself in trouble very much, meaning that he’s in the right position and the right spot. And he doesn’t take a lot of penalties because of his footwork and also his positioning.
“When you’re small, you have to develop your hockey IQ and you have to make sure that you have good positioning against bigger, stronger kids so you don’t get beat. So that’s something that he’s developed over time. The other thing you’ve probably noticed is he has no panic point. He doesn’t panic with the puck. He’s very calm and makes the right decision 99% of the time.”
McCambridge remembers his first glimpse of a just-signed Tanev at Vancouver’s summer development camp in 2010. He recalls being impressed with his awareness, his anticipation, his competitive drive in drills and scrimmages.
“Whenever you see a player that has that burning desire, that burning fire inside him … You can’t teach that. The athlete either has that or doesn’t,” McCambridge said. “And you could just tell from Chris that he loved playing hockey. You could tell he loved every part of it. And from my experience over the years coaching, if the athlete loves what they’re doing, they’ll usually find a way to make it. And he did.”
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On Thursday, he makes his way back to Rogers Arena.
Over the decade he called that his home rink, Tanev totalled 547 appearances in Canucks silks.
It’s a good thing Gagner turned on the tube that day.
“He’s just reliable. He’s quietly efficient every day. You just don’t have to worry about him,” Gagner said of Tanev. “The best thing about coaching Chris is you know what you’re going to get out of him every day. That’s what coaches want, you know? You look at your lineup and you look at a guy and if you’re not sure what you’re going to get, then it’s tough to play them. But Chris is the same way every day. His reliability is what I think stands out to me. He’s just solid, and he does it quietly. You don’t even know he’s around. He just goes about his business. He’s really a coach’s dream.”
wgilbertson@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/WesGilbertson
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