Guillaume Brisebois | A fighter for the Vancouver Canucks

Guillaume Brisebois has only known the Vancouver Canucks organization since he played professionally.

The Canucks, as well as the Utica and then Abbotsford subsidiaries, have been his only employers since he has been paid to play hockey, since 2017.

However, we find in his HockeyDB profile a nine-game stay with the Laval Rocket, in 2020-2021. It was pandemic season, that time when returning to Canada from the United States meant a 14-day quarantine. As their home club was in Utica, the Canucks loaned Brisebois to the Rocket that season, so that he could play immediately in the event of a recall.

This long detour serves as a reminder that Brisebois, 27, has already skated at the Bell Center, despite his little experience in the NHL. Only, he had played there in the American League, behind closed doors. “It was a great experience. There were no fans, but it was still the Bell Centre,” he emphasizes in an interview with The Pressafter Sunday’s training in Brossard.

This Monday, against the Canadian, he could do it for the first time in the NHL, and in front of some 20,000 spectators. However, we talk about it in the conditional because the stars must be aligned. Exceptional defender Quinn Hughes has missed the last four games, but his return this Monday is a “possibility”, according to Rick Tocchet.

The Canucks head coach therefore did not come forward. And Brisebois doesn’t want to project too far ahead, even if, in training, his presence alongside veteran Tyler Myers seemed to bode well for his presence in uniform on Monday.

“It would really be a great experience to play at the Bell Center against the Canadiens,” agrees Brisebois, in a secondary locker room at the CN Sports Complex. “I’m trying not to think about it too much right now. We’ll see about the match, but it would be really special. »

“I went there often when I was little, I played between periods. I subscribed to the Canadian magazine, I had all the stuff. I was a big fan. My family and I watched all the games. It’s big for me, the Canadian. »

Concussions

A game at the Bell Center would be special for the reasons he explains, but a game in the NHL, period, is just as special for this pick 3^e tour in 2015.

His journey was indeed punctuated by numerous injuries. But when a particularly violent concussion felled him last season, he began to wonder if he should hang up his skates. Hit solidly by Brandon Tanev in a preseason game in the fall of 2023, he did not return to the game until mid-March. The symptoms reappeared at the end of the season and it was only “in the middle of summer” that he began to feel well again. Which is still the case to this day.

What did he suffer? “Headaches, dizziness, all the symptoms. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. »

Where this episode was doubly frustrating was that the previous winter, Brisebois had been told by the organization that he was “part of the team”. He had played 17 games during the end of the 2022-2023 calendar, and was hoping to finally establish himself full-time in the circuit after years of shuttling between the American League and the big club.

Brisebois still has time to establish itself. Despite his 27 years, he doesn’t have tons of hockey in his body: 272 games in the AHL, 29 in the NHL. This season, here he is, two games behind the tie in the NHL, waiting to know if a third will be added this Monday.

All this within the same organization. Casually, he is the player with the most seniority within the current Canucks group, if we rely on the date he signed his first contract (2015). This is a rather unusual route; Normally, a player unable to reach the NHL in an organization will seek the famous new start…

“They invested in me,” recalled Brisebois. It’s up to me to show them that they did the right thing. »

“I have a weakness for players like him,” Tocchet admitted. His career was in danger, we didn’t know if he would come back. The head injury is now behind him, and he has worked very hard to come back. »