VANCOUVER — When training camp opened, five months, two head coaches and an entire managerial regime ago, Kyle Burroughs was probably eighth among right-side defencemen on the Vancouver Canucks’ depth chart.

This meant, theoretically, that if everyone was healthy and the Canucks kept four of their right-shot blue-liners in the National Hockey League, Burroughs would be competing for playing time in Abbotsford in the American Hockey League.

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He was 26-years-old and returning to his home town with a total of five NHL games on his resume – all of them last spring for the Colorado Avalanche – and 342 games in the minors, nearly all of those during five seasons with the New York Islanders’ farm team in Connecticut.

Kyle Burroughs was not a guy you would have wagered on in September. But you wouldn’t bet against him now.

As the Canucks practised Friday in Burnaby ahead of a Saturday marquee game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Rogers Arena, top-four defenceman Travis Hamonic was fully practising with Vancouver, threatening another appearance in the NHL.

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Vaccination, COVID and injury issues have restricted Hamonic to just nine games this season. The last one was on Dec. 8 when he suffered a knee or leg injury on a hit away from the puck by Boston Bruin Brad Marchand.

Whenever Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau decides to bring Hamonic back on to his blue line, which is also missing Tucker Poolman on the right side due to complications from migraines, Burroughs probably won’t be the depth defenceman coming out of the lineup.

The seventh-round draft pick from Langley has impressed Boudreau even more than he impressed former coach Travis Green, who allowed Burroughs to play his way into the opening-night lineup on Oct. 13.

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“My impression is, as it’s always been with Kyle, he is a real valuable member of this team,” Boudreau said this week. “He plays much bigger than his size. He’s making simple plays offensively, which is great. He’s not getting you in trouble defensively, and he competes his rear end off. He’s the kind of guy that you can win with.”

The last part is about the highest praise a player can get.

“That means a lot coming from him,” Burroughs said Friday. “That’s awesome to hear.”

“There’s been a lot of hard work. It’s taken a while, a lot of trying times, a lot of effort, a lot of grinding days and a lot of second thoughts. But to be here (in the NHL), especially in my hometown and in front of my family and our great fan base,” he added. “It has been a storybook kind of thing for me. A lot of kids growing up in Langley or other places in the Lower Mainland, they’re seeing what can happen. It’s just been exciting for me right from start of the year.”

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Burroughs has played 33 games this season and although far from indispensable — most players near the bottom of an NHL lineup are never more than two bad games away from sitting out — the defenceman has offered the Canucks valuable, consistent physicality that is otherwise not in great abundance.

He is averaging only 13:12 of ice time, with a goal and two assists and a shots-for percentage of 50.7. But Burroughs’ 11.8 hits-per-60 minutes puts him second on the Canucks behind Luke Schenn, another defenceman who has far outplayed the depth role for which he was intended.

Burroughs also, in Boudreau’s words, has “no fear in challenging a guy almost twice his size.”

In Tuesday’s 5-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes, Burroughs, who is listed at 6-0 and 193 pounds, fought 220-pound Lawson Crouse when challenged by the power forward. Four weeks ago in Nashville, shortly before Burroughs suffered a lower-body injury and missed five games, the Canuck won a fight with then-NHL-penalty-minute-leader Tanner Jeannot. In his NHL debut with Colorado last April, Burroughs beat six-foot-six Minnesota Wild centre Nick Bjugstad in a fight.

It’s like Burroughs can’t find anyone his own size.

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“When you fight the bigger guys, you’re not supposed to win and people don’t think you really have a chance,” Burroughs explained. “So it’s a win-win either way.”

Asked why he fought Crouse in a game the Canucks were comfortably leading, he said: “He came over and asked, and I don’t really like to say ‘no’ too many times, especially when the game is going that well for us. I didn’t want him to think he was, you know, going to run my show or anything. Sometimes you’ve got to show up and that’s just the way it goes. When I’m hitting a lot like that game, sometimes it’s going to ruffle feathers.”

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Burroughs came to the Canucks last summer on a two-year free-agent contract with an NHL salary of $750,000 US that makes him an attractive trade target for other teams ahead of the March 21 dealing deadline.

He doesn’t want to go anywhere else.

“I was a big fan of the Canucks growing up, playing mini hockey in the living room with my brother when the games were on,” Burroughs said. “Watching those games and watching the players, all those incredible playoff runs and the heartbreak with the Cup Final (in 2011), I felt all the emotions that every fan goes through. I’ve been there. To be in this position I am now, I don’t take it for granted. I know how hard we want to win here as a fan base, and us players are the same way. It’s just special.”

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Burroughs owns a home in White Rock but recently moved downtown with his girlfriend, Hayley Peters, and their two rescue dogs, Aullie and Sadie.

The way Burroughs competes at his size, his willingness to stand up to much bigger opponents, is a little reminiscent of former Canuck Kevin Bieksa. He doesn’t have Bieksa’s skill set and won’t have his career, but combativeness and defensive competence could keep Burroughs in the NHL for a while.

“I love the way he played,” Burroughs said of Bieksa. “The thing I definitely respected most about him was his heart and the way that he played. Guys like that are a key piece. And I think that’s what I understood more as I grew older.

“Starting (an NHL career) at 26, it’s not the prettiest thing. But I’m happy to be here now and happy to work hard and still try to get better every day. Don’t take anything for granted.”

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