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VANCOUVER, BC -- Push past the fact that Dan Hamhuis hasn’t scored a goal this season – and unless something changes in a hurry by next week he will have gone more than a year without putting a puck in the net. Push past that fact because despite the goose egg in the goal column, the veteran defenceman is actually having one of the best offensive seasons of his 11-year National Hockey League career.

With his deft set-up on Zack Kassian’s game winner late in Monday’s 2-1 victory over Anaheim, Hamhuis picked up his 17th assist of the season. It gave Hamhuis a share of the Canucks team lead for points by a defenseman despite playing 14 fewer games than Alex Edler (5+12). It also moved Hamhuis past Washington’s Brook Orpik to the top of the list of NHL scorers without a goal on the season.

“There was some open ice and I think we kind of turned one over in the neutral zone and Kass made a really nice play to chip it over to me,” Hamhuis said, describing his set-up on the TSN 1040 post-game show immediately after the win. “We talked about just getting pucks to the net and that’s what I was looking to do and then he opened up and made a really nice play on it.”

Now, the point total hardly leaps off the page, but it’s important to remember than Hamhuis missed 20 games from mid-November through mid-January with a serious groin injury. Since his return to the line-up on January 16 in Carolina, the 32-year-old has chipped in with 11 helpers in 24 games. His production rate has increased recently, however, with five assists in the past six games and 10 in his last 20 outings.

And the bulk of that recent production has come at a time when the Canucks were without Edler and Chris Tanev forcing Hamhuis to log big minutes and take on added defensive and leadership responsibilities. In fact, for a stretch in February, Hamhuis had played more NHL games by himself than the rest of the Canucks defense corps combined.

“It’s great to get Chris Tanev back (tonight) and guys are slowly filtering back into our line-up,” Hamhuis said. “We can’t let off and think it’s going to be easy because our players are coming back. We have to keep the same mindset we’ve had."

On Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings, Hamhuis is poised to suit up for his 800th NHL game. And he’ll reach that milestone playing his best hockey of the season. While Dan Hamhuis will never be mistaken for Bobby Orr or Paul Coffey, the soft-spoken defenseman is producing at a rate that is making the 2014-15 season one of his best in the NHL.

The .39 points per game that Hamhuis is producing makes this the fourth best season of his career. And the .39 assists per game ranks third on his personal resume just shy of the .43 assists per game he registered in 2012-13, when he set up 33 goals in 80 games. His 17 helpers in 44 games this season would translate to 32 in a full-82 game campaign, but obviously with his injury, he won’t have that chance to play a full schedule.

To put Hamhuis’ production in perspective this season, he is in the top 35 of all NHL defencemen in assists per game tied with Calgary’s TJ Brodie and former Canuck teammate Jason Garrison of Tampa Bay. And to emphasize the rate at which Hamhuis is producing this season, he is percentage points behind another former teammate – Nashville’s Shea Weber who is generating .41 assists per game on a very strong Predators team. 

What’s interesting to note is that while Hamhuis has picked up his point production in the second half of the season, his only power play point came on opening night in Calgary on October 8. Since then, his past 16 helpers have all come at even strength despite regular duty on the Canucks second power unit.

It’s been 55 games -- and 359 days -- since Hamhuis last scored a goal. He beat Roberto Luongo on March 16, 2014 in Florida. Quite remarkably, his last goal prior to that came on November 9, 2013 in Los Angeles. It’s been 16 months since Hamhuis last scored on home ice (November 2, 2013 against Toronto).

With the Kings and Leafs in town this week, maybe Hamhuis will find his long lost goal-scoring mojo. But even without putting pucks in the net, he has proven to be a key contributor for the Vancouver Canucks who are closing in on a Pacific Division playoff spot.

“We’ve come to compete,” Hamhuis said. “This team likes playing in those big games, we love playing in the tight ones. And I think it showed (tonight). “