The Canucks’s struggles on defence have been well-documented this season. It’s not just that they allow a lot of goals against—though they certainly do, sitting in the bottom-third of the league in goals against per game—it’s that their inability to keep the puck out of their own end of the ice kills their offence.
This is seen in their possession statistics—the Canucks have the third-worst CorsiFor% in the league—and simply by looking at how badly they’ve been outscored this season. Only the Coyotes, Oilers, and Maple Leafs have a worse goal differential than the Canucks.
The defence is also the one area where the Canucks aren’t particularly young. Dan Hamhuis is the only defenceman over 30, but Ben Hutton is the only one younger than 26. The rest of the defence corps should hypothetically be in the prime of their careers.
Next season, however, the Canucks’ defence could be a lot younger and it might not leave any room for re-signing old man Dan Hamhuis.
We’ve already looked at the impact Nikita Tryamkin could have on the Canucks’ defence, but that's not the only change coming. This season, the Canucks have really only had one defenceman under 26; next season they could have four.
Tryamkin will be 22 next season. Andrey Pedan will be 23, as will Hutton. That’s three.
Then there’s the outside chance that the Canucks will have the opportunity to select Sarna Sting defenceman Jacob Chychrun in the 2016 entry draft. Chychrun is the top defenceman available in the draft, though he has been challenged by Olli Juolevi of the London Knights in some rankings. Chychrun has been described as NHL-ready, meaning the Canucks could have an 18-year-old on the blue line next season as well.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, however, let’s look at who the Canucks actually have signed through next season: Alex Edler, Chris Tanev, Ben Hutton, Luca Sbisa, Alex Biega, Philip Larsen, Andrey Pedan, and Nikita Tryamkin.
Jim Benning has said he wants eight defencemen next season, which would mean two defencemen sitting in the press box every game, a situation they didn’t seem comfortable with when it came to Frank Corrado. But for now we’ll choose to believe him and accept that the Canucks will carry eight defencemen on their roster to start the year.
The prospective pairings from this list of eight defencemen sort themselves out fairly easily:
Edler - Tanev
Hutton - Larsen
Sbisa - Biega
Pedan - Tryamkin
While Tryamkin shoots left, he evidently played on the right side frequently in the KHL, so we’ll throw him in on the right side here. There's room to play with these pairings, but we can see a difficulty already: who's going to play on the right side of the second pairing?
Is Philip Larsen going to be a top-four defenceman for the Canucks? If not, then who? Tryamkin in his rookie year? The replacement-level Biega? Sbisa on his off-side, which tends to be when he struggles the most?
Apart from Tanev, the Canucks’ right side is a crapshoot. It’s possible that the Canucks get lucky with both Larsen and Tryamkin, giving them a rock-solid right side. It seems equally possible that neither of them are legitimate NHL defencemen and the right side is as bad if not worse next season than it is this season.
The Canucks could seek help on the right side in free agency—Jason Demers is the best of the bunch and would look good alongside Ben Hutton—but is Benning likely to do so? He seems pretty keen on Larsen and Tryamkin and might not see any need to bring in a free agent.
That covers the right side, but looking at the left side raises this question: are the Canucks going to re-sign Dan Hamhuis?
The Canucks’ left side on defence is far more firm than the right and signing Hamhuis would give them six left-handed defencemen and three right-handed defencemen in the NHL next season.
That’s not to say the situation would be unmanageable. The Canucks are unlikely to risk losing Andrey Pedan on waivers, but Alex Biega could be put on waivers without much risk and, frankly, he’s not good enough to be too concerned about losing. That wouldn’t do anything to fix the glut on the left side, however.
Meanwhile, Nikita Tryamkin could be assigned to the AHL without going through waivers, but he has an out clause in his contract that allows him to return to the KHL instead of reporting to Utica. There’s still a possibility that he starts next season in the AHL, with the understanding that he’ll be called up in short order, but it’s a risk.
The Canucks could also ease the logjam by making a trade, either by cutting their losses with Sbisa or swinging for the fences by dealing Edler at the draft, though his no-trade clause complicates matters and I'm not sure how much I trust Benning to get good value in return for him.
No matter what, if the Canucks want to add another defenceman next season, whether it’s Hamhuis, another free agent, or an 18-year-old rookie, they’ll have to lose someone else to make it happen. It also means there’s little room for Jordan Subban or another prospect to push for a spot in training camp.
That covers what they currently have and what they could do with the defence, but what should they do?
In my opinion, the biggest issues on defence have been Matt Bartkowski and Luca Sbisa. I also don’t think Alex Biega is cut out to be an everyday NHLer. In my ideal world, the Canucks would draft Chychrun, sign Demers, trade Sbisa, and waive Biega. Edler, Tanev, Hutton, and Demers would be a capable top-four, while Chychrun, Pedan, Larsen, and Tryamkin could battle for the third-pairing and play up the lineup in case of injury.
Since this isn’t my ideal world, it’s more likely that they’ll draft Max Jones, sign Bartkowski, trade Edler, and lose Pedan on waivers.
