Vancouver Canucks: A look at the Right-Handed Defence depth chart

A week ago, I took a look at the goaltending depth chart. This week, I thought it be fitting to look at the Vancouver Canucks depth on the right side of the blueline.

We all know that the Vancouver Canucks probably made an ill-advised decision when they brought back the exact same group of defenceman back from the 2017-18 season, into this past season. They probably should have made some changes, but what choice did the management group really have?

Heading into next season, however, the defence should look different. With not-so fan favourite, Erik Gudbranson flipped at the trade deadline in exchange for Tanner Pearson — a trade that so far appears to favour the Canucks — and Luke Schenn receiving a call up after being acquired in January, the defence all of a sudden has a new look to it.

So ahead of next season, let’s take a look at how the Canucks are looking on defence on the right side. Something to look for is that a good amount of players on the depth chart were acquired fairly recently, from trades and college free agency.

Chris Tanev

What can you say about Chris Tanev? The guy has been one of the Canucks more effective defencemen for years now — the only problem is his injury history. Tanev has suffered an outrageous number of injuries since 2015 with the Canucks (feel free to see the whole list here) that have caused him to miss significant time, and further caused the Canucks to realize how important he is to the team, and how little depth they have for when Tanev gets injured.

Apart from Tanev, there’s not really a true number one right-handed defenceman on the team. I know the case can easily be made that even Tanev isn’t even a true number one defenceman, but he’s our number one right-handed defenceman — for now. Let’s take a look at who’s below Tanev on the depth chart.