The Vancouver Canucks’ defense core has changed quite a bit since the beginning of last season, and it continues to do so. What will the combinations look like in 2016-17?
When a team sucks, it is usually easy to pinpoint a certain area of weakness, or a reason for the missing success — but for the 2015-16 Vancouver Canucks, there were too many to even decide the major one. Injuries, scoring depth, defense. The first one is entirely influenced by (bad) luck, but general manager Jim Benning is working on the latter two. Especially regarding the defense, we are experiencing some big changes.
Late this season, Benning brought Russian prospect Nikita Tryamkin over to Vancouver. He also signed new regular Alex Biega to the first one-way contract of his career, and traded a conditional fifth-round pick to the Edmonton Oilers for the rights to defenseman Philip Larsen.
Following the 2015-16 campaign, which ended way too early for the Canucks this year, Benning added NCAA standout Troy Stecher from the University of North Dakota and traded blue chip prospect Jared McCann, a second and a fourth-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft to the Florida Panthers in exchange for defenseman Erik Gudbranson.
Clearly, Benning is determined to ice a better D than last year. Which should be rather easy with Tryamkin and Gudbranson in the lineup for Matt Bartkowski and Yannick Weber.
But what will the new pairings look like?
First, let’s look at the current depth chart. Listed are only signed players and restricted free agent Andrey Pedan, who is likely to re-sign in Vancouver, sorted by handedness. Therefore, unrestricted free agent Dan Hamhuis, who might still return, and
RD
1. Alex Edler 1. Chris Tanev 2. Ben Hutton 2. Erik Gudbranson 3. Luca Sbisa 3. Alex Biega 4. Nikita Tryamkin 4. Troy Stecher 5. Andrey Pedan 5. Jordan Subban
As you can see, the Canucks are well set on the first two pairings. With a healthy roster, the top four should be stronger than last year’s. Starting with the third pairing, however, things get difficult.
Is Luca Sbisa good enough for a top-six role? Is his contract reason enough to put him in that role even if he is not good enough? Is Alex Biega ready for a full 82-game season in the NHL? Is the depth sufficient?
I will try my best to answer these questions for you, by presenting some possible line combinations with the current roster.
Next: Option 1