Vancouver Canucks defence: How bad is it? A lot better than before

How to Improve

Really, this last part should be called “Where to go from here” because believe it or not, the Canucks still have some seriously talented young blueliners in their prospect pool. This includes names such as Jett Woo, Jack Rathbone, and most notably Olli Juolevi, who we’ll likely see make his NHL debut at some point this season.

Fans of the team could go on and on if you asked them how the Canucks could improve their defence just a year ago. The team needed to move on from defencemen such as Michael Del Zotto, Erik Gudbranson, and Derrick Pouliot. Those three, in particular, did not fit in with the Canucks’ system and looked lost in their own end a lot of the time. The Canucks clearly felt the same, as they said goodbye to all three of those players, along with Ben Hutton.

With those four players leaving the Canucks, the team will now have Jordie Benn, Tyler Myers, and Quinn Hughes fill in the spots left behind. The following is a graph I created that showcases the Corsi For % at Even Strength of three players who were in the lineup opening night of last year, to the three players who will fill the spots left behind by them.

Obviously, Hughes’ Corsi is a bit inflated for two reasons; the small sample size, and the favourable situations Canucks’ head coach Travis Green was trying to put the young defenceman in. Nonetheless, the point is clear; Hughes, along with Myers and Benn are upgrades over Hutton, Gudbranson, and Pouliot.

I know a lot of you are wary of putting too much into analytics, but in a game where the goal is to put the puck into the back of your opponent’s net as much as possible, it’s good to have control of said puck more often than not. The three newest Canuck defencemen are a solid upgrade in that department, and I for one, am extremely excited to see the new-look defence.

So yet again, let’s ask the question, how bad is it? It’s hardly bad at all — it’s surely an improvement, a rather substantial improvement, too. Sure, the Canucks may not have the best defence corps in the league, but we must remember that as more and more prospects continue to develop, the young defencemen who can help this team one day win the Stanley Cup will begin to reveal themselves.