Do the Canucks need a middle-6 forward or a depth defenceman more?

The Vancouver Canucks have lost many of their free agents this offseason, but are they more in need of another middle-six forward or a depth defenceman?

The 2020 offseason has seen the Vancouver Canucks lose many of their free agents, including Tyler Toffoli, Chris Tanev and Troy Stecher. Due to these departures, the team could use another middle-six forward and depth defenceman, but which one of these players do they need more?

As I previously outlined, Vancouver has the ability to create $3.1 million in cap space by demoting Sven Baertschi to the AHL and putting Micheal Ferland on LTIR. Following these moves, the Canucks will need to add two more players to fill their 23-man roster.

With that in mind, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the team has recently been linked to Travis Hamonic and Erik Haula per The Athletic (subscription required), since they fill the holes that were left by the departed free agents.

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Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that Vancouver will be able to sign one, let alone both of those players not because of salary cap constraints, but due to the team reportedly operating under a cash crunch.

Even if ownership was willing to splurge on another free-agent addition, it will probably only be for a league-minimum contract, and both of those players will likely ask for more than that.

However, it’s still pertinent to ask what type of player Jim Benning should pursue if he’s given the green light to sign a league minimum contract, even if that player might not be either Haula or Hamonic.

The best way to answer this question is to see which side of the puck Vancouver struggled with more last season, and the answer’s pretty obvious when looking at the stats.

The Canucks finished eighth in goals per game in 2019-20 while placing 21st in goals against, so it’s pretty obvious that the team struggles more on the backend than they do up front.

With that said, the acquisition of Nate Schmidt has significantly improved Vancouver’s top four on the blueline. Pair that with Toffoli’s departure and this question is harder to answer than it first appeared.

Even so, we need to keep in mind that Toffoli only played in 10 regular-season games for the Canucks and missed a large portion of the postseason as well. He wasn’t fully healthy upon returning in the playoffs either, and Vancouver still managed to get within minutes of the conference finals.

In the 59 regular-season games that the Canucks played without Toffoli, they still scored an average of 3.17 goals every match, which would still be good enough for 12th in the league. Vancouver’s best players are also still young and haven’t hit their primes yet, so any improvements from them means that the Canucks should still be able to have a top-10 offence this season.

On the other hand, the team’s defence significantly drops off after their top four options. Jordie Benn struggled last year and there’s no guarantee that any rookie will be able to adequately handle bottom pairing duties yet. A potential injury might also force one of these players into handling tougher minutes, which could derail the entire season for Vancouver.

When we take everything into consideration, it seems obvious that the Canucks are more in need of a depth defenceman rather than another forward. Even a player signed to the league minimum could help the team, as this offseason has proven to be an unprecedented buyers market with many players receiving contracts worth a lot less than expected. Let me know if you agree in the comment below!