Travis Hamonic gives the Canucks’ defence needed flexibility

It’ll be at least a week until Travis Hamonic joins the Vancouver Canucks at training camp, but his arrival gives the blueline some much-needed flexibility.

Since the departure of Chris Tanev and Troy Stecher in free agency this offseason, the Vancouver Canucks’ blueline looked destined to take a step back in 2021. That may no longer be the case as the Canucks have signed Travis Hamonic to a professional try-out with full intentions of signing him to a one-year contract once money is moved around and Micheal Ferland is placed on LTIR.

The addition of Hamonic this close to the start of the season should be considered a home run for Vancouver. Although he isn’t the same defenceman he was a couple of years ago, the 30-year-old can still log top-four minutes, match up against tough competition and play the penalty kill. In fact, last season, he was one of Calgary’s go-to defencemen while up against the opposition’s best man-advantage units.

Hamonic continues to check off boxes in Vancouver as he’ll slide in as only the team’s second right-shot defenceman with quality NHL experience. Behind just Tyler Myers on the depth chart, Hamonic can be more than a fifth or sixth defender if he plays his cards right. Before he arrived the top-four looked pretty set, but with Hamonic now in the mix the Canucks can tinker with their backend much more than it was originally anticipated.

This is great news for Vancouver as they were seriously looking at starting the season with an all-rookie third pairing. Either that or it was likely going to be Jordie Benn who would take one of Olli Juolevi, Jack Rathbone or Brogan Rafferty under his wing. But now that Hamonic is entering the fold the Canucks have a legit NHL defenceman who can help take some responsibility off of the rookies if things suddenly become too much.

Not only that, but his presence does a lot in terms of managing injuries this year. The Canucks are set to play 56 games over 116 days, and as the team who will travel far more than any other team this season, Vancouver will need as much depth as they can get.

As much as it would have been nice to give the kids all the opportunities in the world to play in the NHL full-time this season, Hamonic comes in as a safety blanket who will shield any prospects who aren’t quite ready for the NHL. Hamonic’s arrival will make for some stiff competition at training camp and it’ll give the Canucks the best group of defenders possible.

With Hamonic likely to dawn the blue and green, the Canucks defence corps should be better overall. What do you think Canucks Nation? Does Hamonic provide the Canucks with enough flexibility?