Speed, or lack thereof, is a team-wide issue for the Vancouver Canucks, and the defence is unfortunately no exception.
Hockey analytics maven JFreshHockey pooled three different speed stats for defencemen, as tracked by NHL EDGE and collected by Brendan Wadlow. The results were not kind to the Canucks.
The Canucks featured at least one defenceman in each category, and the categories are Top Sustained Speed, Fewest 18+ MPH Bursts per 60 Minutes, and Fewest 20+ MPH Bursts per 60 minutes.
According to the NHL's tracking data, which defencemen played the slowest in 2024-25? pic.twitter.com/j8cg5Q4pgi
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) April 28, 2025
In the sustained speed group, pending Canucks free agent defenceman Derek Forbort registered the fifth-lowest top sustained speed of the season, clocking in at 20.4 MPH. The only blueliners to reach lower top speeds this season were Jon Merrill of the Minnesota Wild (20.4), Artem Zub of the Ottawa Senators (20.4), Brayden McNabb of the Vegas Golden Knights (20.3), and Egor Zamula of the Philadelphia Flyers (20.2).
In the 18+ MPH category, Forbort was joined by one of his Canucks teammates, Marcus Pettersson, as one of the least explosive defenders in the NHL. Pettersson's 7.0 bursts of 18+ MPH per 60 minutes played ranked 18th-worst in the NHL, while Forbort (20th) was slightly better with 7.1 bursts per 60 minutes.
Lastly, Pettersson and Forbort were twins in the final row, as both players averaged 0.4 bursts of 20+ MPH per 60 minutes played. Zamula, Merrill, McNabb, and Zub were consistently slower than the two Canucks across the board
Pettersson is in Vancouver for the long haul, though, and Forbort is linked to a Canucks return, so management will have to look for other stats to improve on in 2025-26.