Preds draw blue-line under Canucks’ woes
Friday’s loss to Nashville highlights just how far Vancouver has to go to get its defensive house in order
The Vancouver Canucks never seem farther away from relevancy than when the Nashville Predators visit.
Part of it is obvious — Nashville is currently hockey royalty, and, well, the Canucks aren’t.
The Predators are one of the best-managed organizations and they’ve produced one of the deepest NHL teams, among a handful of favourites capable of winning the Stanley Cup this season.
They’ve created this, in part, on the backs of a high-octane, skilled defence that’s the envy of most rivals, a collective who underscore the enormity of the job ahead for the Canucks’ front office.
Juxtapose Nashville’s defence to the Canucks. Before the Predators’ 4-3 overtime win Friday at Rogers Arena had even started, P.K. Subban had more goals than the entire Canucks’ blue-line.
Subban plays on the Preds’ second pairing. Now that’s defensive depth.
The lack of depth on defence is a major problem for Vancouver, and one that threatens to haunt the entire scope of the Vancouver rebuild.
In fact, Vancouver defenders will need an impressive run of production in the season’s final month to match the 22 goals they scored last season. And we all thought that output was incredibly low.
This isn’t necessarily a universal truth, but generally if you don’t have a quality NHL defence, you don’t have a rebuild. Not a successful one, anyway.
As of now, it looks like the Canucks are poised to bring the band back together. This month they re-signed Erik Gudbranson for three years, taking a hard pass on a chance to trade him at the deadline for futures. They also re-signed Alex Biega for the next two seasons, seemingly locking in their seventh defenceman.
It means all eight of their defenders are team controlled for the 201819 campaign. But the way it looks now is not going to be the way it looks in the fall, on opening night. It just can’t be.
Quickly, let’s flash back to October. What if we told you rookie Brock Boeser would be on the verge of 30 goals; the Sedins would be having strong, 55-point pace seasons; Thomas Vanek would be a success; the Canucks’ power play would be among the best in the league; and Bo Horvat would have taken another big step in his development.
Given this information, would you have expected Vancouver to be one of the worst, lowest-scoring teams in the league? We’re going to guess the answer is no.
But in head coach Travis Green’s rookie season, he’s been let down by two massively important divisions of his team, his defence and goaltending.
And, yes, the two are intertwined. How much of Jacob Markstrom’s struggles this year were because of the defence in front of him? The answer, essentially, is more than a little.
The Canucks are now faced with a couple of choices. They can hope their younger blue-liners such as Ben Hutton, Troy Stecher and Derrick Pouliot have fabulous summers and return opening night as
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vastly improved players. Or they can make changes.
The betting line right now heavily favours the latter. It has been evident this season that something is going on with Hutton and the Canucks. He’s been a regular healthy scratch in the second half of the season, squeezed out of playing time by Michael Del Zotto, who, at this stage of his career, isn’t going to get any better.
Many believe Hutton will be one of the defencemen traded leading up the draft and you can see why. On the left side of their defence, the Canucks have Del Zotto, Alex Edler, Pouliot and Hutton. Plus, they have left side D-man Olli Juolevi coming soon, and he’s their only top tier blue-line prospect.
Trading Hutton is not going to move the ongoing rebuild forward. Now, trading Chris Tanev should. He’s a better than average Top 4 defenceman and could bring a return that includes a first-round draft pick.
If the Canucks are looking to improve their blue-line, and by improving it we mean adding offence, they’re probably not going to be able to ice a top four with Tanev on one pair and Gudbranson on the other. Neither pairing is going to push the play.
And that brings us to the final twist, and one no one is currently expecting.
What if the Canucks trade Gudbranson leading up to the draft? What if he’s the player they move, acquiring futures? It would free up money and a roster spot to put together an offensively-minded second-pairing while, at the same time, give the Canucks a shot at some assets that might help their future.
Sure, the Canucks just signed Gudbranson. But they’re also showcasing him in a prominent role in the final month of the season. He’s been more physical than ever lately and that may make him more valuable on the trade market.
If you’re going to be honest about Vancouver’s blue-line the question is: How will it be better next year?
It’s difficult to beat this answer: Maybe by trading Gudbranson.