Defense: The Canucks Achilles Heel

[linden17]

I think Hamhuis played some of his worst hockey in years. He looked completely unmotivated some plays chasing the puck into the corners. Dont know if he is hurting or something but I personally was blown away at his effort. Overall i defense cost us. Lots of sloppy outlet passes that always seem to be just a step behind the forwards causing them to slow up just that half a second that can be crucial. We showed we can play offense with calgary and infact outplayed them alot in the last two games but when it came to their limited chances it was a defensive coverage breakdown and it cost us. Would not mind keeping edler and tanev/maybe beiksa in a limited role for leadership , but blowing the rest up.

[canuktravella]

Edler - won't wave. our best dman

Tanev - new contract and plays well with edler. 2nd best dman

Hammer- won't wave. if he is sitting in press box he will waive

Juice - won't wave. ditto

Sbisa - new contract. he needs a steady partner corrado:)

Weber - the only NHL ready Dman we have that can shoot on the PP. soft and weak on d get rid of him

Corrado - ready for bottom pairing role but redundant skill set. solid d

Clendening - RFA, who is not ready to replace weber. hes our ppqb next yr

Stanton - took a step back this year. best plus minus on d

We have this D core until contracts start expiring so enjoy the ride folks.

your posts clueless

[CanuckofSteel]

Kevin Bieksa needs to go, I've been saying this for awhile. I was pretty much alone in thinking that re-signing Bieksa was a mistake after the 2011 season, I was hoping to keep Ehrhoff over him.

Bieksa is a contract year player, he plays average to below average unless it is a contract year. Which means this upcoming season should be his best since 2011, but then everyone will be fooled into thinking he's good again and want him re-signed. Trade him on draft day, he's just a pylon on the ice.

Keep Edler, Tanev, and Hamhuis. Hamhuis isn't that bad, obviously his play has dipped since over the past few years. He has more value in having a leadership role in the backend and is much more stable than KB3.

Sbisa I'm extremely disappointed with but this was his first year here and we just extended him. Put him on the bottom pairing and recognize the type of partner he needs, from what I saw he's more of a frantic d-man and needs a stable/calm partner. Get Sbisa a level headed partner who can also get the puck out of our end.

I see next years d-pairings as:

Edler-Tanev

Hamhuis-?/Green*/Franson*

Sbisa-Corrado/?

Weber-Clendenning

*= UFA defenceman who play an offensive game better than Weber. I'd try to target Mike Green (Capitals) or Cody Franson (Predators).

Hopefully someone from within the organization surprises and we can promote someone from the minors, could be a guy like Biega, Pedan, Corrado, or Clendenning. Still would try to sign one of Green or Franson from FA for that offensive punch from the backend.

[Hectic]

Edler, Hammer and Juice are probably happy to wave. But they are unlikely to WAIVE their no trade clauses.

nice

also Tanev Corrado Edler and Hamhuis should be top 4 next year with Clendening and Weber as the bottom 2 that provide offense as well.. oh wait.. Sbisa is also signed and that throws everything off and I didn't even mention Bieksa.. this will be an interesting off season!

[dbutcher]

Bobby Sanguinetti???? not the most physical guy but look again at Stats in AHL. Look at clutch game winning goals.

This guy deserves a bridge contract and a legit try next year on the big club.

maybe i'm missing something or don't understand defensive talent.

Please educate me if you care to

[spook007]

Edler, Hammer and Juice are probably happy to wave. But they are unlikely to WAIVE their no trade clauses.

+1

[Shawndy]

As much as i'm not a fan of Bieksa and never have been i think they will keep him on his last year of his contract at 2.5 M and put him on the 3rd pairing. We still need to find a right shooting top 4 D man though

[DownUndaCanuck]

19th in the NHL in goals against. Anaheim were surprisingly pretty bad too, but their defence brings enough offence to off-set that imbalance. Ours brings nothing - no offence and average defence. We need to stop assuming that the Canuck defencemen are good - they aren't and the stats prove this. We've assumed guys like Bieksa are top 4 defencemen in this league because we play them 20 minutes a night but compared to the rest of the league, here's how I think our defence shakes down:

#1 Alex Edler - puts up 30-40 points a season consistently, solid defensively, brings a bit of physicality. Fantastic all-round defenceman, isn't flashy and doesn't excel particularly in any one aspect of the game. He is the Canucks #1 guy, but on a Cup contender he'd be the 3rd or 4th defenceman.

#2 Chris Tanev - doesn't put up much offence but is more sound defensively and makes a lot of good little plays. He's our 2nd best defenceman and future of this D, but on a deep contending defence he's the 4th guy and never would be given 22+ minutes or big dollars. Just being reliable defensively is decent but not enough for a fantastic defence with a couple of stars.

#3 Dan Hamhuis - scored 1 lowly goal all season long and his age started to show this season, but would be good even on a deep team still for the top-4, if not as a veteran bottom pairing defenceman.

#4 Kevin Bieksa - oh boy. Didn't score much, was pathetic defensively, most playoff teams would have him slotted in as the 5th or 6th defenceman and I doubt he even cracks a deep defence like say Nashville, Minnesota or Chicago's roster. However, because we have no top end quality Bieksa gets bumped up to our top-4.

#5 Luca Sbisa - scored a couple of big goals, played physically (but not very physically) and was nervous defensively all season long. On most teams he is the 7th man, just like the way he was being used in Anaheim, but again Vancouver use him consistently because they have no one else

#6 Weber - 11 goals was nice but most of them came with Henrik Sedin feeding him on the powerplay. To be honest just about any right handed shot could do the same thing under the same circumstances, only problem is we have between Weber, Bieksa and Tanev to do that job so Weber's the lucky one by default. This guy is probably a full time AHLer on most other teams and may have gotten 10-20 games due to injury relief, but on the Canucks he's a 60+ game mainstay.

#7 Ryan Stanton - no offence, his Corsi rating was shocking but he had a lovely +/- rating. I'd say he deserved to get a bit more of a shot but he played pretty badly at times and I think the Stanton experiment may well be over. He's a full time AHLer on most playoff teams and never even gets a sniff.

#8 Frank Corrado - having a strong AHL campagn but didn't do much with the NHL club so I won't even bother

#9 Clendening - as the two above him, other teams would leave him in the AHL for a very long time before he got a chance at the NHL level.

Basically we're 1 or 2 spots too shallow to contend in this league's playoffs. If we could somehow get a future stud defenceman into this lineup and slowly bump everyone down the depth chart over time we'd suddenly have a playoff-worthy defence. Here's something I'd love to see:

TO ANY TEAM WHO WILL TAKE HIM (cap dump): Kevin Bieksa

TO VAN: 2nd or 3rd round pick

TO BOS: Higgins + one of Clendening, Corrado, Subban, Stanton + 2nd round pick

TO VAN: Joe Morrow

SIGNING: Cody Franson, 2 years 4.6M

2015-2016 Defence:

Edler - Franson

Hamhuis - Tanev

Morrow - Sbisa

2018-2019 Defence (when we really want to be competing for the Cup):

Morrow - Tanev

Edler - Franson

Sbisa - Corrado

[snucks]

The D has to be the first priority after the coach and manager.

[gizmo2337]

D men don't grow on trees, we have to develop one from within our system. However, we don't have many picks, so you need to fix that problem first. The list I'd use as trade bait at the draft: Bonino, Kassian, Vey, Sbisa, Stanton, Clendening, Weber, Lack.

Corrado has shown flashes of being able to play the point on the PP. I wish we had better depth in the AHL to grow that part of his game.

[Alfred Compton]

It's kind of funny how many here think the D is the problem if you go to other non-Canucks centric podcasts a lot of people say one of Vancouver strengths is their defense.

Well having a d who's a Canadian olympian on your team does raise your profile a bit.

Our defense is good at pinching and creating scoring opportunities, and our forwards usually play an appropriately responsible defensive style by supporting the d when they do pinch, so there is something to admire, I'll give them that.

Also, they probably wont be saying much good stuff about our d if Hamuis doesn't resign next year.

[khay]

I really think we would've/could've have that "alpha defenceman", had Luc Bourdon still been alive (RIP). The guy was energetic, a hard-hitter, and had a wicked shot...he had so much potential out of any of our prospects at the time and was showing great signs of being a great player for us....

I agree 100% with everything you said.

You're right, our defence lacks that "stand-out" stud...

It's pathetic.

When you have players like Weber on the penalty kill and Sbisa racking up the minutes, both making high-light reel passes to the opposing players,

You know your defence sucks.

If Bourdon was in the lineup, we would've won the Stanley cup in 2011. The team took the series to game 7 despite losing the best defenceman in Hamhuis early in the series. The D core that season could've been:

Hamhuis-Bieksa

Edler-Salo

Bourdon-Ehrhoff

It was a sad day for the Canucks when the news came. The day he died, I was actually checking up on Bourdon's wikipedia page and at the end of the article, it said he passed away that very day. Since anyone can edit Wikipedia, I was thinking it must have been a joke by some idiot... it was a shock when this turned out to be true.

=====

Defence is one of those things that takes a while to get it right unless a player of Niedermayer's calibre wants to sign with you to play with his brother.

I don't think there is a UFA out there that wants to sign with us like Hamhuis and Garrison did. Franson coming from BC doesn't mean that he would be willing to leave money off the table to come play for us.

I think it's going to be a slow process. We are going to insert either Clendening or Corrado or both to the lineup and hope that they surprise us like Horvat did. The chances are that they will show good progress but won't be the fix for the defence right away. We will have to continue to draft and develop players and slowly bring them into the lineup. Unless the Canucks somehow stumbles upon Ekblad or Karlsson type player, there won't be a quick fix.

[aGENT]

Either Miller or Bieksa/Higgins need to go and use that cap space to sign Green (or a similar) D-man.

If Miller goes:

Edler, Green(?)

Sbisa, Tanev

Hamhuis, Bieksa

If Bieksa/Higgins go:

Edler, Green(?)

Hamhuis, Tanev

Sbisa, Corrado/Clendening/Weber

[combover]

All this hate for a 24 year young physical d-man that has upside. He made mistakes he's learning he's still young. I have more distain for vets like Hamhuis who was flat out awful down the stretch and looked lost in front of his net his total inability to handle the 18 year Bennett didn't make me think he was any better. Bieska like always high risk high reward except the rewards parts are getting fewer and fewer. Those that complain about sbisas contract should realize both Hamhuis and bieska get paid far more and have just as many gaffs if not more. You all want the youth movement but whine about the growing pains of teaching/ patience needed with the young guys. Players don't want to be somewhere that doesn't want them just ask garrison asking players to waive a ntc is the same as saying we do want you here. pretty easy to convince a guy its in his best interest to be traded when he watches more game than he plays.

[jijitsu]

[jijitsu]

name="CanuckofSteel" post="12760190" timestamp="1430129893"]

Kevin Bieksa needs to go, I've been saying this for awhile. I was pretty much alone in thinking that re-signing Bieksa was a mistake after the 2011 season, I was hoping to keep Ehrhoff over him.

Bieksa is a contract year player, he plays average to below average unless it is a contract year. Which means this upcoming season should be his best since 2011, but then everyone will be fooled into thinking he's good again and want him re-signed. Trade him on draft day, he's just a pylon on the ice.

Keep Edler, Tanev, and Hamhuis. Hamhuis isn't that bad, obviously his play has dipped since over the past few years. He has more value in having a leadership role in the backend and is much more stable than KB3.

Sbisa I'm extremely disappointed with but this was his first year here and we just extended him. Put him on the bottom pairing and recognize the type of partner he needs, from what I saw he's more of a frantic d-man and needs a stable/calm partner. Get Sbisa a level headed partner who can also get the puck out of our end.

I see next years d-pairings as:

Edler-Tanev
Hamhuis-?/Green*/Franson*
Sbisa-Corrado/?
Weber-Clendenning

*= UFA defenceman who play an offensive game better than Weber. I'd try to target Mike Green (Capitals) or Cody Franson (Predators).

Hopefully someone from within the organization surprises and we can promote someone from the minors, could be a guy like Biega, Pedan, Corrado, or Clendenning. Still would try to sign one of Green or Franson from FA for that offensive punch from the backend.

[TheAntar]

As soon as you are old enough to have an iPhone you will understand how proper gammer takes a backseat to efficiency.

That's spelling, not grammar. Just admit you learned something.

[PhillipBlunt]

Great responses. Don't get me wrong, I think half of the defense, namely Edler, Hamhuis, and Tanev are good enough to be in the playoffs. It's Bieksa, Weber, and especially Sbisa that irk me.

I'm tired of people stating that Sbisa is only 25 years old and that is why he's struggling. That's a pathetic excuse. Drew Doughty and P.K. Subban are 25, and Erik Karlsson is 24. These gentlemen seemed to have developed just fine by 25. Sbisa isn't very good at all. Benning signed him to save face from the Kesler trade. However being a smart GM, he offered him no clauses, and should ship him out if he doesn't drastically improve his game.

Bieksa has had his time and has been a great ambassador of Canucks hockey. However, things change and this team needs to open up spots for Corrado, Clendening, Hutton, Pedan, and the like. Bieksa is taking on of those spots. It's time to say goodbye to Juice.

Weber has heart, but is far too small to be effective. His shot is amazingly fast and accurate, when he gets it off. Outside of the that, he gets manhandled by large opposing forwards. Good player, positive guy but doesn't make sense in the West.

I want to see Corrado get a full shake. He looked like crap in the beginning of the season and at training camp, but was better than expected when he got called up.

Pedan needs to be given a shot to. This defense needs a monster with a temper. Pedan played games for the Islanders, it's time he gets a shake with the big team.

Desjardins make tonnes of rookie mistakes that cost the team a couple of games as well. But he's a rookie this year. This time next year he won't have that same excuse.

[desiboynux4lifee*******]

Edler - won't wave.

Tanev - new contract and plays well with Edler.

Hammer- won't wave.

Juice - won't wave.

Sbisa - new contract.

Weber - the only NHL ready Dman we have that can shoot on the PP.

Corrado - ready for bottom pairing role but redundant skill set.

Clendening - RFA, who is not ready to replace weber

Stanton - took a step back this year.

We have this D core until contracts start expiring so enjoy the ride folks.

Enjoy the empty seats Alquinni. If no moves are made on defence, I find it hard seeing this team having sell outs. I think fans this year have seen what the defence is and change is needed. That's up to Benning how he gets it done and no ty to Weber.

[Grand17]

I thought Sbisa was our worst D all year and the playoffs. I think the poor play we saw from Bieksa in the playoffs was only because his partner Sbisa is so awful.