Photo Credit: Ed Mulholland/USA TODAY Sports

The Vancouver Canucks ranked 28th in the NHL in faceoff winning percentage last season, which is to say that the club wasn’t very good at all at winning draws.

When the best faceoff man on your team is a 19-year-old, that’s generally a problem.

Faceoff wins aren’t the be all and end all in hockey, and their impact is often overstated. Still you’d like to start with the puck more often than not, and this is an area where the Canucks might reasonably target a player that can help them this summer.

Let’s look at some relatively affordable options that are primed to be available in unrestricted free agency.

Matt Cullen built a solid NHL career as a somewhat undersized, skilled pivot. As he became a more veteran player, Cullen became a demon in the faceoff circle.

Over the past five seasons Cullen hasn’t dropped below 53 percent in the faceoff circle. Though he was mostly used on the wing with the Nashville Predators this past year, he still won 155 of the 287 faceoffs he took (good for a 54 percent win rate). He was particularly sturdy in his own end of the rink too, and those draws are often the hardest to win. 

Of the 124 defensive-zone faceoffs that Cullen took for the Predators this past season, he won 79 of them, for a ridiculous 63.7 percent win rate.

The 38-year-old is getting up there and his offensive production has atrophied somewhat with age. He also struggled to stay healthy and battled a variety of upper- and lower-body ailments this season, appearing in only 62 games. When he’s in the lineup he remains a solid defensive contributor at 5-on-5 though, and if teams are leery of his precipitous drop in point production and his age, he could be available on the cheap this summer. 

If the dollars make sense, Cullen would certainly solidify Vancouver’s centre depth and help them enormously in the circle.

Trevor Smith, 30, played his first full year of NHL hockey last season and held down a fourth-line centre role for a very bad Toronto Maple Leafs team. 

A productive offensive player throughout his AHL career, Smith’s offensive game hasn’t translated at the NHL level, and at his age it’s likely it never will. In his first time as a full time NHL player with the Maple Leafs, Smith produced offense at a replacement level rate (though he’s got a really good shot, he rarely found the space and time to use it). 

Lack of production aside, Smith posted some respectable results in a bottom-of-the-roster role for the Maple Leafs, and was particularly useful in the face-off circle. Though his impact on the club’s ability to generate shot attempts was in the red (which is to be expected of a fourth-liner on the fringes of the NHL), he had a slight positive impact on Toronto’s even strength shot suppression.

Most importantly from the perspective of this super informative listicle, Smith was dynamite in the faceoff circle. 

The BCHL veteran won 52.2 percent of his faceoffs last season, and was particularly good in his own end of the rink. Smith managed to win 52.6 percent of the defensive zone draws that he took at 5-on-5 last season, and was the 17th best faceoff man (minimum 100 even-strength defensive zone draws) at limiting opponent’s shots on goal in the 10 seconds following a faceoff in their own end, according to faceoffs.net. His results in this one area of the game compare favourably with the likes of Manny Malhotra, Jordan Staal and Brandon Dubinsky.

If Smith hits the open market, he’ll likely be available for close to the minimum. In his limited time in the NHL, he’s flashed the sort of defensive chops that might suggest that he could out-perform a low-cost, one-way contract.

Mark Letestu, 30, didn’t establish himself as a full-time NHL player until he was 26-years-old. He’s been able to hold down an NHL job since then though because he’s become something of a multi-faceted specialist. Namely, he wins draws and he scores in the shootout.

Those are useful traits, and he could be a helpful addition at a modest price point.

Letestu managed a 52.9 percent faceoff win rate this past season, which would’ve ranked him first among all Canucks centremen. He won even strength defensive zone draws at a tidy clip last season (54.9 percent), although the Blue Jackets got pulverized in the ten seconds following his defensive zone faceoffs, according to faceoffs.net. In fact, he was only modestly better than Linden Vey at suppressing shots following defensive zone draws…

In addition to his proficiency in the circle and the skills competition – and Letestu has converted on well over 40 percent of his 26 shootout takes in his career – the fourth-line forward is a very credible defensive player. Though he’s certainly a bottom-of-the-roster caliber offensive presence, he’s generated 5-on-5 offense at a solid rate for a bottom-of-the-roster piece and has had a pretty decent impact on the defensive play of his teams.

The Canucks, and other NHL clubs, should be wary about committing term to a 30-year-old fourth liner, which should go without saying. On a short-term contract though Letestu could prove a sensible addition, and would certainly help stabilize the club’s depth down the middle of their forward group.

In looking to address their faceoff woes, the Canucks could explore some affordable options on the free agent market. Or, alternatively, they could look to address their issues on the draft floor in Sunrise, Fla. later this month.

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