Canucks Army Monday Mailag: June 12th – Part Deux

The Canucks have access to all the same underlying metrics that we do. In fact, I seem to recall The Province’s Jason Botchford pointing out in one of The Provies articles that the Canucks have access to this data in their locker rooms for the players after the games — whether it’s Corsi, Fenwick, zone starts, etc.

I’m not convinced they put a tonne of weight in these metrics. Former Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins had zero interest in analytics, and I think we all know how much weight the Canucks’ front office places in them at this stage — not an awful lot.

As an aside, I think that one should use analytics in their day-to-day hockey operations, but a front office isn’t inherently bad by virtue of not using these tools. Former Arizona Coyotes general manager Don Maloney did a bang-up job, and was never too heavily invested in this data. The same goes for Bob Murray in Anaheim; I know he’s not heavily invested in analytics for a fact, but I’ll be damned if he isn’t still one of the best in the business.

I’m going to assume that “warehouse” in this context means trading for a player whose team can’t spare a protection slot for him. I don’t hate the idea. First, the Canucks need to free up some spaces to protect that player though. I’m not certain the Canucks have the space on either their backend or their forward group to make it happen. That, and if I’m the team that needs to make this trade, I don’t see why I don’t just hand the Vegas Golden Knights an asset to convince them not to take that player.

I don’t think this scenario works, for several reasons. Firstly, the New Jersey Devils would never make that trade. Secondly, protecting Luca Sbisa has nothing to do with whether the Canucks expose Brandon Sutter or not — although, I have to admit, the Canucks would do well to get out from that Sutter contract. And lastly, the Canucks just shouldn’t sign Ryan Miller to an extension. He had a great season, but he’s a 37-year-old goaltender. Rebuilding teams don’t usually have a 37-year-old goaltender.

Something tells me that Benning isn’t the most avid reader of Canucks Army, which puts me at a significant disadvantage when it comes to convincing him of anything. If I see him in Chicago, though, I’ll be sure to let him know my thoughts about this whole ordeal, and how desperately he needs to trade Chris Tanev for the sake of the rebuild