Canucks Army Monday Mailbag: September 19th

I just spent the weekend-plus in Penticton for the Young Stars Tournament and the World Cup of Hockey is in the round-robin stage of the tournament. All this is to say that we’re so, so damn close to the regular season.

Which is great, because I’m really itching for some Canucks hockey, to be perfectly frank. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the summer and the weather and all that fine stuff. Barbecuing is great. But I follow the Canucks closely and write about them daily. It’d be nice if I had new stuff to write about, you know?

Anyways, it’s that time of the week. You know the drill.

Frankly, the Canucks’ short-term ambitions are best served with both of these players in the lineup. It’s not a matter of getting them the ice-time for their development’s sake. They’re legitimately NHL ready. If pressed, I’d find a way to accommodate Jake Virtanen ahead of Brendan Gaunce, though.

Virtanen brings certain elements of the game on a nightly basis that are just otherwise absent from the Canucks lineup. He’s fast, young, brings it on the forecheck and has a positive possession impact. If Virtanen can read the game better and pick up a thing or two from the Sedins, he might develop into a useful middle six player offensively. The Canucks need those in the worst way.

nobody saw this coming.

The ideal second line, in my humble opinion, is Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat and Anton Rodin. Hell, we could call it the “Hope Line”. You know, because the Canucks hope of making the playoffs rests on their ability to find secondary scoring from unproven young players, and that’s about three of them.

As for the eighth defenceman, I think you’ve got it all wrong. Here’s how I see their depth chart shaking out, in this exact order: Chris Tanev, Alex Edler, Ben Hutton, Erik Gudbranson, Philip Larsen, Luca Sbisa, Nikita Tryamkin. I’m not entirely sure how the order shakes out, but I’d imagine the Canucks have Andrey Pedan and Alex Biega pencilled into the seventh and eighth spots respectively. 

I wouldn’t say I feel great about it. Like, Luca Sbisa is a genuinely nice person and by all accounts a class act. He’s a really easy person to get behind. It kind of sucks that he’s not particularly good at this hockey thing. Doesn’t mean I revel in his shortcomings. In this case, I really do wish we were wrong more. Would love to see the guy succeed. 

Interesting choice of hashtag. I’m probably most excited by Hunter Shinkaruk. I had really high hopes for him going into last season and was frustrated as all hell that he never had an opportunity to prove his worth. In the context that they traded him for a player I’m not convinced is an NHL’er, that makes it especially awful.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Canucks have considered just that. They’ve clearly identified secondary scoring as an area of need going into this season. They have a glut of left-handed defenceman, though none as good as Alexander Edler, save for Alexander Edler. If Olli Juolevi surprises at camp, though, they might be able to withstand Edler’s loss.