Canucks Free Agent Frenzy Recap: Rearranging the Deck Chairs

8 years ago

In terms of volume, the Vancouver Canucks were reasonably active on the opening morning of unrestricted free agency, making four signings and a depth trade to shore up their roster for next season. They added some much-needed depth to their blueline, and dealt from a position of strength to address a position of need. It could have been a good, productive day for the team…

…had they not made a questionable decision in trading a young and improving asset for a much older one that’s just a year away from depreciating into nothing thanks to unrestricted free agency.

There were some positives and some negatives today, so we’ll go over what went down after the jump.

Yannick Weber re-signed

Vancouver began the morning with a tidy bit of housekeeping, getting UFA D Yannick Weber under contract for another year at one million dollars. In doing so, the Canucks brought back one of their better powerplay threats on the back end and averted a potentially messy situation they created by declining to tender the Swiss defender a qualifying offer.

Given Benning’s insistence that they were going to get Weber signed, it’s not a surprising move, but still encouraging. Weber isn’t fantastic in his own end, but can provide a net benefit through his puck moving and powerplay utility, and $1.5 million for one year is a low-risk low-commitment deal that makes this a good value signing.

Weber could potentially slot in to Vancovuer’s top-4 next season playing along side Dan Hamhuis with Kevin Bieksa now in Anaheim, and will likely get extended time on the powerplay. He’s also a bit of an insurance blanket should one of Frank Corrado or Adam Clendening prove unable to handle the NHL this year.

Yannick Weber isn’t a number-4 D on a good team, but the Canucks aren’t a good team. Still, he helps with blueline mobility and doesn’t carry a contract so onerous that he’ll prevent the Canucks from improving their roster elsewhere going forwards. He’ll have a good chance to carve out a name for himself early in the year with powerplay reps, and if both Adam Clendening and Frank Corrado perform well, is a prime candidate to be dealt ahead of the deadline for a draft pick to preserve a good deal of future value for the Canucks.

Matt Bartkowski Signed

Generally, high profile UFAs have their best years behind them and are being paid for name recognition rather than what they’re actually contributing, so the most prudent course of action when free agency opens is usually sitting around and dipping into the bargain bin every now and then. The Canucks did so, acquiring mobile transitional defender Matt Bartkowski on a one-year contract at $1.75 million.

Similar to players like Chris Tanev and Anton Stralman, Bartkowski brings significant defensive value but does so in a fairly non-traditional sense. He’s not the big, clear-the-front, nasty-in-the-corners, overpower-your-opponents type, but he’s quick and smart and willing to bump and grind.

Despite never having scored a goal in the regular season of his NHL career, he produces offense at a credible and about NHL-average rate for defenders. The term is good and the money’s a little much considering Ryan Stanton’s numbers since the beginning of his NHL career are similar and Stanton is also younger, but Bartkowski should be an upgrade on Stanton’s 2014-15 year. The money is also pretty negligible since the term and overall financial commitment is so small, so this is a minor concern more than anything.

We’ve looked at Bartkowski’s fit in Vancouver back in January, when the Zack Kassian trade rumours first started kicking up. Here’s what we said then:

Frequent observers of the Bruins tell me that Bartkowski is prone to making the big mistake, so he’d be somewhat similar to Luca Sbisa in that regard, but he’s otherwise a solid defender that many believe should be in the Bruins lineup over more frequently used Kevan Miller. His possession numbers seem to support this too – he’s a 53.3% Corsi player over his past 84 games in a depth role compared to Miller’s 50.1%.
He is a negative for CorsiRel however, but some of that can be attributed to Zdeno Chara seeing the ice the majority of the time when Bartkowski was on the bench. In terms of Stephen Burtch’s dCorsi metric, Bartkowski has basically had a negligible effect on what’s expected from an average player in his role, indicating that he’s roughly an average to slightly above average puck possession player.
Bartkowski has been fairly effective at pitching in on offense too, despite having never scored a regular season NHL goal. His assist rate is very good, as his 0.9 A/60 ranks him 1st on the Bruins since the beginning of last season, and also would rank him 1st on the Canucks in the same time frame by a considerable margin, though this is likely inflated by a very favourable 9.1% on-ice shooting percentage.
All in all, it sounds like Bartkowski is the lite-version of the player Keith Ballard was supposed to be, which is a mobile and physical two-way guy that can help out a little bit in all facets of the game. Put it all together, and you a picture of a very serviceable second-pair guy on most teams.

I’d argue that Bartkowski is a significant upgrade on Luca Sbisa right now and should slot in as the #3 left defenseman on Vancouver’s depth chart behind Alex Edler and Dan Hamhuis, but given the financial commitment the team has (pretty foolishly) made to Sbisa, I can’t see that happening.

Bartkowski does help the Canucks get better and more mobile though, and he’s a good depth pickup that could be a valuable asset when injuries inevitably hit.

Comets bolstered with Bachman and Fedun

Richard Bachman stood on his head against Utica in the playoffs with Benning in attendance, so it’s no wonder that Vancouver’s GM targeted the veteran AHLer to split starts with Joe Cannata in Utica’s crease. Bachman is probably an upgrade on Joacim Eriksson at the AHL level and has seen NHL time, but he’s performed like a credible 3rd-stringer in his limited NHL action. If Miller or Markstrom goes down, Bachman could see spot NHL duty, but it’s more likely he’s in the organization solely to give the Comets some solid AHL starts.

Taylor Fedun is a little more interesting, as the mobile right-handed defender has flashed some decent offensive ability at the AHL and NHL level. The 27-year old right handed D has close to a 50% Fenwick in his 11 career NHL games to go along with 2 goals and 4 assists. Nothing earth-shattering, but maybe there’s a big of low-end NHL upside there.

Unfortunately, Fedun slots in behind Corrado, Clendening, and probably Alex Biega on the right-handed depth chart and isn’t likely to see NHL ice this season, barring unforeseen circumstances. He’ll be a valuable contributor to the Utica Comets, as he’ll help offset the graduation of Vancouver’s young defenders to the NHL.

Zack Kassian traded for Brandon Prust

In his biggest move of the day, Jim Benning sold low on Zack Kassian, dealing him and a 5th round pick in 2016 to Montreal in exchange for credible NHL pugilist Brandon Prust. Kassian hadn’t grown as hoped in Vancouver, and seemed to take a step back from becoming a more well-rounded and reliable middle-6 forward this past season, perhaps in part to a fairly significant back injury.

Kassian was a surplus asset on the Canucks while Prust fills a need at left wing, but the net benefit Prust will provide should be marginal at best. It will cost Vancouver an extra $700,000 in cap space, the rights to an RFA-protected asset, and a low-value lottery ticket that they really didn’t need to burn. We knew that Vancouver has been trying to move Kassian for nearly anything for a while now, so a pretty low-value return shouldn’t come as a surprise.

This is a bad process trade for sure – the Canucks burned a non-insignificant amount of future value in a young asset, a draft pick, and cap liquidity that they really didn’t need to – but it really amounts to shuffling the deck chairs come October. Prust brings something different than Kassian, and while it may be a thing that’s more satisfying to some, it’s not clearly better. This is likely a lateral move today, with the added cost of hampering the Canucks’ long term future by some unknown small amount.

Kassian was a damaged asset so this deal doesn’t deserve some of the scorn it’s received, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not a good one for Jim Benning and company.

Looking Forward

The opening of free agency is just that: a beginning of a period of roster moves rather than an ending. There’s a lot of summer left between now and October, so I highly doubt the Canucks are done yet. In the big picture, none of today’s moves will fundamentally alter the trajectory of the Canucks, nor will they significantly help or harm the team going into next season. The Canucks this evening are essentially the same team as the Canucks last night, and that could be a good or bad thing depending on what you were expecting to happen and your views on free agent frenzy day.

With Brad Richardson heading to the desert, Benning will also have to find another centreman somewhere, unless he’s set on having Linden Vey take faceoffs and handle that defensive responsibility once again. There are a number of potential low-cost options out there that should be able to handle a fourth line role, but it remains to be seen whether there will be enough cap space left after Clendening, Corrado, Baertschi, and Grenier get contracts.

The Canucks did address a need to get more mobile on the blueline today, and they also addressed the need for a credible NHL left winger, but there are still more holes in their roster that need filling. Given the team’s cap situation, Benning will undoubtedly look for short-term, low-cost solutions rather than swinging for an Antoine Vermette.

With a group of high-priced players scheduled to come off the books by next July 1st, the team also appears to be trying to position themselves for the 2016 free agent crop that includes Anze Kopitar, Jakub Voracek, David Backes, Kyle Okposo, Andrew Ladd, Milan Lucic, and Brent Seabrook by not committing term to players, but this theory could go out the window should Prust receive a contract extension like Derek Dorsett’s rather than being dealt at the trade deadline for draft picks.

Despite the ill-advised roster moves that have characterized the post-trade deadline Canucks, a plan may be appearing to take shape. Whether it’s being executed properly or is even the right plan is a debate for another day.