Free Agency Mailbag: The Future on Defense, Predicting the Canucks’ Record, and What to Expect From Tyler Myers

It is. That has more to do with the pieces that have been subtracted then the ones that have been added, but the good news is that the Canucks did not just shell out over 8 million dollars a year in cap space to get worse. Tyler Myers and Jordie Benn are a step up from Ben Hutton and Erik Gudbranson, even if Myers in particular is not worth his cap hit.

On paper, the improvements to the back end should be enough to net the Canucks a couple more wins next seasons. The issue is that they still look like they’ll be heavily reliant on Alex Edler and Chris Tanev, who are both declining and injury-prone. If those trends continue, the Canucks could get worse results from their D-core then last year simply because their top pairing is another year older. I lean towards it being a slight improvement over last season, though.

Something along the lines of:

Baertschi-Pettersson-Boeser

Miller-Horvat-Pearson

Leivo-Sutter-Virtanen

Roussel-Beagle-Motte

Schaller, Goldobin

I’d suspect Eriksson is gone one way or another, and Gaudette is a victim of the numbers game seeing as how he’s waiver-exempt. They might end up waiving one of Schaller or Goldobin as well if no other changes are made and they decide to roll with eight defensemen. In that case, I think they’d probably waive Schaller because he’s less likely to get claimed, but I could see Goldobin getting waived, too. It will depend on how camp goes for both players.

The Canucks are in better shape, I think. The early 2010’s Oilers didn’t have a defensive prospect like Hughes and the power structure in Vancouver is less entrenched then it is in Edmonton, especially with Linden gone.

The bar should be higher than “better than the 2014 Edmonton Oilers”, though. Saying that the Canucks are in an ever-so-slightly better position than they were is not an endorsement.

I’m wholeheartedly in favour of this, if only because it’s goofy and off-beat, much like Luongo is. Vancouver also has a history of being a weird franchise and at this point they’d be better off leaning into it than shying away from it. It’ll never happen, though. It’s too out there and putting a guy’s name on a tombstone when he’s still alive seems like it’s in poor taste.

There’s just too many bodies and those players aren’t exactly the kind you lose sleep over jettisoning. I’m willing to hear arguments about who else they should have let go, but they simply couldn’t come back with all the same forwards under contract. Someone had to go, and Kero and Gaunce make as much sense as anyone else.

No. It’s a reasonable deal and he’s the closest they have to a star. If they can’t afford to pay him they can’t afford to pay anybody.

I think this is the best call, too. Tanev’s just not really able to hold down a top-pairing role anymore; he’s too brittle. It’ll never happen, though. If he’s healthy, expect him and Alex Edler to be the team’s top pairing on opening night until someone else plays well enough to take the job away from them.

If they’re way out of a playoff spot, I’m not sure he’ll still have a job. I’m under the impression his future with the organization is contingent on the team making the playoffs. He won’t be extended until they reach that goal, which may not happen. I know I’m skeptical.

I’m inclined to agree. Elias Pettersson might improve a little bit, and they’ll get a full season of Quinn Hughes, as well as a slightly improved back end. That’s probably enough to earn them 40 wins if everyone stays fairly healthy and everything shakes right. That’s unlikely to happen, though.

My best guess is that the goaltending will come back to earth a bit, we’ll see injuries to Edler and Tanev again, and possibly to another key player at some point during the season as well. That probably puts them somewhere in the neighbourhood of 37-39 wins. If any of their players take a step back or J.T. Miller doesn’t come as advertised, then things could really go off the rails. On paper, they should be better next year, but I won’t be at all surprised if they’re spinning their wheels again, either.

At his very best, Myers was a decent 4-5 on a very deep team, racking up loads of assists playing with a stacked forward lineup. The Canucks don’t have the kind of offensive depth the Jets have had over the last couple of years and are expecting him to play higher up the lineup, so I’m not sure he can recreate the limited success he had in Winnipeg. At best, he can probably be a stop-gap option in the top four, hopefully not get totally caved in, and then transition into a sheltered bottom-pairing role as the Canucks improve their offensive depth both at forward and on the blue line. Assuming everything works out, that makes him an expensive bottom-pairing D with a bit of mobility, assuming he doesn’t fall off a cliff, which seems unlikely given his age, size, and play style.

I think at absolute best, we’re looking at a decent-but-overpaid third pair D who can technically play in the top four but won’t produce good results if everything goes swimmingly. It’s not a great outlook given the money and term they committed to him, but it’s nothing new. The Canucks have had such an awful track record with defensemen since Mike Gillis was fired that this signing doesn’t even register as a bad one to most fans. With any luck, there will be a new GM within the next year or two who can get out from under the contract with some deft negotiating before it gets too onerous.