Trade Deadline 2013: Finding a Defenseman

I wrote last week about some centers who the Canucks could potentially have interest in (David Steckel was one of them, and he has since been traded to the Anaheim Ducks). Defensemen are the focus of today. The Canucks quite obviously need another defenseman. Ideally a right-handed shooter, but the team could probably use an upgrade regardless of what side they play on.

Who are some defensemen that the Canucks could target?

There are a few ways the Canucks could balance their pairings. It would be safe to assume that Keith Ballard will be bought out this summer, assuming the team can’t or doesn’t trade him at the deadline or in the offseason.

These aren’t the only options for defensive pairings, of course.

Dan Hamhuis – Jason Garrison

Alex Edler – Kevin Bieksa

Keith Ballard – Chris Tanev

Andrew Alberts

With this option, the Canucks don’t “need” to acquire a defenseman play significant minutes. The Edler-Bieksa pairing may be a bit of a risk to roll with against teams with three strong scoring units (too bad Hamhuis can’t be cloned).

Dan Hamhuis – Kevin Bieksa

Alex Edler – Chris Tanev

Jason Garrison – trade

Andrew Alberts/Keith Ballard

The Canucks wouldn’t love the ide of a $4.2 million healthy scratch (Ballard), but they:

This would also give the Canucks three strong pairings, and Garrison/Edler would both play on their natural left sides (although Garrison has looked fine on the right side with Hamhuis). The Canucks have five top four defensemen (I’d consider Chris Tanev a top four defenseman on most NHL clubs), but they need to get the right fit to really balance the pairings (something that has been lacking for more than a year now).

Before I get into looking at some defensemen who could potentially be made available, I want to preface my analysis with an explanation for why I used certain statistics. Corsi Rel QoC isn’t a completely accurate measure of competition quality, but it does a good job of comparing players on the same team, but there are a lot of variables at play when comparing defensemen from different teams. Like all standard/advanced statistics, it has its limitations.

And the Corsi Relative rating is very dependant on other things. Of the defensemen below, Dan Boyle has far and away the highest Corsi Relative rating. In this case, it is because he is the best defenseman on this list. But it is also due to his easy competition (a Corsi Rel QoC rating of 0) and his offensive zone start percentage. Mike Weaver and Stephane Robidas both do a pretty good job in very difficult defensive situations (on bad defensive hockey clubs).

Streit would fill a huge need on the power play. Even at 34, he is still one of the best defensemen in the league at quarterbacking the man-advantage. The Islanders may look to move him if they can find a way to re-up Lubomir Visnovsky beyond this season. Streit wouldn’t come cheap, though.

I don’t see Dallas moving Robidas, as he has been a fantastic mentor for young Brenden Dillon, and they need to keep at least a few veterans around (look for them to move Derek Roy and Brenden Morrow, to name two). Robidas is a right shot, he plays the right side, and he can play whatever role is asked of him. He is small but tough as nails, and he is under contract for one more year.

Would Dallas have interest in a Keith Ballard + for Robidas swap? Ballard is much younger, and Ballard could benefit tremendously from a fresh start. Tought o imagine Dallas spending any assets to acquire a player they’ll probably be able to sign at a bargain basement rate this summer though…

Weaver and Garrison combined to form one of the league’s best shutdown pairings back in 2010-11. The familiarity would go a long way to help establish a very rock solid shut down pairing in Vancouver. Would Florida move Weaver, though? He is on a very affordable contract and they have a lot of young defensemen coming up who will need some help along the way (Erik Gudbranson, Colby Robak, and Alex Petrovic, to name three).

Leopold is an understated two-way defenseman who can skate and move the puck.  The Sabres are getting close to complete fire sale mode, and Leopold is a likely candidate to be shipped out of town. He would help bring some depth and stability to Vancouver’s second or third pairing. Can he play the right side? Is he the kind of defenseman the Canucks want to bring in? Gillis seems to have a good relationship with Darcy Regier, so don’t be surprised to see these two clubs talk trade again.

The biggest fish available – Vancouver can’t compete with the Rangers (another team rumoured to have interest in Boyle) in terms of providing the best value, as the Rangers have a better prospect pool and more young talent in the NHL, as well. Boyle would be a perfect fit for this team though – he is a natural PP quarterback (there aren’t many of them in the league), he shoots right, he plays the right side, and he has a lot of big game experience. If the Canucks want to go all-in either this season or next (and I am of the mindset that they should with Daniel and Henrik entering their twilight years), Boyle makes a ton of sense for the Canucks. He wouldn’t be a pure deadline rental, and he is the kind of player that you don’t mind overpaying for (in terms of assets).

This list is far from comprehensive. We didn’t even touch on the Maple Leafs, who are still probably the Roberto Luongo frontrunners. Nazem Kadri is definitely off the trade market now (if he was ever on it, we won’t know). How about Jake Gardiner? The Canucks could bring back someone like JM Liles (who has been awful this year) and hope he can find his game once again. Liles has three years left on a contract that pays him $3.8 million per.

There will be a lot of options for Gillis at the deadline in a few weeks. The defense probably needs an upgrade, and even then this team will be in tough to come out of a seven game series against the likes of Chicago, Anaheim, or Los Angeles.