The Alex Biega story took another turn for the better this season, as the career minor leaguer transitioned into a full-time role as a depth defender with the Vancouver Canucks. And all it took was nearly 350 AHL contests within three separate organizations.
Rare are the AHL journeymen that play their rookie season in the NHL at the age of 27. Especially so for Biega, who’s frame doesn’t match that of a prototypical stay-at-home defenceman — Biega is listed, generously, at 5’10” 187 lbs. 

HERO Chart

Crunching Numbers

Boxcars:

Though Biega qualified for rookie status this season, it is worth noting that the depth defender suited up in seven games for the Canucks in the 2014-15 season. In that season, Biega scored his first career goal to put away the Minnesota Wild. This season was another of firsts, as Biega potted his first assist, then another six, before the season’s conclusion.
Corsi:

Biega was, at one point, in the bottom three of nearly every underlying shot-based metric we have at our disposal. By season’s end, though, Biega had climbed to a respectable 47% Corsi For with a CF%Rel of 1.8%. Hard to say what changed. Using the SuperWOWY tool at www.Puckalytics.com, I found there was no appreciable change in defensive partner from the beginning of the season to the finish.
Goal based:

That is about as inoffensive a stat line as humanly possible. I mean, a 45% Goals For% sucks in and of itself. One has to remember that Biega earned that mark playing on a team that struggled immensely to control scoring, which softens the blow ever so slightly. Biega’s GF%Rel of 0 indicates he wasn’t a drag on the Canucks ability to control scoring, at the very least. That’s value added from someone who should be a seventh or eighth defenceman.
Scoring chances:

The Canucks, poor as they are through the lens of most underlying data, are especially bad as a team at controlling scoring chances. This means that Biega’s SCF%Rel of 1.2% covers much of the ground lost by his 44.3% raw totals.

Conclusion

Biega is an excellent story, of this much there is no doubt. There are moments, though, when one might reasonably wonder whether he’s an NHL defenceman. And if so, in what capacity? Can the Canucks as a team expect reliable team defence with Biega on their third pairing?
The likely answer to most of those questions is no. Biega probably isn’t a regular NHL defenceman and it doesn’t serve the Canucks interests to deploy him as such. You can do a lot worse for an eighth or ninth defenceman, though.  
Biega’s future then comes into question given the proverbial logjam of younger, more preferable options already committed to for next season and beyond. Most of which are waiver eligible going into next season. It’s a lot easier to sell losing 28-year-old Biega on waivers than 23-year-old Andrey Pedan. By that same token, Biega’s newly minted contract extension, of the one-way variety no less, all but ensures he clears waivers anyway.
Then again, who wants to be the guy betting against Biega? All he’s done to this point in his career is prove people wrong and it’s entirely possible he’ll continue to do so and carve out a full-time role in the NHL for next season and beyond.