The Vancouver Canucks, hamstrung financially and short of options, came to Matt Bartkowski in free agency hoping to unearth the defender that ate big minutes in the Boston Bruins top four en route to a Stanley Cup appearance.

That is to say that Canucks general manager Jim Benning bet on the mostly positive knowledge he had of Bartkowski’s game as a member of the Bruins himself against a rough 2014-15 season to the contrary. Though Bartkowski never found his footing in Vancouver, there were brief enough glimpses of what might have driven his favourable outputs in seasons prior. Chief among them, his ability to carry the puck.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, that’s the good – and all of the good, too. The thin veneer his nifty footwork afforded him cracked endlessly as the end-to-end rushes turned to goals against and a skyward glare thereafter. Coyote ugly as this was to the naked eye, it’s not like the underlying data did him any favours, either.

Then again, Beth Bartkowski’s TV appearances might have made all the turnovers worth it…

If Canucks fans had any real, tangible concerns about Bartkowski’s arrival in Vancouver, it was that the trend was bucked, and in a big way (all things being relative) this season, as Bartkowski set a new high in goals, six times over. He also managed to tie his career high in points, with 18 of the sort.

Bartkowski used to be a strong possession player. Well, perhaps that’s misleading… in his first full season, he was a very strong possession player, then he fell off the season after and again this year. The Canucks bled shot attempts with Bartkowski on the ice, surrendering 58.7 CA60. That didn’t help his cause.

Not a particularly good look. Bartkowski’s -6.99 Gf%Rel is the lowest among regular Canuck defenders.

The Canucks as a team struggled to control scoring chance differential at even strength, so that should be kept in mind when observing Bartkowski’s 41.8% SCF%. His relative mark, while still terrible, isn’t quite as pungent, at -4.3% SCF%Rel.

I don’t know what I can add to the discussion that hasn’t already been covered by Jeremy Davis in his expansive piece on Bartkowski’s struggles, written towards the end of the season...

Bartkowski is a nice guy, by all accounts a good teammate, and his mom is fantastic. However, this is a business, and removing Bartkowski is a clear cut case of addition by subtraction. It’s what it best for the team, and it’s likely that every other defenceman is going to benefit from by no longer playing with him.

So I won’t add anything at all.