Welcome to the yearly wrap up of the top read articles over the last year!
As free agency and the draft all but wrapped up in the middle of October, Stephan Roget took a look at some defencemen still available.
The article became the eighth most-read piece this year.
Roget broke down a number of players that fell into different categories.
First, being the dwindling UFA market. There, he listed these players as guys the Canucks could’ve had interest in: Alex Pietrangelo, Sami Vatanen, Travis Hamonic and Erik Gustafsson.
On the trade market he highlighted the following: Nate Schmidt, Matt Dumba, David Savard, MacKenzie Weegar, Adam Larsson, Damon Severson, Shayne Gostisbehere and Haydn Fleury. The Canucks did end up trading for Schmidt.
Lastly, he look at offer sheet potential for Erik Cernak and Mikhail Sergachev.
Here’s some of what he wrote:
Chris Tanev and Troy Stecher’s departures — to the Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings, respectively — hurt the Vancouver Canucks and their fans for a multitude of reasons, but none more so than the gaping hole left on the right side of the blueline.
As of right now, the Canucks are set to head into the 2020/21 season with Tyler Myers as the only permanent fixture on the right side, with names like Jordie Benn, Brogan Rafferty, and Jalen Chatfield in the mix to join him.
Clearly, that’s not going to cut it.
Many of the names that were once suggested as potential replacements are already off the market.
Even if he doesn’t keep up with #Canucks Twitter — and we sincerely hope he doesn’t — GM Jim Benning is no doubt feeling the pressure to add a top-four defender before the list of available players shrinks even further.
On Twitter: @zjlaing