Today, we’re looking into the play of 6’7″, 226-lb defensive defenceman Vincent Desharnais.

Cauncks fans and players have seen their fair share of the tall defenceman, playing him four times in the regular season and seven times in the playoffs. General Manager Patrik Allvin must have liked what he saw in those games as they signed him to a two-year deal worth $4 million a few hours into free agency on July 1st.

Desharnais, 28, is a stay-at-home defenceman who excels on the penalty kill. Last year with Edmonton, Desharnais played the fourth most penalty-killing minutes for the Oilers in the regular season, averaging 2:02 minutes per game. He would improve on his average come playoff time, leading his team with 2:57 shorthanded minutes per game.

The former seventh-round pick puts all of his efforts into the defensive side of his game. Desharnais scored one goal and 11 points in 78 games last season, averaging bottom-pairing (15:44) minutes per game. After the Canucks series, Desharnais started off the Western Conference finals with three straight games with a minus rating, earning him a seat in the press box.

The Quebec native sat out the next four games before drawing back into the lineup. However, his return was short-lived, as Desharnais stayed in the press box for the remaining five games of the Stanley Cup finals. He finished the 2024 playoff run with one assist and a minus-nine rating in 16 games.

While it wasn’t an ideal end of the season for Desharnais, Allvin thinks he has some untapped potential that the Canucks are hoping to get out of him with their coaching staff.

“After talking to Desharnais this morning, we felt that there was even more upside,” Allvin said in his July 1st media availability. “He hasn’t been in the league for a long time, and with the coaches that I have here in Adam Foote and Sergei Gonchar, I believe they can help him get to the next level.”

Well, why don’t we examine the first four games of the Vancouver/Edmonton series and dissect the defensive game of the Canucks’ newest penalty-killing specialist, Vincent Desharnais?

This is a small clip, but it shows that while Desharnais doesn’t necessarily have the foot speed to keep up with young speedsters like Nils Höglander, he uses his physicality and long stick to poke the puck away from him along the boards to his teammate for a clear out of the zone.

It’s a shame when big players don’t use their bodies as a defensive strategy. Well, luckily for Canucks fans, Desharnais uses his. Watch how Brock Boeser sets up as a screen for the goaltender. Once Elias Pettersson has possession down low, Desharnais steps in front of Boeser and uses his rear end to push back and completely eliminate him from the play.

With Mattias Ekholm now challenging Pettersson, taking away Boeser really only gives Pettersson the one option of passing it to a low-danger area. Desharnais’ big body helped minimize the offensive threat for the Oilers and allowed Stuart Skinner to have full vision if a shot came from the point.

The then-Oilers defenceman gets caught pinching, leading to a domino effect for the rest of his teammates. Desharnais steps up on Höglander, giving him very little space. Höglander then chips the puck along the boards to a streaking Teddy Blueger. This forces Brett Kulak to leave the left side and pressure Blueger on the right. With the middle of the ice now open, Corey Perry and Derek Ryan cover the charging forward and the front of the net instead of having a forward to cover the point man.

This resulted in Nikita Zadorov having so much time to step into the slap shot, wire it past Skinner — who was now screened by three Oilers, Desharnais included — and tie the game. This shows that one misplay causes everybody else to be out of position and ends with the puck in the back of your net.

And again, it’s the work done by Desharnais’ big body that shuts down the defensive play.

Desharnais reads the point man perfectly and is first on the loose puck by lifting Höglander’s stick at the net front. Pettersson retrieves the puck along the half-wall and tries to undress Desharnais. Unfortunately for Pettersson, Desharnais is just too big for him to get around, and the big defenceman makes a swift move and passes it behind the net to his defensive partner.

We’ve got a little bit of good mixed with a little bit of bad here. Desharnais gets caught puck-watching as Pettersson enters the zone, leaving Ilya Mikheyev to receive the pass with an open lane on the left side. Luckily for Desharnais, he gets his stick on the puck and deflects the shot into the corner.

Whoa, is that an offensive scoring chance for Desharnais?

After Connor Brown wins a puck battle in the corner, Desharnais breaks for the slot. He receives the pass through traffic and has a wide-open shot at Arturs Silovs. His shot was stopped by Silovs, resulting in a massive pile-up in the Canucks crease. It was nice to see some offensive intuition to leave the blue line and join the play.

Desharnais shows exactly what he’s going to bring to the Canucks penalty kill.

As Conor Garland sneaks behind the defence with his stick and body low to the ice, Desharnais steps in front of him to cut off the passing lane. The puck goes back around Boeser on the half-wall, but now it’s Dakota Joshua with his stick on the ice in front of the net. Desharnais arrives just in time to lift the stick as Boeser’s pass comes across the crease.

With the puck still in the zone, the point man finds Garland down low on Desharnais’ side. Garland does his patented spin moves to try and evade the pressure of the 6’7″ defenceman. However, Desharnais stays composed, stands his ground, blocks the shot and finishes his play by sending Garland to the ice.

In real time, this play doesn’t look that bad for Desharnais. But at this camera angle, you can see multiple opportunities for him to interrupt this goal. With Desharnais’ long stick, he could have poked the puck on the initial pass or lifted Elias Lindholm’s stick when he had it at the front of the net. Instead, Lindholm gives the Canucks a two-goal lead.

Now, did this play warrant a benching? Probably not. But Edmonton Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch thought otherwise, as Desharnais wouldn’t play the remaining few minutes of the second and just 41 seconds of the third period.

The benching must have really hit Desharnais hard, as he came out in Game 4 with some snarl and aggression, but none worse than this here.

After picking up speed through the neutral zone, Elias Pettersson turns his body as he enters the zone and gets obliterated by Desharnais. He’ll probably have to apologize to his new teammate for that cheap shot.

As our first clip, it’s just another example of the big defenceman winning at the net front. Desharnais gains positioning behind Pius Suter and goes to work. At first, he allows Suter to maintain his spot with the small price of a few cross-checks in the back. But once that shot comes from the point, Desharnais takes matters into his own hands by lifting Suter’s stick, pushing him in the wrong direction, blocking the shot with his skate and clearing the front of the net.

There’s the defensive zone dominance we’ve been waiting to see!

This was just unlucky for Desharnais. He does a great job of putting pressure on the puck carrier, forcing a pass to the point. Desharnais ends up blocking the ensuing point shot. However, the puck goes straight to Garland’s tape, and he fires it in the back of the net for a minus.

It’s only fair if we show every goal against; we have to show every point. Luckily, we aren’t flooded with clips, as Desharnais only registered one assist throughout the series. However, it was a pretty impressive pass. What looked like a routine dump-in from the point turned into a perfectly placed pass off the corner of the boards and to Leon Draisaitl behind the net. Draisaitl circled the net and centred it straight to Evander Kane to give the Oilers the lead. Desharnais earned the second assist on the play.

Yikes. One thing we’ve learnt about Desharnais is that he struggles to move the puck. He collects the puck behind the net, waits for his teammates to get set up and heads up the ice. Instead of passing it to a speedy Ryan McLeod or avoiding the pressuring defender by skating up the left side, Desharnais sends a bounce pass off the right boards perfectly to Pettersson. The ensuing turnover gave Mikheyev a wide-open scoring chance at the top of the faceoff circle.

Hopefully, this was one of the aspects that Allvin saw in his game that he could improve on because it certainly needs work if he’s going to produce in a Rick Tocchet system.

Here is another example from above. Desharnais has the puck behind the net to lead the rush. He has three outlets to choose from: two options of streaking forwards on the right-hand side and one up the centre of the ice. What does he do instead? He banks a pass in between the two forwards that goes down for an icing.

In this clip, it’s not so much that Desharnais wasn’t positioned properly; it’s that his stick is just in the wrong lane. He does a good job of getting in the shooting lane but, in doing so, allows Garland to go unnoticed at the side of the net and nearly tucks the puck past Calvin Pickard. He could have prevented this scoring chance if Desharnais had been more aware of his opponents.

As a 6’7″, 226-lb defender, speed isn’t expected to be one of his strengths. However, Desharnais makes up for the lack of speed with his big frame. He uses the range of his stick advantageously to not allow players to burn around him and can close the gap quickly when he decides to step up on the puck carrier. Desharnais’ skating as a whole isn’t terrible for his build. What stood out most was his backpedalling. Desharnais’ long legs and quick crossovers when skating backward help him stay with offensive rushers.

Desharnais is very good at the net front. His bully mentality when clearing the net front to give the goaltender their eyes back is something Thatcher Demko is going to thrive with. It’d be nice to see his snarl come out a bit more, given his intimidating 6’7″ frame, but maybe that’s something he can further develop in Vancouver.

If you want more highlight reels from Vincent Desharnais last season, check out this hype clip the Canucks Twitter posted earlier this summer.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Are you excited about Vincent Desharnais in a Canucks uniform next season?