So many defensemen...and yet no defense

The Stanley Cup is here. I know……who cares. But we are getting closer to the magically dates of June 21^st and June 23^rd. There are a lot of people praying…wishing…hoping…making voodoo sarifices so that Luca Sbisa gets picked up by the Golden Knights in the expansion draft. But if you take a look at some of the advanced stats, Sbisa is not the biggest problem on the blueline, Gudbranson could be.

I know Guds had limited playing time due to a wrist injury that hampered his play and then shut him down after 30 games. But in those 30 games, we didn’t see the player that was advertised after the trade for McCann. Guds zone exits stats were not good. Here are stats that Corey Sznajder put together from 10 games this year and how the defense got out of their own zone while 5 on 5.

Not very pretty is it.

Here some other 5 on 5 advanced stats from the year.

I have the players ranked based on my own stat, Corsi Conversion Rate (CCR). For those of you that haven’t seen my posts on CCR, I look not only at goals (for&against)/60, but also Corsi (for&against) to see if the chances are being converted while the player is on the ice.

And while Guds is in the middle of the pack for Corsi chances for and against, he is near the bottom for both GF/60 and GA/60, which means his CCR is the worst for defensemen. While 5 on 5, the ratio of goals scored against the Canucks is twice as high as the Canucks score when Guds is on the ice. And more importantly, Guds is the worst 5vs5 defenseman on the team.

So, I wonder what Benning has planned for him?

Benning has publicly said he doesn’t plan on moving Tanev or Edler. Of course, if I was GM I would have said the same thing until I actually traded them. Openly saying you want to move a player has back-fired before and is not really good for player-management relations

I have openly called for trading Edler and/or Tanev for a couple years now, but I might have to back track for a year. This might not be the year to get rid of them if Sbisa actually gets picked up by Vegas and Benning does the smart thing and low balls Guds and then trades him. (I dream big) Trading one or two of Eddie/Tanev will create huge gaps in an already weak defense. Filling them with Juolevi is fine by me, but people still want Subban for some reason, which I don’t like.

So, do you keep the status quo knowing Tanev will only play 60 games because he gets injured, again. We all know that Edler will lead the team in broken sticks and take the dumb penalty after being on the ice for too long. Do the Nucks sign Guds for the same amount of money and 4 years? Do the Nucks promote defensemen from within or go out and trying get more unknown players like Larsen was or newly signed Holm is?

June is going to be a fun month once the stupid final is over.