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Vancouver Canucks: Luca Sbisa Named to Team Europe, Defensive Depth Chart |
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Here's a handy look at the updated defensive depth chart for the Vancouver Canucks following the acquisition of Erik Gudbranson:
Luca Sbisa is often discussed as being expendable, but he's the only member of the Canucks organization to have had his name called during Friday's World Cup of Hockey roster announcements.
The Swiss blueliner will join Denmark's Jannik Hansen as part of Team Europe.
The three other Canucks who will be participating in the tournament are Henrik and Daniel Sedin and Jacob Markstrom, who will all be members of Team Sweden.
With all his injuries, it was hard to get much of a read on Sbisa during the 2015-16 season. He played just 41 games, contributing two goals and eight points, and was a plus-five—the best plus-minus number of his career and the best of the year among Canucks defencemen.
Though he was hammered for his possession numbers in his first year in Vancouver, I feel like he's a player who can be steady and provide some physical presence as a third-pairing defenceman, as long as he's not asked to do too much. He's a good hitter, but I think he might need to take fighting out his repertoire after the hand injury that caused him to miss 19 games after tangling with Anthony Peluso of the Winnipeg Jets back in November.
Sbisa was a member of Switzerland's 2010 Olympic Team and a two-time participant in the World Championship. He'll be the third Canuck defenceman to participate in international competition this year, after Chris Tanev and Ben Hutton were part of Canada's gold medal-winning squad at the World Championship in Russia.
The three names that are not included on Ryan Biech's defensive depth chart are the team's three unrestricted free agents—Yannick Weber, Matt Bartkowski and Dan Hamhuis.
I think it's safe to say that the Weber experiment is over, and I don't imagine we'll see Matt Bartkowski back in Canucks colours next year. It doesn't look like there's room for Dan Hamhuis, either, but I wouldn't completely discount the possibility of him coming back.
The Canucks will start the season with seven and possibly eight NHL-ready defencemen on their roster. Given that injuries caused them to use 11 different blueliners last year, they'll want to keep around as many guys as possible who can play.
RFAs Andrey Pedan and Philip Larsen will both need contracts, and are both will need to be exposed to waivers if they are to be sent down to Utica this year. Pedan didn't seem to inspire a great deal of confidence during his 13 games with the Canucks this season. Willie Desjardins used him on the wing a couple of times and kept his ice time below 10 minutes during three of the Canucks' last four games of the season.
Unless Pedan dazzles at training camp in September, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see the team try to slide him through to the AHL before the beginning of the regular season—a.k.a. The Frankie Corrado model. Larsen is more of a question mark—I guess it depends what he brings to the table.
One other announcement from Canuck-land before I sign off for today. If you think draft day is going to be a celebration, you can join the team on June 24 for its draft party.
I will dig deeper into the draft options as that day draws nearer.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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