Donnie & Dhali: Thomas Drance on potential future moves for the Vancouver Canucks. There has been talk about the forwards already, but what about the defense? Rick Dhaliwal says that he hasn’t heard much with regards to the Canucks being connected to any defensemen. Has Drance?
“Yeah, I haven’t either Rick, but I would say it’s just a matter of time. I would be pretty surprised if the club didn’t prioritize adding an additional top-four defenseman.
I do think there is the sense internally, as you and I have reported previously, but I do think there is the sense internally that Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Tyler Myers were leaned on too heavily by the club in the match role that they held down. They played too often.
Ideally, you find a way to limit Tyler Myers’ minutes a little bit better so that he was fresher so that he was perhaps less prone to the big mistake. You know, which would obviously happen if he was playing something like 17 minutes a night at 5-on-5 as opposed to the 20+ that he logged for the Canucks last season.
With Oliver Ekman-Larsson similarly, I think there is a sense that if he could be put in more offensive positions, right, even though he did a stand-up job, a credible job. Actually more than that. He was at times last season one of the best shutdown guys in the league. Despite his success in that role, I think the idea that this club could get the most out of him. Maximize what they are getting out of Ekman-Larsson, would come if he was in a more offensive position.
Sort of, both of those facts together, the fact pattern suggests to me that finding a guy who can play in your top four can take some of the load off of the Canucks top three. Cause if we’re being honest gentlemen, Luke Schenn and Tucker Poolman, they had some guys who played top-four minutes occasionally, but they really had three top-four defensemen and three guys who played an awful lot more than the other three guys on their defense pair.
So I do expect top four addition to being a priority for the Canucks, whether that is in free agency, on the trade market, or in some other manner.”