On Wednesday, the Las Vegas Knights did what many Canucks fans expected and some hoped for, selecting Luca Sbisa in the expansion draft. He was one of 15 defencemen the Knights acquired between their expansion draft picks, with several of those defencemen expected to be traded.
The Knights have already moved Trevor Van Reimsdyk and David Schlemko to the Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens, respectively, with more trades likely to come. Is Sbisa likely to be traded? It's hard to imagine many teams around the NHL coveting him, so he made end up a member of the Knights in the coming season. But one trade that likely won’t be happening now is a Chris Tanev trade, as the Knights’ claim of Luca Sbisa has made the Canucks’ blue line uncomfortably thin.
Here’s the thing: the Canucks’ blue line was already thin and losing Luca doesn’t make much of a difference.
Jim Benning spoke about Sbisa with Jason Brough and was extremely laudatory:
Benning on Sbisa: "He was a good penalty killer for us. I thought last year, on a game-to-game basis, he was one of our better defensemen.”
— Jason Brough (@JasonPHT) June 22, 2017
The problem is that none of that is true.
Sbisa was not a good penalty killer last season. In fact, he was dead last among Canucks defencemen in shots allowed per 60 minutes while playing 4-on-5. His 60.77 shots against per 60 was 141st among 152 defencemen that played at least 50 minutes at 4-on-5 last season.
To be fair, the Canucks’ penalty kill as a whole was a mess last season and many players struggled, but there is no indication throughout his career that Sbisa has any notable skill at killing penalties.
As for whether he was one of the Canucks’ better defencemen, that’s a relative statement. Was he better than Alex Biega and Philip Larsen? Absolutely! I am very comfortable declaring that Sbisa is better than Biega and Larsen. Unfortunately, that’s not saying much.
By Goals Above Replacement per 60 Minutes (GAR/60), Sbisa was the sixth best defenceman on the Canucks last season, which sounds about right. Keep in mind, the Canucks were terrible defensively last season; sixth best defenceman on the Canucks is quite bad.
Throughout his three seasons with the Canucks, Sbisa has been a massive possession drag on pretty much everyone he played with.
Sbisa played at least 100 minutes at 5-on-5 with ten defencemen during his three years with the Canucks. All but three of them posted better corsi for percentages without him than they did with him and the gaps are significant.
The only defencemen to post better corsi percentages with Sbisa are Kevin Bieksa, Nikita Tryamkin, and Philip Larsen, and even then their corsi percentages together aren’t great. But with players like Chris Tanev, Dan Hamhuis, and Ben Hutton, the gap is massive. They played significantly better away from Sbisa.
This isn’t meant to put down a player on his way out of town, particularly since, by all accounts, Sbisa is an incredibly nice guy, but to give some perspective on what the Canucks’ defence will look like without Sbisa. The truth of the matter is that Sbisa is, at best, an average third-pairing defenceman, the type of player that is easily replaceable, either from within or in free agency.
Chris Tanev, on the other hand, is a legitimate top pairing defenceman and one of the best defensive defencemen in the entire NHL. Losing Tanev would make a massive difference to the Canucks’ defence.
If the minor difference of losing Sbisa is what prevents you from the massive difference of trading Tanev, then you didn’t want to trade Tanev in the first place. And that’s okay! There are plenty of perfectly good reasons to not trade Tanev; it’s just that losing Sbisa is not one of them.
With Sbisa gone, this is what the Canucks’ defensive depth looks like:
Alex Edler - Chris Tanev
Ben Hutton - Troy Stecher
Andrey Pedan - Erik Gudbranson
Evan McEneny - Alex Biega
Olli Juolevi - Jordan Subban
Philip Holm - Jalen Chatfield
Guillaume Brisebois
Ashton Sautner
That may not be exciting (or good) depth, but it’s not all that much worse than if the Canucks still had Sbisa and it opens the door for Pedan, McEneny, Juolevi, and Holm to battle for a spot on the left side of the third pairing at camp, assuming no UFA signings.
The Canucks’ defence may not be better next season without Sbisa, but they won’t be all that much worse.
