Canucks Defence

[Madcombinepilot]

With all the threads we have on various players, I though it might be time to look at our roster a bit in regards to position. As in our defence. A lot of people out there think that Nonis is looking for another depth defenceman, and that we need to have one, but I am not so sure that is the case.

Our undisputed lineup of D going into next year will look like this:

Ohlund / Salo
Mitchell / Bieksa
Krajicek / ???

Our only real concern is with that #6 spot, and with our team close to the cap, I am not sure why we would be looking for another defenceman right now, as opposed to trying some of our rookies in that last spot. Don't get me wrong, you can never have enough depth on defence, and I know injuries happen, but how is this team supposed to develop young talent if we never play them? Also, most people (and players and agents) know we have a bunch of up and comers from the moose, and what veteran wants to sign a two way contract (for near league minimum) for the chance to ride the bus in the minors??? Our top 4 guys are all minute munchers, capable of playing 25 minutes a game, and if thats the case, how much would you spend on an 8-10 minute a night, #6 defenceman? our options are to look at our young guys and see what they could bring. We have a lot of guys that could be our #6 guy... Bourdon, Edler, Rahimi, and Colombe all come to mind.

I am not going to go out and regurgitate all the glowing positives of those 4 guys, but I will say that I think instead of looking to spend a million on another defenceman, we might be better off spending it on the forward position and letting the defence sort itself out.

I guess what I am getting at here is the definition of 'depth'. If 'depth' is 750k - 1 million on a number 6 defenceman, I think that might be the wrong idea. If 'depth' is signing a couple more younger guys (or guys looking for a different opprotunity to make it) to two way contracts, knowing that they will call up guys from the moose, then its OK....

If more than one of our top 3 guys goes down for any length of time next season, this team will have troubles on D no matter what moves DN makes now in the off season. I think he is better off looking at our pressing problem (a winger to play with Naslund) as opposed to looking at the potential problem of multiple injuries to defencemen, and spending whats left of our cap space there.

[nuxfanindallas]

I would agree absolutely with the idea that we've got a good enough (great?) backend as it stands now. But I don't necessarily see a problem bringing someone else in in terms of cap room....250k or so doesn't really mean a heck of a lot where we're at right now. In addition, I believe Bourdon's cap hit would be at least 800k, if not more with his bonuses....