The Pacific Arms Race: Defense

It’s been a busy few weeks for the Pacific Division teams in regards to defensemen. Nearly every team has made significant moves to alter their groups, particularly from what they rolled with throughout much of last season.

Continuing on with our look at the Pacific Division Arms Race, we look at how blueline groups stack up across the seven-team grouping.

For a “performance” benchmark, I chose high-danger scoring chances as defined by War On Ice. Basically, it’s chances from the low slot. In short: chances you don’t want your defensive group to give up too often.

Last Season: The six most-used defenders for Anaheim were Hampus Lindholm, Cam Fowler, Francois Beauchemin, Sami Vatanen, Clayton Stoner and a combination of Ben Lovejoy and Josh Manson.

High-Danger Scoring Chances Against: 640 (8th in NHL)

Changes: Added Kevin Bieksa from Vancouver, lost Beauchemin to free agency.

Breakdown: The Ducks were one of the better defensive teams in the division, likely by virtue of the club having three good pairings and an offensive attack that kept the puck in the other team’s end a lot. They do have a pretty good mix of bigger guys that can skate, but nobody that will contend for a Norris anytime soon. They lost a veteran in Beauchemin and gained one in Bieksa.

The Verdict: The Ducks downgraded. Beauchemin’s one of the league’s better defensive players, while Bieksa is slowing down and getting older.

Last Season: The six most-used defenders were Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Michael Stone, Keith Yandle, Connor Murphy, Zbynek Michalek and a combination of Andrew Campbell and Brandon Gormley. Klaus Dahlbeck functionally replaced Yandle after the trade deadline.

High-Danger Scoring Chances Against: 789 (26th in NHL)

Changes: Added Nicklas Grossmann from Philadelphia.

Breakdown: Woof. On a certain level you have to feel bad for Ekman-Larsson. He’s far-and-away the best defender on the team, though Stone and Murphy aren’t horrible. But because of how shallow they are, Ekman-Larsson sees all of the top match-ups all the time.

The Verdict: The Coyotes weren’t very good last year. An argument could be made that they’ll be worse next year.

Last Season: The six most-used defenders were T.J. Brodie, Dennis Wideman, Kris Russell, Mark Giordano, Deryk Engelland and Raphael Diaz.

High-Danger Scoring Chances Against: 779 (25th in NHL)

Changes: Added Dougie Hamilton from Boston. Raphael Diaz left via free agency.

Breakdown: Last year, it was T.J. Brodie and Mark Giordano against the world! And then Giordano got hurt and the team white-knuckled their way into the playoffs. The addition of Dougie Hamilton spreads out the tough minutes and gives Calgary a lot more depth. Look for them to move into the middle of the pack next season in terms of high-danger chances against.

The Verdict: Big upgrade from last season.

Last Season: Justin Schultz, Andrew Ference, Oscar Klefbom, Mark Fayne, Jeff Petry and a combination of Martin Marincin and Nikita Nikitin.

High-Danger Scoring Chances Against: 854 (28th in NHL)

Changes: Added Andrej Sekera via free agency, Eric Gryba from Ottawa and Griffin Reinhart from the Islanders. Martin Marincin was traded to Toronto.

Breakdown: Edmonton sure did make a lot of changes. Reinhart’s nowhere near a finished product yet, and he gets a chance to break a much shallower team. But man, it’s like the Oilers are trying to make a team out of the depth blueliners from better teams. They’ll probably be a bit improved from last season nonetheless.

The Verdict: Slight upgrade over last season.

Last Season: Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin, Matt Greene, Robyn Regehr, Brayden McNabb & Alec Martinez

High-Danger Scoring Chances Against: 605 (5th in NHL)

Changes: Regehr retired, so presumably Jamie McBain gets used more. No real big changes, though.

Breakdown: The Kings were the division’s best defensive team last season. They replace an old, slow Regehr with McBain, who is less old and less slow. At worst, it’s a lateral move. And it’s completely unclear what happens with Slava Voynov. If he comes back, this is a deeper group than last season.

The Verdict: The Kings will be about the same defensively as they were last year.

Last Season: Brent Burns, Justin Braun, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Brenden Dillan, Scott Hannan & Matt Irwin

High-Danger Scoring Chances Against: 738 (T19th in NHL)

Changes: Added Paul Martin as a free agent. Hannan & Irwin are UFAs and haven’t signed anywhere yet.

Breakdown: So presumably Martin and Mirco Mueller take over for Hannan and Irwin, which is definitely an upgrade. The Sharks were a middle of the pack defensive team last season and they probably end up being towards the top half of that middle group this season, barring injuries.

The Verdict: A slight upgrade.

Last Season: Alex Edler, Luca Sbisa, Chris Tanev, Kevin Bieksa, Dan Hamhuis & Yannick Weber

High-Danger Scoring Chances Against: 738 (T19th in NHL)

Changes: Traded Bieksa to Anaheim. Signed Matt Bartkowski as a free agent.

Breakdown: The Canucks weren’t amazing defensive last year, but they get a bit faster by swapping Bieksa for Bartkowski. It’s an entire team made up of middle-pairing defenders, though Edler is really good and they have a few guys with room to grow.

The Verdict: The Canucks are about as good as they were last year defensively, though if some of their young guys can continue to improve you could say it’s a very slight upgrade.