It’s been six

months since Mike Gillis was relieved of his position as general manager. Now

that we’ve had a bit of time to put away our pitchforks until next spring

and reflect on his tenure, it is becoming clear that the Gillis era was the

Golden Age of Vancouver Canucks hockey.

In September of

2013, the Chicago Blackhawks assigned Ryan Stanton to waivers. As one of the

best run franchises in the league, has developed a habit of consistently

drafting and developing excellent talent, and have been in the habit of gifting

exciting young defensemen away like goody bags at a children’s birthday party.

While, this

shrewd waiver pick up by Gillis was met with very little fanfare at the time,

it just may be the last great move of the Gillis era.

Why am I so high

on Stanton? Find out on the other side of the jump.

2013-2014 Performance

In the 2013-2014, John Tortorella used Stanton

on the third defensive pair, and his utilization statistics were consistent

with this. Stanton saw zero minutes on the powerplay and his even strength ice time

per game was the lowest amongst Canucks regulars, and consistent with other

third pair defensemen around the league. He also benefited from a greater

percentage of offensive zone starts (Off ZS %Rel) and easier competition (QoC

corsi) than his peers. In short, he was used pretty much exactly how you would

expect a third pair defenseman to be used.

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What was unexpected was the way he

performed. At a .529 corsi for%, Stanton had the highest possession rating

amongst Canucks defensemen, and he led Canucks defensemen in points per 60

minutes at even strength. His on-ice shooting percentage was 7.86%, which is

pretty much average for both Canucks defensemen and his peers around the

league, indicating that his team leading points per 60 minutes wasn’t

attributable to luck, or prone to percentage regression.

Looking at his common playing partners, we

see that with the exception of Daniel Sedin, Stanton posted better possession

numbers without his common playing partners than with them, but the numbers

with and without Daniel, and Henrik for that matter, are worth noting. Stanton

played three quarters of the time away from Daniel and Henrik, and during this

time his possession numbers were slightly above average. However, in minutes he

did played with Daniel and Henrik, his possession numbers were north of 60%,

which is very much elite territory, which clearly goes a long way to explaining

his overall strong .529 corsi for%.

*Need help understanding these fancy stats, click here.

2014-2015 OUTLOOK

When Gillis took a flyer on Stanton and his $550,000

per year contract, I don’t think even the most positive Canucks management would have expected him to do

as well as he did last year. Within the context of the role he was asked to

play, Stanton significantly exceeded expectations across the board.

However, Jason Garrison and his contract were shipped to Tampa Bay over the summer, which means all Canucks defensemen will have to share a

bigger load, and all eyes will be on Stanton to see how he fares when faced

with tougher minutes. Will he be able to build off of the success he had last

year to prove that the glimpses of top four potential we saw are real? Or will

he prove himself to be the type of sound, third pair defensemen, that every

team needs at a reasonable price to fill out their roster?

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Stanton is going into the final year of his

two year, $1.1 million dollar contract, so he a huge opportunity to win a big

pay day in the summer. He surprised us all last year. Can he do it again?

—

Editor’s Note: with a new season comes a handful of new faces to Canucks Army, and some big changes to the blog. We’re expanding our writing team this year and adding a couple of fresh faces, including MoneyPuck, who wrote the fantastic Deep Dive series this past September. Follow him on Twitter here, and stay tuned for more announcements regarding our upcoming season here at Canucks Army. Exciting times!





