When I laid out the candidates to , there was one player that I left off the list. As the Canucks have made cuts, however, that list has grown shorter and shorter. Evan McEneny was the first to go, then Philip Holm and Olli Juolevi were cut on Friday.
Now there are just nine defencemen left at camp for the Canucks and the battle for eighth defenceman is down to just two players: Alex Biega and the player I left off the list, Andrey Pedan.
I didn’t intend to be so dismissive of Pedan, but it truly seemed like he had been passed by on the Canucks depth chart. Evan McEneny had steadily earned Travis Green’s trust in Utica, Philip Holm came highly regarded from Sweden, and it seemed plausible that the Canucks would give Juolevi a nine-game tryout in the NHL this season.
But each of those defencemen got cut from the roster and Pedan remains.
Mea culpa.
Part of the reason why I left Pedan out is that he didn’t seem to be an option for the Canucks last season. He played 13 games for the Canucks during the 2015-16 season, though several of those were as a forward on the fourth line. But last season, though Pedan got a brief emergency call-up, he never played. Even Jordan Subban got a similar call-up without playing. When the Canucks needed a defenceman to actually play, Evan McEneny got the call.
In addition, Pedan had just 10 points in 52 games for the Comets last season, less than half as many points as McEneny or even Pedan’s previous season. Despite his 6’5” stature, it was easy to overlook Pedan heading into this year’s camp.
There’s just one thing that got missed: Pedan can play.
Pedan isn’t just a good skater for his size; he’s a good skater, period. He has great touch with the puck and is an efficient, if not flashy, puck-mover. Unsurprisingly, given his size, he’s big, strong, and tough in the defensive zone, but he also has a 100+ mph slap shot to put into use in the offensive zone.
This preseason, Pedan has quietly been quite good. He may not have put up the points of Jalen Chatfield, or scored pretty goals like Subban, but he’s played solid defence and transitioned the puck up ice effectively.
At the AHL level, Pedan shows flashes of greatness, but has issues with consistency according to reports from people like Justin Bourne. Anytime you see a 6’5” defenceman who can skate and handle the puck like Pedan, you get excited, but there’s a reason why he hasn’t broken through to the NHL. He’s already 24, so nearing the point where ne is no longer considered a prospect.
What helps Pedan the most is who he’s competing against: Alex Biega. At this point, Biega is a known quantity: he’s a below-replacement level defenceman, but one who puts out a consistent effort and can do spot duty as a hard-forechecking fourth-line forward. The difference is that Pedan could be significantly better than replacement level.
Here’s a secret: Pedan might not be much worse than Erik Gudbranson. The latter has the pedigree as a third-overall draft pick with years of NHL experience, but his advanced statistics consistently paint a picture of a bottom-pairing defenceman.
The Canucks believe that Gudbranson is a top-four defenceman. They wouldn’t have traded one of their top prospects in Jared McCann and a second-round pick to get him if they didn’t believe that, though they reportedly . Travis Green, however, might see him as a third-pairing defenceman; that is how he has used him so far in the preseason.
Pedan is about the same size as Gudbranson, though he shoots left instead of right. He has the potential to be a solid bottom-pairing NHL defenceman and the Canucks need to figure out if he can actually realize that potential.
This is what it comes down to: do the Canucks want to carry eight defencemen? If so, are they willing to keep Pedan up instead of Biega? That would mean Pedan sitting in the press box most nights instead of playing big minutes in the AHL. But at 24, it’s more important to see if he can play in the NHL than give him more AHL minutes.
All of this is a moot point if the Canucks choose to have 14 forwards on their roster instead, but it’s entirely possible that Andrey Pedan is on the Canucks roster to start the season.
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