It鈥檚 become an annual tradition for the Canucks over the past few seasons: as the team falls out of the playoff picture, the media turns to GM Jim Benning for an explanation. Part of that explanation, inevitably, revolves around injuries.
When Ben Kuzma of The Province asked Benning about the Canucks鈥� recent struggles, particularly their lack of compete level, .
鈥淎 big part of it, and I don鈥檛 like using it as an excuse, is injuries,鈥� said Benning. 鈥淭ake the top two defencemen off any team and it鈥檚 tough, because it pushes other guys into minutes and situations they wouldn鈥檛 normally play.鈥�
The Canucks have been , with Bo Horvat and Loui Eriksson the only two players to suit up for all 66 games. Chris Tanev, Jake Virtanen, Sven Baertschi, and Brandon Sutter are all still out of the lineup, with for a sports hernia that will likely take him out for the rest of the season.
According to , which tracks injuries using the Cap Hit of Injured Players (CHIP) metric, the Canucks have been fifth-most impacted by injuries of all teams in the NHL. Only the Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, Arizona Coyotes, and Ottawa Senators have had players with higher cap hits taken out of the lineup.
While CHIP is an imperfect statistic 鈥� the quality of players taken out of the lineup is not necessarily accurately measured by their cap hit 鈥� it鈥檚 still a useful look at how injuries impact a team. Looking strictly at man-games lost to injury, the Canucks are only slightly above average and not even in the top 10.
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From Thursday, NHL injury visualization. Man games lost versus team wins. Bubble size represents cumulative quality of players lost (Lost-ps metric)
鈥� Man-Games Lost NHL (@ManGamesLostNHL)
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Here鈥檚 the issue: this is nothing new for the Canucks.
Every season the Canucks seem to deal with devastating injuries that derail the season. The biggest issue for the Canucks is the lack of depth to deal with those injuries when they occur. Jim Benning and the Canucks are well aware of this issue.
At the end of the 2015-16 season, Benning said on TSN 1040, 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 had the depth underneath to kinda sustain those injuries...we didn鈥檛 have the depth and that鈥檚 on me.鈥�
Heading into the 2016-17 season, Benning said they had addressed their depth issues. 鈥淲e鈥檒l send people down who are ready for the NHL. We鈥檒l run into injuries, but we鈥檒l call up players who can help us win.鈥�
And yet, at the end of the 2016-17 season, he said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 tough, because we had so many injuries and we didn鈥檛 have a lot of depth.鈥�
The depth was supposedly dealt with heading into 2017-18. 鈥淲e could have potentially 8-10 future NHL players playing in Utica this season,鈥� said Benning. He then later said, 鈥淚 think this year, when we do have injuries, we鈥檙e going to be calling up real players that we want to develop into long-term players. We鈥檙e at that point now.鈥�
By the end of the 2017-18 season, however, . 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 been able to withstand the injuries with our depth this season,鈥� . 鈥淣ext year, we鈥檙e going to have six, seven young players who are going to be in Utica. For the first time, we鈥檒l have that depth which can help us, and they鈥檙e also good prospects.鈥�
This year, like the years before, was supposed to be different. This time they would have the depth to deal with injuries thanks to more promising young prospects on the Utica Comets. On top of that, their free agent signings would hopefully result in fewer injuries overall, and .
鈥淲e鈥檝e had a lot of injuries the last couple of seasons,鈥� Benning said. 鈥淚f we can add some bigger bodied guys, then hopefully they can withstand the rigours of the season better, so we don鈥檛 have any injuries.鈥�
The injuries still came and their depth disappeared. It didn鈥檛 help that their top prospect defenceman on the Comets, Olli Juolevi, suffered a season-ending injury, but the only defencemen behind him were depth options like Guillaume Brisebois and Ashton Sautner. At forward, apart from Adam Gaudette briefly bouncing between Utica and Vancouver, the only real prospect that the Canucks called up from the Comets was Zack MacEwen.
For the fourth season in a row, Benning has pointed to injuries as an issue. For the third season in a row, the depth that was promised heading into the season has disappeared when injuries inevitably occur. At some point in the near future, Benning is likely to claim that next season they鈥檒l have enough depth to deal with injuries. Next season will be different.
Will it really be any different? Will the Canucks depth issues be any better next season?
, Benning dropped one last quote about the Canucks鈥� struggles at the end of the season.
鈥淭he last couple of weeks have been a good lesson for our young players,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is the time of year where older players are physically and mentally stronger.鈥�
Except, of course, for the older players that have been repeatedly injured at this time of year, like Alex Edler, Chris Tanev, and Brandon Sutter.
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