The Vancouver Canucks are walking a tightrope this season. They want improvement from the kids they're going to keep, good results from veterans they want to trade, and bad results overall. But still good enough to sell tickets to 42 home games.

How are they going to pull that off? We have even more thoughts! This time, about how they're going to use their defencemen.

Walkin' the Line

The Canucks defence has changed in the past year, as you probably noticed. Not everyone has left, but enough surgery's happened to make the team update their passport pics.

The team has decided their anchor is Filip Hronek. Anyone from the Detroit region can be forgiven for double-checking the name, but yes, it's legit.

Leader of the Pack

Hronek has been forced into the public eye with post-game interviews after the team's captain was traded away and the big name coming back was injured. Zeev Buium wasn't going to completely satisfy the media scrum, being a new arrival and all, but you have to know Hronek didn't want the mic.

Then a funny thing happened: he started to...well, not like it, exactly, but relax into it. His usual curt replies to questions started getting laughs among the fans - especially the ones who don't particularly like the media. He didn't make any obvious mistakes, and he does know what he's talking about. His answers started getting longer, and on a few occasions he'd even answer a follow-up.

And while that was happening, he got a little more attention for his work both on the ice and on the bench. Clips of him talking over the latest play with young defenders made the between-periods shows. He became more vocal on the ice, directing traffic during play and between whistles. He's even said outright that he wants to help the young players during the rebuild.

Now, there is an obvious argument for trading Hronek away: he's their most valuable chip, and the best way to get another first-round pick. But he also has a full no-move clause for the next two years, and if he wants to stay for both of those years, frikkin' keep him. He's been on an awful team, waiting for the Red Wings to finally get out of their rebuild. It's not like he doesn't know what he's getting into.

Revving Up

Slightly inconvenient is that Hronek is the de facto power-play quarterback after Quinn Hughes left. And that was fine - last year. This season, they need to hand the reins over to Zeev Buium. It could happen early or late, but it needs to happen sometime this season. As good as Hronek is, and as useful as he'll be throughout his contract, Buium is the future of Vancouver's blue line.

We didn't get a good look at Buium last year, unfortunately. He came to the Canucks injured, tried to play through it, and finally took a few games off during the league's Olympic break in February. If any player from the Hughes trade felt pressure to perform, it was Buium.

Make no mistake, Buium has plenty of skill. He's not as good a skater as Hughes is, but that bar is through the roof anyway. Buium's strength is in his planning before he needs to skate. You can see it both before he attacks and when he's reacting to an attacker. He's very much a disrupt-before-the-play-starts kind of defender, and can turn that into a counterstrike very quickly.

That all being said, he also needs to be the quarterback for Vancouver's top power play. That's where he's going to make his money, given the overall lack of scoring the Canucks are probably going to suffer for the next few years. You can't really have a number one defenceman without them playing the bulk of minutes available.

It's going to come down to just how willing coach Manny Malhotra will be to turn away from his reliable veteran. You can say you're willing to sacrifice wins now for future growth, but that's really hard to put into practice. A team five years from now needs him to be strong, which has gotta hurt when you're looking for a tenth win come December.

Will He or Won't He

Tom Willander was the golden boy in Jim Rutherford's plans. Or at least as much of one as was needed when you already have Quinn Hughes on the team. Willander, like Buium, is entering his second NHL season. And, like Buium, couldn't possibly live up to the hype around him. And that's fine, actually. Heck, both players may well have some regression in their second years.

Willander isn't being looked at to replace Hughes, or even to play on a top pair during his career. If he gets there, great! But if not, well, teams need good all-around players in the middle of the lineup, too.

He's not devoid of offence - he just finished a five-goal, 21-point rookie season, after all. But that's not his ticket to the NHL. Mostly what he is, or should be, is a pain. He is a constantly moving disruptor. He's a very good puck retriever when he has a player to pass it to. Ironically, he had something of a lousy year defensively, but it really should get better from here.

Wall to Wall

One thing Willander could use is some time, and Jamie Oleksiak can buy that for him. Every team needs a giant from time to time, and Oleksiak's 6'7" frame works. He is a good enough skater to cover a LOT of ground in a short amount of time, and has enough skill to justify a middle-pair position.

Again, not a player the team should look to for a lot of points, but very useful otherwise. If Willander and Oleksiak are used together, it won't be Jamie holding the puck. But it will be him holding up players hunting his partner down.

Oleksiak signed a generous deal with Vancouver in the offseason, and it shows in his modified no-trade clause. Should he serve his purpose well, the team can shop the versatile defender easily enough. But if he doesn't, they can keep him around for another go, possibly sliding him down to the third pair if needed, with little harm done. Big guys retain their value well.

No, Not That One

Elias Pettersson the Defenceman had a rougher second season than his first. Part of that could be his enthusiasm met the reality of a long NHL season. Part could be former coach Adam Foote's Defensive Encyclopedia being a bit much to deal with. In either case, he's inked in to start on the third pair come September.

Pettersson's geared to be a classic "shut down defenceman" if such things exist anymore. He has three goals and 13 points in his 93 NHL games, so he can, in theory, get the puck to the net. But getting it to someone else first is probably a better option. He's a good enough skater to carry the puck out of his own zone, but after that he thinks a bit too much.

He's an enthusiastic hitter, but may have overplayed that last year. His 28-game introduction in 2024-25 won wide praise for his physical play, and that might have brought different expectations. If he keeps it simple, he's at his best. It could well be that some offence shows up as he ages, and that would be a nice bonus. If he grows into a second-pair guy, it's all gravy. Keeping his spot om the third is all we need.

The Legend Returns

I don't really mean to mock Luke Schenn, but he is a beloved figure in these parts somewhat beyond his ability. He is perhaps the Ur-Journeyman Tale when it comes to veteran defenders you sign to teach young blue-liners "how to play the game the right way." He's done pretty much everything, from a top-five pick to a 30-year-old AHLer and back again.

In between, he's won two Stanley Cups and has spent time with ten NHL teams. THAT'S a veteran!

More specifically, that's a veteran who's 36 years old with a LOT of miles on him. But he knows that and understands what's going on with this team. He should, as it's his third go-round with them. The team wants a veteran who is, well, him, and he enjoys the city. His second job is to be the guy younger players have to unseat if they want to reach the NHL.

Schenn is the sort of player teams like to bring in as they head into the playoffs, and he knows that, too. That's why he does have a full no-move clause, and if he decides to waive it, it'll be to the team he chooses. And fair enough, he's earned that level of respect.

Mutt and Jeff

About the guys who Schenn is keeping down.

Victor Mancini has good size at 6'3" and 229 lbs. He's got good speed, too, and some decent offensive instincts. Add in that he's a right-shot, and he should be everything you're looking for in an NHL prospect. But somehow, he leaves me wanting more. A touch more offensive recklessness would serve him well, I think, with a little less concern about making mistakes. He's 24 years old, so this is a big year for him. If not now, when?

Kiril Kudreyavtsev is something the opposite. He stands 5'11" and 200 lbs, and he uses all of it. He's taken his time getting to the NHL, and for good reason: seventh-round picks aren't supposed to make it this far. He's done it by being a smart player, if not a particularly quick one. He's learned to protect the puck extremely well while waiting for plays to develop, which helps. He doesn't look like he should be this effective, but he's got surprising numbers in the OHL and AHL.

Either of these players can be the next man up, and if everything goes well, they'll earn spots when veterans ahead of them are traded away. No one wants them to get their spots by default, or even worse, not get them at all.

The plan is pretty clear, as of right now. They just have to execute.