I was hoping that they would replace Brodie with someone with more offence — with Barrie or even bringing Gus back. A power-play specialist that you could shelter/manage situationally between second and third pair minutes. With Andersson trending towards a top pair guy you have that luxury.
But what would be even better would be making space for Vallimaki to get opportunities. I'm not saying slot him in as the power-play quarterback, but I like the prospect of him being an every night player on the third pair with opportunities to move up and get more situational time as available.
I think that having Tanev as opposed to Barrie gives you more options for both Hanifin and Vallimaki, and I like that.
I'm a fan of what Tanev brings defensively, but I understand the concerns about his durability, and I hope that some of those downward trending advanced metrics are a product of where the Canucks were at the last few years.
Over all I think we've signed a good defensive #4 option here that will enable Andersson, Hanifin and Vallimaki to all develop without blocking any of them on the depth chart, and I think that's really important.
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