With a defensive core consisting of Mattias Ohlund, Sami Salo, Willie Mitchell, Kevin Bieksa, Lukas Krajicek and Aaron Miller the Vancouver Canucks D core is looking like on of the best in the league. While there is no superstar stud dman the top 4 all have top pairing potential. Sami Salo has one of the most feared slap shots in the league and is a great threat on the point of the power play. Mattias Ohlund is one of the most underrated D man in the league and is solid both in and out of his own end. Willie Mitchell is one of the best shut down D man in the league one who every opposing top line is not looking to play against. Kevin Bieksa is coming off a great season where the young D man came into his own. He is full of energy and another year should only improve his vision and patience as a dman. These four along with stay at home dman Miller and offensively gifted Krajicek who's right handed shot will get plenty of power play ice time is as deep as any in the league. Then on top of that the total salary of the d group is only 13.625 million which is a steal compared to other top d cores. With youngsters Luc Bourdon and Alex Edler both showing great strides in their development it seems unlikely for the Canucks to go into the season with all of these D man. However if they do not expect many goals to be surrendered by this core. Their are a few question marks of course, Salo shoulder? Ohlund rebounding after an off year? Bieksa on year wonder? Miller footspeed? Krajicek strength? Personally I believe that maybe one of these concerns arises and even with that the D core is deep enough to overcome it. And if not, one word...................................... Luongo.
Some comparable D cores around the league
Flames: Aucoin, Sarich, Warrener, Regehr, Eriksson, Phaneuf
Ducks: Pronger, Schneider, Beauchemin, Hnidy, Huskins, Dipenta
Wings: Lidstrom, Rafalski, Kronwall, Lilja, Chelios, Lebda
Sens: Redden, Phillips, Corvo, Volchenkov, Meszaros, Schubert
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