Well, it can probably only go up from here, right?

Last season, Erik Gudbranson logged 18 minutes and 25 seconds of ice time a night for the Vancouver Canucks. That tied him with Ben Hutton—who was ensconced in coach Travis Green’s doghouse for much of the season—for fifth on the team.

In the midst of the same season, the Canucks decided to re-sign Gudbranson. At the time, he was regarded as a potential trade candidate and many pundits were imploring the team to deal him for a draft pick or two. Instead, Vancouver brought him back for three more years at an average salary of $4 million.

That money is good for third among Canucks’ defencemen and it came during a season in which Gudbranson was demonstrably one of the worst rearguards on one of the worst teams in the league.

Gudbranson has never been great with the puck, but last year’s 43.9 Corsi was the worst of his career. His -6 Relative Corsi (meaning how he was in puck possession relative to the rest of his team) was second-worst amongst regular Canucks, besting only Brandon Sutter, who often drew the hardest matchups on the ice.

One obviously doesn’t sign Erik Gudbranson to bring in offence from the blueline. But on a Canucks’ defensive corps that struggled mightily to score, he was the worst of the bunch, putting up five points.

All in all, it was likely the worst season of Gudbranson’s career—which, honestly, hasn’t included a ton of marquee campaigns.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that Gudbranson sounds like he’s over the shoulder injury that plagued him for much of the year and required season-ending surgery in March.

https://twitter.com/DhaliwalSports/status/1001451988108767233

But “making it through 82 games” isn’t exactly an encouraging goal for a player coming off a particularly rough season to set.

The Canucks obviously believe that Gudbranson has more to give. After all, he is a former blue-chip prospect (third overall in the 2010 draft) who theoretically would be entering his prime as a 26-year-old.

A great season for Gudbranson would be getting his plus-minus into positive numbers—which he’s only managed once in his career—while giving the Canucks a physical presence who can log big minutes in a shutdown role.

It’s not a huge ask for a 6’5 player supposedly entering his prime, but it remains to be seen if Gudbranson can provide that for the Canucks.

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