One of the bigger surprises at this year’s NHL Trade Deadline was that the Vancouver Canucks did not move off of three of their pending UFAs, Brock Boeser, Pius Suter and Derek Forbort.
While it looked to be the right decision on Tuesday night against the league-leading Winnipeg Jets, as both Boeser and Suter netted a pair of goals each, the best decision may have been to hang onto their 6-foot-4 216-lbs defenceman Forbort.
Forbort hasn’t had an easy first year in Vancouver. After signing a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Canucks on July 1, he played just three games before the loss of his father. Forbort remained out of the lineup for the following five games (12 days) before returning to the team on October 28.
He sat out the following game to get back up to game speed before returning to the Canucks lineup against the San Jose Sharks. Forbort then sustained an injury shortly after his first game back. It was reported that the defenceman got tangled up in practice and would miss the following 17 games.
Once he returned, only an illness kept him out of the lineup for three games. But other than that, he’s been a mainstay in the Canucks lineup night in and night out, playing 37 consecutive games – the only Canuck defenceman to do so since December 19.
We point this out because of the emergence of young defenceman Elias Pettersson and Victor Mancini. While both players are performing well in their short stints and are certainly earning their spot on the blue line, it isn’t coming at the expense of Forbort’s ice time.
Now, this could have been different had Quinn Hughes not missed 14 games over the span. But let’s not discredit Forbort’s play.
The former first-round pick has mostly played on the Canucks bottom-pairing but has provided a nice fill-in option higher in the lineup, playing top-pairing minutes with Filip Hronek when Hughes was out. In the first four-game stint without Hughes, Forbort hit over 20 minutes of ice time in three games. During Hughes’s second lengthy absence, E. Pettersson saw a bump to the top line, while Forbort still managed 17:33 minutes as a bottom-pairing guy – fourth highest on the team.
The Minnesota native is most known for the defensive side of his game. However, he has managed to find the scoresheet with seven points (three more than last season in 35 games), including this beautiful give-and-go with Conor Garland earlier in the month.
But the stay-at-home defenceman excels in his own end, especially on the penalty kill.
Instead of looking at the season as a whole (because of all the things he had to deal with), we will be looking at his impact on the Canucks during the last 37 games, where he’s become a mainstay in the lineup.
During that time, Forbort has logged the most ice time on the penalty kill, playing more than 23:36 more than Tyler Myers, who’s in second, which is expected if he’s played the most games. However, even from a minutes-per-game perspective, Forbort leads the group in average penalty kill ice time per game, logging 2:19 – Marcus Pettersson and Hronek aren’t far behind at 2:13.
To further highlight his contributions on the penalty kill, here is where the Canucks’ penalty kill ranked across the league from the start of the season to December 18 – when Forbort played just five games:
Now, here is where the Canucks’ penalty kill ranks across the league from December 19 to today – with Forbort playing all of the Canucks’ 37 games:
The Canucks went from 80% through the first 31 games to first at 85.3% without Forbort coming out of the lineup.
That is a massive boost with and without one player.
And his numbers are more impressive when looking at what he’s done on the penalty kill since the 4 Nations Face-off.
As The Athletic’s Thomas Drance pointed out yesterday, Forbort has a positive on-ice goal differential on the penalty kill since the 4 Nations break while leading all Canucks defenders in shorthanded time on ice.
Here is the play of Forbort blocking the pass to the bumper as an example of his value down a skater:
That span stretches over 13 games, where Forbort has not been on the ice for a goal against on the penalty kill and was on the ice for Dakota Joshua’s shorthanded goal. The Canucks have been shorthanded 33 times since the break, having allowed three goals but none with Forbort on the ice.
Not only that, you have to go back to January 23 (20 games) to find the last game in which Forbort was on the ice for a shorthanded goal against.
Another area in which Forbort has provided value to this blueline isn’t something you can find on a stat sheet.
As a 33-year-old veteran defenceman, Forbort provides leadership and stability to the bottom-pairing with whichever young-in he’s paired with. He has spent time as a safety net for Pettersson or Mancini as they transition to the NHL game while teaching them along the way. Having an experienced defensive defenceman to lean on helps calm the young blueliners’ nerves, which can help their confidence as they develop.
His leadership was recognized by head coach Rick Tocchet when Forbort wore an ‘A’ on March 11 against the Montreal Canadiens.
Forbort is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The Canucks have the deepest blueline in recent memory with Hughes, Hronek, M. Pettersson, Myers, E. Pettersson, Mancini and Forbort, with Tom Willander coming.
It has been reported that if the Canucks did not trade Forbort at the NHL Trade Deadline, they would try to re-sign him. Given the stability he provides on the penalty kill and as a leader on the back end, this looks to be a good veteran fit for years to come and help develop the young defencemen.
