The Vancouver Canucks are not succeeding defensively the way they were last season.
While there are lots of factors to blame, one of them is the decline in play from Carson Soucy who has been far from the reliable player he proved to be last season.
Last season, Soucy was a strong presence on the blue line. He played just 40 regular season games but the team looked noticeably more composed when he was in the lineup. This year, he’s been a disaster.
The 30-year-old has zero points and is a team-worst -7 through nine games. The Canucks are getting caved in when he plays and have been outscored 10-3 with him on the ice at five-on-five.
The Canucks are struggling a lot more with Soucy on the ice this year compared to last, no matter what metric you want to measure it by. Below you can see a variety of stats from Corsi, to goal share, expected goal share, and shot share. The analytics for Soucy are down across the board.
| Soucy stats | CF% | GF% | xGF% | SF% |
| 2024-25 (so far) | 36.43% | 23.08% | 32.52% | 28.95% |
| 2023-24 | 47.09% | 53.85% | 51.13% | 49.49% |
While Soucy’s play has trended downward, his ice time has gone in the opposite direction. The team has to rely on him more because of their thin defence corps.
The offseason departure of Nikita Zadorov pushed Soucy back up the Canucks depth chart. He’s playing more than 19 minutes per game, a steady increase on the 17:29 he played last season and the 16:58 he recorded during last year’s playoffs.
Soucy’s pair with Tyler Myers has been a disaster. The Canucks have been outscored 8-2 with the duo on the ice at five-on-five and are controlling just 32.05% of the shots and 35.31% of the expected goals during those minutes.
The pair got off to a bad start last night as an early Myers pinch allowed the New Jersey Devils to score less than a minute in. It set the tone for what turned into a 6-0 drubbing.
The stark difference between the #Canucks top pair and their second pair is almost comical. pic.twitter.com/rA0GbQ26tV
— Noah Strang (@noahstrang_) October 31, 2024
The Canucks defence was predicted to be an area of weakness this season, but the early results have been worse than many expected. It’s likely a driving force behind management already canvassing the trade market for potential upgrades.
The team swung the trade for Zadorov in the early part of last season, and he was a major contributor down the stretch. They’ll be looking for a player who can make a similar impact in any deal they make this year.
It’s still early in the season, and there’s plenty of time for Soucy to turn things around. He’ll need to do so for this Canucks team to live up to its potential.