The one thing the Vancouver Canucks seemed to have sorted out heading into free agency was their defence corps. Between the veterans already on the roster and the young prospects knocking on the door, the Canucks looked to have a solid set of blueliners.
On Tuesday, however, the Canucks signed their first new free agent who is a legitimate NHLer, surprisingly adding another defenceman to the mix.
The Canucks announced the signing of Pierre-Olivier Joseph to a one-year contract with a cap hit of $775,000.
Joseph is a left-shot defenceman, with good size at 6'2", though he's listed at 185 lbs, which is a little light for his stature. He was a first-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes back in 2017 and now has 194 NHL games under his belt.
The 26-year-old Joseph has a couple of connections to the Canucks' management group. Assistant general manager Emilie Castonguay was once his agent, which is a pretty significant connection, but he's also a former member of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Canucks' president of hockey operations, Jim Rutherford, acquired Joseph from the Coyotes in 2019 as part of the return for Phil Kessel. Five years later, after Rutherford had departed Pittsburgh, Joseph was not given a qualifying offer from the Penguins and became an unrestricted free agent last offseason.
Joseph signed with the St. Louis Blues, who had just acquired his older brother, Mathieu Joseph, in a trade with the Ottawa Senators — an opportunity the two brothers felt they couldn't pass up. But after just 23 games, the Penguins reacquired Joseph for future considerations, needing a defenceman to fill in for the injured Marcus Pettersson, who was .
It's a whole tangled web of Canucks connections.
Mathieu once on his younger brother for The Athletic:
"One of his biggest assets, his hockey IQ, is above average," he said. "He has good instincts offensively, and when he has confidence, he’s extremely fast and super dangerous on the ice. He’s an extremely smart player and how he outsmarts the opponent was annoying when I was playing against him. He’s also been very well-liked everywhere he’s been, and he brings tons of positivity around the room."
Joseph is a mobile puck-moving defenceman, whose best season came in 2022-23 when he had 21 points in 75 games while primarily playing on a pairing with Kris Letang. The solid season for the young defenceman earned him a spot on Team Canada at the 2023 IIHF World Championship, where he won the gold medal while averaging 19:27 in ice time per game.
Since then, however, Joseph has struggled to replicate that success. He particularly struggled last season: after the trade, the Penguins were outscored 21-to-5 when Joseph was on the ice at 5-on-5.
Joseph's underlying numbers, however, were not actually that bad. He had a 53.5% corsi and 50.7% expected goals after the trade, meaning the Penguins outshot and outchanced their opposition with Joseph on the ice. The issue was that the Penguins goaltenders had a brutal .866 save percentage behind Joseph and his team had an ugly 3.21% shooting percentage.
Taking a chance on Joseph at a league-minimum rate seems like a reasonable decision for the Canucks. He potentially fits the bill as a seventh defenceman, allowing the Canucks to avoid putting a prospect in the press box instead of having them play big minutes in the AHL. As a replacement for Noah Juulsen, Joseph seemingly signifies the Canucks are leaning heavily towards fast and creative over big and physical with their depth defencemen.
If the Canucks prospects outperform Joseph in training camp, he could also be put on waivers and sent down to the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL.
Another way to look at the trade is as injury insurance for Derek Forbort, who hasn't played more than 54 games in a season since the 2021-22 season. Joseph has generally played at a third-pairing level the last few seasons, so he is a capable fill-in if Forbort hits the Injured Reserve list again next season.
Then there's the outside chance that Joseph takes another step defensively under new head coach Adam Foote and outperforms Forbort to earn a permanent spot in the lineup. That's a long shot, but it's one of the reasons why a cheap contract on a guy like Joseph, who is still just 26 years old, is a bet worth making.
