This week, Thomas Drance and Dan Murphy examine the emergence of defenceman Chris Tanev and his impact on his defensive partner and team at large.
Thomas Drance (Nerdy Guy): It wasn’t too long ago that I was looking at Chris Tanev’s stellar results as a top-pairing defender with skepticism.
Tanev has always been a statistical darling. The underlying metrics have always reflected his uncanny ability to make the right play, to out-think the opposition, and to get the puck moving in the other direction. In his first couple of years in the league though, Tanev mostly just dominated in a third-pairing role.
In 2013-14 John Tortorella bumped Tanev up the lineup, playing him with Dan Hamhuis – who at the time had a deep record of being an ace possession blue-liner. Elevated to Vancouver’s first pairing, Tanev’s underlying results were sparkling.
Even so, when Jim Benning signed Tanev to an affordable one-year contract extension in his first offseason, I thought that was the wise move. Tanev’s performance in his first year as a top-end blue liner was so spectacular that I wasn’t sure he could replicate it.
Tanev sure showed me, and the Canucks, in 2014-15.
Paired up with Alex Edler for the vast majority of last season, Tanev secretly emerged as a high-end, first-pairing blue-liner. No first-pairing defender in the league had a greater impact on suppressing the rate at which opponents managed unblocked shot attempts at even-strength last year, and Tanev’s penalty killing abilities were even better. The lucrative five-year contract the Canucks signed Tanev to is likely to prove to be the best bet that Benning and Trevor Linden have made so far.
This season, the early returns suggest that as good as Tanev was a year ago, he may have since taken another step. The Canucks’ penalty kill is sturdy and effective again and Tanev is leading all Canucks blue-liners in shorthanded ice time per game. At 5-on-5, Edler and Tanev are once again having a greater defensive impact than any other top D-pairing in hockey (Anton Stralman and Victor Hedman are the only pair that’s close). It’s getting to the point where the Canucks may legitimately boast a top-10 defensive pair in the NHL.
Perhaps more impressively, and where Tanev’s early season results have deviated from his career norms, is that the Canucks are also generating more shots when he’s on the ice than without him – though it’s early in the season. For all of Tanev’s defensive brilliance, he’s generally taken a little bit off of the table in terms of the offensive attack at even strength.
Tanev’s shot rate is still anemic for a top-pair defender and he only has one secondary assist at 5-on-5, but in terms of his club’s ability to generate shots when he’s on the ice relative to how the team fares without him, Tanev is having a similar offensive impact to what the likes of Mike Green, P.K. Subban and Morgan Rielly have managed.
Tanev is finally getting an extended look on the power play for the first time in his career, having scored his first career power-play tally on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings. In addition to that goal, Tanev’s helped punch up a second unit that produced virtually nothing last season and has even managed a middle-of-the-road shot rate.
Even if Tanev’s offensive game never takes a step, he’s likely to be a very good top-pairing blue-liner for years to come. And if he can continue to perform well on the power play while helping the club generate looks at 5-on-5, then the sky’s the limit.
Dan Murphy (Naked Eye):
Even if Chris Tanev was not seeing regular power-play time this season, I wouldn’t have a problem calling him Vancouver’s most irreplaceable defenceman. He is far and away their best shut down guy and top penalty killer. Perhaps just as important, he’s been a great fit for Alex Edler and the best fit since Christian Ehrhoff. Considering what Edler looked like a couple of seasons ago, it’s not a stretch to say that Tanev is the number one reason the soft-spoken Swede rediscovered his game. Without Tanev, Edler wouldn’t be nearly as effective, and without that pairing, the Canucks would be pushing hard for Auston Matthews. Sure, Canucks fans might love that scenario, but alas, that isn’t the purpose of this article.
When Tanev first broke in with the Canucks in 2010-11, he was a whisp of a man. Despite being slight at 170 pounds, Tanev looked solid from the get-go. He always appeared to make the right read and was very adept at passing the puck out of the defensive zone. He rarely got rattled despite the fact that it seemed like he was getting blown up by a big hit every fifth shift.
His game has only grown since.
Now a sturdy 195 pounds (thanks in part to Gary Roberts’ off-season training program and fancy diet), Tanev is more physically able to handle some of the bigger forwards in the game. No, his game is not based on power and intimidation, but he has the ability to separate players from the puck, something he couldn’t do in his early days.
That said, Tanev is thankful that he learned to play in the league as a lightweight. He feels that forced him to learn how to defend using his stick, angles and positioning. He was never going muscle someone off the puck, so he had to learn how to keep them from the net using other tactics.
I guess it’s no surprise that Tanev’s favourite player to watch growing up was Nicklas Lidstrom. As for getting victimized by big hits? Tanev says he’s trying to get back to the puck quicker and make faster decisions with it. But he added that while he’s still getting hit, he’s just better at absorbing them because he is bigger now.
Tanev’s offensive game is on the rise too. Seriously, it is. Listen, Tanev is never going to remind anyone of Erik Karlsson, but it’s not a stretch to say that he’s capable of being a 30-40 point guy. His slap shot is not a weapon but his wrist shot is.
He doesn’t have the release of McCann, and his wrister doesn’t match the velocity of Virtanen’s, but he is getting much better at getting pucks on net. And on the power-play, getting the puck on net is just as important as how fast it gets there. That’s something Tanev needs to teach his D-partner.
