Canucks GM: 'I think we can get help on the back end'

Patrik Allvin acknowledges his Vancouver Canucks have a rather notable area of concern.

"Do I think we need another defenseman?" the general manager said Wednesday, according to Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre. "I think we can get help on the back end, yes."

Several Canucks blue-liners have been shouldering heavy workloads this season due to injuries. Vancouver ruled Carson Soucy out for six-to-eight weeks on Nov. 15, Guillaume Brisebois hasn't played since sustaining a concussion in the preseason, and Ethan Bear was given a six-month timetable upon having shoulder surgery in June.

Quinn Hughes has vaulted himself into the Hart Trophy conversation with his elite play, but he's averaging nearly 25 minutes of ice time (24:45) and over 26 minutes in the last 10 games. Filip Hronek ranks second on the club in that department for the season (24:38), averaging 25:36 over his last 10.

Ian Cole is also logging over 20 minutes per contest, while Tyler Myers played a personal season-high 23:06 on Tuesday night.

Allvin freed up $4.15 million of cap space by trading Anthony Beauvillier to the Chicago Blackhawks earlier this week. Vancouver is now approximately $5.73 million under the cap ceiling, per CapFriendly.

"There's a lot of pieces out there," the GM said. "But again, I think we owe it to the players internally here to put them in that position to succeed. We all know that we have some injuries, you know, on the back end and Pius Suter up top. We're looking at ways to see where we can strengthen our team."

The Canucks have experimented with several internal depth options, including Cole McWard, Noah Juulsen, Mark Friedman, and Akito Hirose.

Vancouver has regressed to a degree since getting off to a roaring start to the campaign. The Canucks now sit third in the Pacific Division by points percentage (.674) with a 15-7-1 record and three more games played than the Los Angeles Kings.