Ex-Canuck makes bold predication on newly acquired D-man Erik Brannstrom

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Cooper Godin
October 11, 2024 (3:15 PM)

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Former Vancouver Canuck Frankie Corrado shared what the team can expect from recently-acquired blueliner Erik Brannstrom this season.

The Vancouver Canucks went out earlier this week and acquired acquired defenceman Erik Brannstrom from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for injured blueliner Tucker Poolman, with 20% salary retention, and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft.

By bringing in Erik Brannstrom, who's a former first-round pick of the Vegas Golden Knights, it gives the Vancouver Canucks and Rick Tocchet even more depth to work with and with the length and toughness of an 82-game season, you can never have enough depth in the National Hockey League.

On Friday's edition of Sekeres and Price, former Vancouver Canucks defenceman Frankie Corrado spoke highly of Erik Brannstrom and shared the team can expect from the Swedish blueliner this year. Corrado believes that Brannstrom could come in and help the Canucks' third pairing that currently features Derek Forbort and Vincent Desharnais, who, although it's still very, very early, didn't look that great on Wednesday night against the Calgary Flames.

"Oh yeah, you guys got Branny." Corrado said. "I like Branny, I played with him in Belleville with the Sens. He's really skilled and he's almost had to dumb it down to hang on in the NHL as long he has. He's simplified his game. The thing about Branny is he's not your prototypical third-pair defenceman and he's almost dumbed his game down to the point where he's not what Quinn Hughes can do, as dynamic, as elusive, as offensive. So he kind of got caught somewhere in the middle." Corrado said.

He added, "The thing about him is, if you put him with a big guy, who can do some of the gnarly stuff, you can get good usage out of Erik Brannstrom. He can probably help one of those guys, whether it's Forbort or Desharnais, although I would think it's Desharnais because Brannstrom's a left-shot, Desharnais is a right-shot, like he can kind of help him bit too. So, I think Brannstrom will factor in sooner rather than later, just because, you know, if you put him with a big guy, I think it insulates him and it helps out with some puck moving for two guys, they struggled last night."

For now, the Canucks are comfortable having Erik Brannstrom down in the American Hockey League playing a big role for Abbotsford, who open up their 2024-25 schedule tonight against the Calgary Wranglers. It wouldn't be a surprise at all if the Vancouver Canucks decide to call Erik Brannstrom up to the NHL before Christmas.