These rankings seem off to me.
I clicked to see how bad OP ranked the Canucks and imo they are way too high. Last year I made a game in our GDTs of counting clean outlet passes by Canucks D. Over the couple games I did this, Canucks had as few as ONE clean breakout pass from a D up to a maximum of six or so. Most were coming from Alex Biega last year.
Last years Canucks D were so bad that they smelled like melting plastic. Canucks organizational D depth has been a lightning rod for fans for years and it’s as anemic as ever. Even though we signed three D, we let some go too, and unfortunately three shovels full of earth don’t do much to plug a hole.
Thinking about it, I'm convinced OP may be weighing the arrival of Quinn Hughes too heavily. The kids going to be a rookie, and while he looked capable at the start of the last season, the schedule is long and full of disastrous d pairings.
I don’t see improvement enough in our D to pull us out of the bottom third of league defences.
The Canucks D faces both problems you ascribe to others. We have NO top end upper echelon players except Quinn Hughes, who may I remind you is an undersized rookie. I love Quinnie as much as the next guy but I think it’s irresponsible to expect a rookie dman to step in and vault his entire D core up ten spots singlehandedly. I doubt Myers is moving the needle and Jamie Benn is a solid guy, but again, not a world beater. No top end talent and debatable if we have two top pairing D to start the season. Tanev looking worse these days.
The other problem for Canucks D is depth. After Fantenberg, our depth is shallow. Extremely so. Biega our best number eight but we’re guaranteed three injuries on the back end. Juolevi is a bust who’s afraid if physical contact. He’s not going to be providing a solid push from below. After Biega, sautner is most nhl ready to push.
Canucks D depth and top end talent both leave plenty to be desired. No way they should be this high in this list.