Over the past several weeks, the Canucks blue line has been absolutely decimated by injuries, with all three of Dan Hamhuis, Luca Sbisa and Chris Tanev being out for periods of time. In their absence, Alex Biega was given the chance to play, and he took advantage of it in a big way.
Biega is a 27-year-old right-handed defenceman who, despite a fairly successful AHL career, never played a game at the NHL level until last season. Biega, nicknamed “bulldog” in Utica due to his tenacious style of play, dressed for seven games in 2014-15, scoring his first NHL goal against the Minnesota Wild and generally playing some pretty solid hockey. That was enough to (surprisingly) warrant a spot at the top of the Canucks’ call-up list, as Biega has played 17 contests this year, playing some big minutes and adding four assists to his name.
Over the course of his stint in Vancouver, Biega has averaged 18:12 in ice-time, with his past five TOI totals being 16:36, 19:08, 20:51, 17:02 and 18:17. Taking into account that prior to this season, the casual fan would likely have no idea who Alex Biega was, the fact that he can be relied on to play upwards of 19 or 20 minutes is astonishing. Biega is being relied on to play top-four minutes at this point, and doing so much more effectively than the likes of Hamhuis, Sbisa and Yannick Weber have this season. Considering the fact that his peers, namely the three aforementioned, have faltered on both ends of the puck this season, Biega’s simple steadiness is a refreshing sight, and with that, he may have earned himself a spot on this roster for the remainder of the campaign.
Biega is not the flashiest player on the team, far from it in fact. But sometimes, less is more, and in the case of the Canucks blueline, that should without doubt be the strategy of preference. Unfortunately, arguably only Alex Edler and Tanev can be relied upon to provide that kind of simplicity and steadiness with regularity (and even Edler is prone to glaring errors on occasion). Despite some shoddy possession numbers, including a 43% CorsiFor%, he passes the eye test with flying colors on the defensive side, and rarely makes any big mistakes that eventually lead to goals. Head coach Willie Desjardins has gone as far as to say when fully healthy, others will come out in place of the gritty Biega, a major compliment for a defenceman who had a whopping seven NHL games under his belt before this year.
Time will tell whether Biega develops into anything more than a solid bottom-pair defenceman. Considering his track record to-date, that may be a stretch, especially when taking his age into account. That said, he’s proven that he’s more than capable of playing at this level of hockey, and playing significant minutes at that. Whether he sticks around all season remains to be seen, but one thing’s for certain, and that’s that Biega has, at the very least, given management a challenge when the blue line returns to full health.
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