Seven games into the 2022-23 campaign, it feels like the Vancouver Canucks' season is over before it even started. The Canucks have yet to crack the win column, sitting last in the NHL with an 0-5-2 record.

This clearly isn't how president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin drew it up entering their first full season with the club. But it's at least partially their fault for failing to address a glaring team need: the defense.

The Canucks are blessed with ample firepower up front and a franchise goalie in Thatcher Demko, but an inept blue line renders the team's strengths moot. The forwards can't generate the offense they're capable of because the defense can't break out the puck. And Demko is being hung out to dry because the team – forwards included – doesn't defend well.

Injuries have already depleted this group to begin the season, but even at full strength, there are a lot of holes. Quinn Hughes is the only real building block, and as great as he is offensively, he has defensive deficiencies. The prospect pipeline on defense isn't any more promising than the group on the active roster, either.

What could new regime have done differently?

The Canucks hired Rutherford in December, while Allvin was hired in January. In that time, the only noteworthy blue-line additions have been Travis Dermott and Riley Stillman, who are, at best, third-pairing defensemen.

Allvin's top offseason priority should've been upgrading the blue line. That's easier said than done, of course, but the Canucks could've used J.T. Miller as trade bait, as we suggested in the offseason, to help improve the back end. Instead, the Canucks signed Miller to a seven-year extension that carries an $8-million cap hit through his age-36 season. It's already becoming easy to see how that contract could go south.