Sutter and Gudbranson aren't even better than the players they've replaced or are replacing.
Hamhuis, 50% CF, on his old man legs is still a better defender, both defensively and in his all-around play, than the man ten years younger, 46% CF, and Hamhuis was on the lesser team, defensively (and that's not even mentioning how the Canucks are in the better conference, overall). And if anyone tries to argue that's because Gudbranson played much of this last season with Willie Mitchell, lemme say that Hammer played most of this past season with noted anchors Weber and Bartowski. And his stats still come out looking better. (Not to mention, Gudbranson's other main partner, Campbell, played even better without Gudbranson stapled to him. And Campbell had a hell of a season, even playing with Gudbranson.)
In terms of the eye test, Hammer's still the better defender. He's fully capable of retrieving the puck, and passing it out in an instant. He can also skate it out, if necessary. And that pushes the fore-checkers past the blue line, which makes a huge difference. There's room for Hamhuis to make the best play. Whereas with Gudbranson, he looks for his defensive partner to make the play out of the zone. The reason is simple. The opposing team will place two fore-checkers on him all game long. And they'll camp out in the Canucks zone, every time dumping the puck into Gudbranson's corner. They'll take away his foreward pass, trying to force him into the backhand pass to his defensive partner. And this doesn't even have to work every time. It's only important to keep doing it, because fatigue plays a huge role during winning time, which is basically the last ten minutes of the game.
As for Sutter and Bonino... Sutter can skate, score, and defend, but Bonino can make his teammates better, score, and defend. And he's getting paid $2.5 million less. I'd like to compare their CF%, but it's honestly skewed due to Sutter playing so little this season. But if we were to take the previous season into account, it can be argued Bonino can be trusted to take a larger role on any team he's playing on, and kill it. He played 200 less minutes this season, and was just as, if not even more, effective with the Pens as he'd been with the Canucks.
In terms of the eye test... Bonino knows what he's doing on the ice. He can be trusted by his teammates to be in the right position, every shift. And he'll make the best possible play, even under pressure. As for Sutter, he relies entirely on his athleticism. Because he's so athletic, he can generally break up plays defensively, but he can only play one direction offensively. He can only play north, attacking on the rush. He's like a winger, offensively. He had some early success playing with the Sedins, because they'd generally try to spring him open on breakaways from their own blue line. It was the same basic strategy they had while playing with Hansen, but Hansen can play in the cycle, and Sutter looks absolutely lost in the cycle. He killed half the Sedin's chances. That experiment didn't last very long, once teams started sitting back, forcing the line to grind it out.