2019 NHL ENTRY DRAFT - Vancouver

[Diehard1]

as bad as our draft lottery luck has been the hockey gawds may have really done us some favours. We draft Pettersson and then Hughes. In the Pettersson draft Linden was asked if he would have taken one of the topt wo had we won the draft lottery. He said no. I think Pettersson was their pick no matter what, and Benning would have been crucified had he drafted Pettersson 1st or 2nd.

with Hughes he was the guy Benning coveted and he fell to us. The hockey gawds may just be saving the fan base from heart attacks.

Benning may like a do over on Virtanen and Juolevi, I know some fans would, but he hit home runs on Boeser, Pettersson and Hughes. I have faith wherever we land, whomever Benning selects, we will be OK.

I think Jimbo’s draft acumen is overstated - yes he got Petey and he looks amazing, but it took a 2nd last place finish to get him people seem to forget. Yes he got Hughes, but the kid hasn’t even played a game yet so I’m not going to give him credit just yet. Boeser is a solid pick at 23, but if you look back at that draft it’s stacked, it’s not like Jimbo pulled a rabbit out of a hat here. In the 10 picks around Brock names like Chabot, Colin White, Konecny, Roslovic, Beauvillier are there. Jimbo made a good pick but it’s also an amazing crop of kids. On a side note, Boston picked Senyshyn and Zboril in the 1st - ouch. The Demko pick could be solid as well, hopefully he keeps developing.

Jimbo has also picked Virtanen 6th overall and he doesn’t look like he will live up to that pick, traded a 1st rounder in McCann + a 2nd and a 4th for Guddy and a 5th which was awful, drafted Juolevi who has promise but there were much better players available, drafted Lind and Gadjovich who both regressed this year in Utica, lost Tryamkin, traded Forsling, etc. In fact the only players who look like good to great picks so far are a Petey, Boeser, Demko and hopefully Hughes. That’s with 4 picks in the top 7 of the draft, and 5 others from 20-40, so he’s had high picks to get very good talent.

So far his much vaunted drafting has been above average but not great. Yes there’s still time for development with Gaudette, Lind, Gadjovich, DiPietro, Woo, Madden and maybe a couple of others, but it’s not as great as people seem to think. His refusal to trade for more picks - if he utters the words ‘hockey trade’ once more I might lose it - is a huge issue that would really help, but Jimbo seems to like his reclamation projects instead of picks. Hard to win the draft and develop game when your rebuilding competitors have more picks than you do.

[SKYO]

The only flaw in your thought process DIEHARD, is the Canucks haven't even picked in the top 4 overall once since JB's arrival and prospect analyzers like Dobber and Pronman have the Canucks prospect pool either ranked #2 or #4 in the league since last summer.

And it's only gonna get better after this draft.

We got one of the youngest cores in the league developing, and they will only get better as time goes on.

Greener pastures lay ahead m8, stay tuned.

[Blob Mckenzie]

as bad as our draft lottery luck has been the hockey gawds may have really done us some favours. We draft Pettersson and then Hughes. In the Pettersson draft Linden was asked if he would have taken one of the topt wo had we won the draft lottery. He said no. I think Pettersson was their pick no matter what, and Benning would have been crucified had he drafted Pettersson 1st or 2nd.

with Hughes he was the guy Benning coveted and he fell to us. The hockey gawds may just be saving the fan base from heart attacks.

Benning may like a do over on Virtanen and Juolevi, I know some fans would, but he hit home runs on Boeser, Pettersson and Hughes. I have faith wherever we land, whomever Benning selects, we will be OK.

I think Jimbo’s draft acumen is overstated - yes he got Petey and he looks amazing, but it took a 2nd last place finish to get him people seem to forget. Yes he got Hughes, but the kid hasn’t even played a game yet so I’m not going to give him credit just yet. Boeser is a solid pick at 23, but if you look back at that draft it’s stacked, it’s not like Jimbo pulled a rabbit out of a hat here. In the 10 picks around Brock names like Chabot, Colin White, Konecny, Roslovic, Beauvillier are there. Jimbo made a good pick but it’s also an amazing crop of kids. On a side note, Boston picked Senyshyn and Zboril in the 1st - ouch. The Demko pick could be solid as well, hopefully he keeps developing.

Jimbo has also picked Virtanen 6th overall and he doesn’t look like he will live up to that pick, traded a 1st rounder in McCann + a 2nd and a 4th for Guddy and a 5th which was awful, drafted Juolevi who has promise but there were much better players available, drafted Lind and Gadjovich who both regressed this year in Utica, lost Tryamkin, traded Forsling, etc. In fact the only players who look like good to great picks so far are a Petey, Boeser, Demko and hopefully Hughes. That’s with 4 picks in the top 7 of the draft, and 5 others from 20-40, so he’s had high picks to get very good talent.

So far his much vaunted drafting has been above average but not great. Yes there’s still time for development with Gaudette, Lind, Gadjovich, DiPietro, Woo, Madden and maybe a couple of others, but it’s not as great as people seem to think. His refusal to trade for more picks - if he utters the words ‘hockey trade’ once more I might lose it - is a huge issue that would really help, but Jimbo seems to like his reclamation projects instead of picks. Hard to win the draft and develop game when your rebuilding competitors have more picks than you do.

I’ve never understood this regime’s unwillingness to acquire more draft picks during a rebuild. Instead they seem to want to acquire the guys 21-25 that are basically a finished product and have little upside to improve. Guys like Granlund, Baertschi, Gudbranson etc. Look at a team like. Yampa in the 15/16 drafts they picked 19 times, including five 2nd round picks.

[rikster]

The only flaw in your thought process DIEHARD, is the Canucks haven't even picked in the top 4 overall once since JB's arrival and prospect analyzers like Dobber and Pronman have the Canucks prospect pool either ranked #2 or #4 in the league since last summer.

And it's only gonna get better after this draft.

We got one of the youngest cores in the league developing, and they will only get better as time goes on.

Greener pastures lay ahead m8, stay tuned.

Good point...

I look at the world thru the lense of "as compared to what"...

How have the Canucks done at the draft table as compared to the other teams...

Take a look at any of the teams who have been drafting with the lottery teams over the past few years and they all can be criticised for leaving more talented players on the board....

But as compared to those teams from the little research I've done Benning has done a very good job and at the end of the day isn't that all that matters?

Take care...

[Topper]

When Benning was hired, his first priority was to refill the age gaps in the veteran line up he had inherited. handicapped with players on trade protected contracts he got on with the job of moving what he could when he could while bringing in player within defined age brackets who could fulfill roles while using his picks to generate the best prospect pool in Canuck history.

Given the odds of a second or third round pick having a NHL career of any significance and the cost of a high 1st round pick, I've never understood the fascination of accumulating anything other than high first round picks. While some may advocate for gathering as many handfulls of shit as possible, it is more about plucking gems.

[Carlyee]

When Benning was hired, his first priority was to refill the age gaps in the veteran line up he had inherited. handicapped with players on trade protected contracts he got on with the job of moving what he could when he could while bringing in player within defined age brackets who could fulfill roles while using his picks to generate the best prospect pool in Canuck history.

Given the odds of a second or third round pick having a NHL career of any significance and the cost of a high 1st round pick, I've never understood the fascination of accumulating anything other than high first round picks. While some may advocate for gathering as many handfulls of shit as possible, it is more about plucking gems.

+1. Many late round picks look like a polished turd to fans. Until they fail miserably, then they are just shit.

[Blob Mckenzie]

When Benning was hired, his first priority was to refill the age gaps in the veteran line up he had inherited. handicapped with players on trade protected contracts he got on with the job of moving what he could when he could while bringing in player within defined age brackets who could fulfill roles while using his picks to generate the best prospect pool in Canuck history.

Given the odds of a second or third round pick having a NHL career of any significance and the cost of a high 1st round pick, I've never understood the fascination of accumulating anything other than high first round picks. While some may advocate for gathering as many handfulls of shit as possible, it is more about plucking gems.

Tampa traded two of those picks for Ryan Mcdonaugh.

Tampa has long been considered a model organization. They draft and develop as good or better than anyone. Go have a gander at their draft record. They have a few 2nd and 3rd rounders helping out with the big club. More picks = more chances to draft a good player. Not to hard to figure out.

The whole age gap thing is funny. They could have found similar age gap guys on the waiver wire for the most part instead of puking away assets for these guys.

Yes guys like Brayden Point are polished turds for sure

[Island Nucklehead]

When Benning was hired, his first priority was to refill the age gaps in the veteran line up he had inherited. handicapped with players on trade protected contracts he got on with the job of moving what he could when he could while bringing in player within defined age brackets who could fulfill roles while using his picks to generate the best prospect pool in Canuck history.

Given the odds of a second or third round pick having a NHL career of any significance and the cost of a high 1st round pick, I've never understood the fascination of accumulating anything other than high first round picks. While some may advocate for gathering as many handfulls of shit as possible, it is more about plucking gems.

Seems that this was his trade/UFA strategy...

Don't buy the "age gap" thing. Guys like Sutter/Vey/Gudbranson/Sbisa/Pedan/ were brought in to fill this "gap".. where are they now? He should have tried to fill the lineup with NHL players that could either last through the rebuild as placeholders, or contribute to the team long-term. Paying a premium for 23-26 year old journeymen, as opposed to picking up free/cheap 29-32 year old journeymen, made zero sense.

[DonCherry4PM]

When Benning was hired, his first priority was to refill the age gaps in the veteran line up he had inherited. handicapped with players on trade protected contracts he got on with the job of moving what he could when he could while bringing in player within defined age brackets who could fulfill roles while using his picks to generate the best prospect pool in Canuck history.

Given the odds of a second or third round pick having a NHL career of any significance and the cost of a high 1st round pick, I've never understood the fascination of accumulating anything other than high first round picks. While some may advocate for gathering as many handfulls of shit as possible, it is more about plucking gems.

Seems that this was his trade/UFA strategy...

Well said. Particularly cogent when looking at the fifth round pick Gaudette’s play and how it supercedes Sutter’s.

We want to laud JB as a genius drafter but we dont want to support acquiring more picks with which he could “pluck [more] gems”.

[Madcombinepilot]

Problem was, we didn't have any assets worth anything to acquire those extra picks with.

Gillis emptied the cupboards going for it. That was mandated from owners. No problem with that, as we went all the way to games 7.

The we got JB.

In his first couple years, there was a different mandate from upstairs. There was one plan. Picks were moved out for players. We only had a couple of players what were actually worth any kind of decent pick (1st-4th), but most of them were hampered by trade clauses. When a guy like Hamhuis gives you one team, and they only offer a 6th, and you can't "run up the bid" (so to speak) by offering him to a conference rival, what do you do? Players that would waive were moved for a decent price (Hansen, Burrows, Bieksa, etc)

Then a couple years ago, the mandate changed to rebuild, and there's was a new plan. By then, we had no players to move for quality picks (I guess Hansen and Burrows fall here- but who else??) What's the point of getting a bunch of 6th and 7th rounders? Shit on the wall. Now We finally have a couple guys that we might be able to move for some 3-5 picks (gem finding territory for JB) but anyone worth more than that, are guys we want to keep.

If other teams don't offer the picks, at least JB turned the players into some kind of Prosepct. What else is there to do??

[Island Nucklehead]

Problem was, we didn't have any assets worth anything to acquire those extra picks with.

Didn't Benning turn Kesler/Bieksa/Garrison and Lack into 1st/2nd/2nd/3rd/3rd round picks? Of course he turned around and lit most of those on fire...

packaging Bonino and the Bieksa pick for Sutter.
turning the 1st (and adding a second) into Gudbranson Tanner Pearson.
Turning Garrison's 2nd into Vey nothing.

Thankfully, the rebuild on the fly period is over.

[Madcombinepilot]

Problem was, we didn't have any assets worth anything to acquire those extra picks with.

Didn't Benning turn Kesler/Bieksa/Garrison and Lack into 1st/2nd/2nd/3rd/3rd round picks? Of course he turned around and lit most of those on fire...

packaging Bonino and the Bieksa pick for Sutter.
turning the 1st (and adding a second) into Gudbranson Tanner Pearson.
Turning Garrison's 2nd into Vey nothing.

Thankfully, the rebuild on the fly period is over.

Like I said, the guys that waived, he moved. Got a decent price for them.

But by the time we were in true rebuild, we didn't really have any assets to trade for picks.

We will be lucky to get 4th round picks for Pearson, Spooner, etc. Perhaps a 3rd for Sutter. (If he waives)

[Topper]

Law of Averages

Show me the math.

[SKYO]

When Benning was hired, his first priority was to refill the age gaps in the veteran line up he had inherited. handicapped with players on trade protected contracts he got on with the job of moving what he could when he could while bringing in player within defined age brackets who could fulfill roles while using his picks to generate the best prospect pool in Canuck history.

Given the odds of a second or third round pick having a NHL career of any significance and the cost of a high 1st round pick, I've never understood the fascination of accumulating anything other than high first round picks. While some may advocate for gathering as many handfulls of shit as possible, it is more about plucking gems.

Tampa traded two of those picks for Ryan Mcdonaugh.

Tampa has long been considered a model organization. They draft and develop as good or better than anyone. Go have a gander at their draft record. They have a few 2nd and 3rd rounders helping out with the big club. More picks = more chances to draft a good player. Not to hard to figure out.

The whole age gap thing is funny. They could have found similar age gap guys on the waiver wire for the most part instead of puking away assets for these guys.

Yes guys like Brayden Point are polished turds for sure

And their cornerstone players Stamkos and Hedman are closing in on 30, they were drafted 1st and 2nd overall in 2008, 2009 respectively.
couple years later they reached the conference finals but they still had Lecavalier + St. Louis, Ohlund's last season, Malone was still scoring decent.

Missed the playoffs for a couple years after that, lost in 1st round and finally reached the Cup finals in 2015 about 6-7 years after their new young core was drafted.

Lost the Cup, then lost in conference finals, missed the playoffs, lost in conference finals, now their top main core is almost reaching 30 ish but they are still in their prime and the team just won the Prez trophy.

Point is, you draft and develop a new young core but it takes them awhile to be able to compete for the Cup, so long as you surround that core with capable talent. Sell high when needed, sell a player before they need a new contract sometimes, don't be afraid to sell at the right time.

Hell even Ovechkin & the Caps didn't finally win the Cup till he was in his 32!


Having said all that Tampa has been a top team for many years after they scored both Hedman and Stamkos, and that's what the big boss hog Francesco Aquilini wants, be a contender for 10+ years.

So Benning and co. building around Pettersson, Horvat, Boeser, Hughes, ______? and Demko I believe we are on the right path to become that.

[Blob Mckenzie]

So if Tampa trades away all their later picks I guess they’d still be just as good without Point, Palat, Kucherov, Cirelli etc