Welcome to the Dark Side Minions: The Top Draft Prospects'14

[Arachnid]

I fail to see how attaining a lower draft slot than Toronto...but both remaining in the sewer of the NHL offers any kind of bragging rights.

...meanwhile, in other news: the Bruins have not self destructed, rid themselves of their Conn Smythe winning goaltender and are still at the top & competing for the President's trophy.

Not that the Canucks should tank or anything but I think they're doing the right thing by playing the people who haven't received much of a look. If anything they should ramp it up and play all these kids in all games then send whoever's eligible to Utica asap. Interested to see what Zalewski has to offer.

YOU DON'T LIVE MY PAIN CLAMCHOPS!

Anything, I will take anything to take down a Laugh fan, if it means bragging their fall from grace was far bigger than ours...I take man, I take it!

Sometimes it's the little pleasures in life make it soooooo sweet

The bragging can come from the higher draft choice Sir Octavian. Better prospects to smite them with.

Only if they pan out Maestro

[Arachnid]

Hey the Devils won the lottery when they were slated to pick 8th, moved up 4 spots and drafted Larsson. I believe they've made the odds even better since then at moving up.

Gotta get that 6th pick overall. Carolina have to win their final game, we have to lose our last two. The drop off in this draft is after the 6th pick. We gotta get in that Draisaitl, Dal Colle, Ritchie category. Apparentlly Burkie isn't high on Draisaitl and likes Ritchie more than Dal Colle. Interesting. If we are picking 7th it's a coin toss from there on out to the middle of the first round on who you can project to be the better prospect.

Fabbri and Tuch are fast risers right now. Fabbri just annihilated Horvat and the London Knights out of the playoffs, a one man show he was. Concerning how quiet Horvat was in this series. Tuch could be the first defenseman after Ekblad to get selected. Fleury seems to be falling. Sherbak may even get selected before Fleury.

Well it's looking like 7th heaven, anything can happen tomorrow. Phille could rest their stars and lose, Phlems could want to help Van Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, they will tank it just to spite us.

Some may drop out of top 6?

[Hockey Widow]

Ya7th guaranteed. I'd love the Canes to win tomorrow so we can pound the snot out of Calgary.

[Diehard1]

Ya7th guaranteed. I'd love the Canes to win tomorrow so we can pound the snot out of Calgary.

Not actually guaranteed 7th yet, if they lose out on the 6th overall and a team below them wins the lottery it could be the 8th pick. Small probability but it's there.

For me this is perfect, the top 8 is where you want to be. Gives you a shot at one of Ritchie, Ehlers or Nylander if 8th is the pick, while if you win the lottery you get one of the Sams. I see the drop off at 8 so locking up a top 8 pick means you get one of the guys I wanted.

Now, if you can lock up 6th you have a chance at Draisaitl or DalColle dropping, which would be ideal. This draft is such that there could be a real variance from team to team in the top 6. I'd be very happy to pick up Ritchie (huge, solid skater, mean, great shot) while DalColle or Draisaitl I would be ecstatic with.

I don't buy that it's a weak draft, the D aren't great and there's no consensus #1 overall but there are plenty of good potential top 6 forwards.

[nuckster]

Go Canes go!! Once it became painfully obvious that the Canucks weren't going to the post-season, I've been rooting for a total collapse/tanking in order to acquire a quality draft pick, an lo and and behold here we are! It's the ONE thing that the Canucks have done right this season! Picking 6th or 7th puts us into a position to also acquire a decent 2nd round pick as well - whoohoo.

So in a time when we're contending with a wholesale change in mgt., commencing towards a new future with some decent draft picks in conjunction with the ones we've already acquired in the last couple of seasons, things appear to be hopeful!

On a slightly different note: I wonder to myself if the Sedin's, Kesler, and some others, have been instructed in a round about way to let go of any concerns about winning right now? I ask that cause, as much as it's gratifying to see us get into position to acquire a good draft pick, a concern that arises is, are we REALLY this bad? Do the Sedin's suck as bad as they appear right now? Is Kesler really THAT unproductive right now? Cause if they really are and do suck like this, then one has to wonder how things are going to be be in 14/15?? I guess it's a 'bridge that Linden and the new GM will have to cross when we get there.

[Arachnid]

Go Canes go!! Once it became painfully obvious that the Canucks weren't going to the post-season, I've been rooting for a total collapse/tanking in order to acquire a quality draft pick, an lo and and behold here we are! It's the ONE thing that the Canucks have done right this season! Picking 6th or 7th puts us into a position to also acquire a decent 2nd round pick as well - whoohoo.

So in a time when we're contending with a wholesale change in mgt., commencing towards a new future with some decent draft picks in conjunction with the ones we've already acquired in the last couple of seasons, things appear to be hopeful!

On a slightly different note: I wonder to myself if the Sedin's, Kesler, and some others, have been instructed in a round about way to let go of any concerns about winning right now? I ask that cause, as much as it's gratifying to see us get into position to acquire a good draft pick, a concern that arises is, are we REALLY this bad? Do the Sedin's suck as bad as they appear right now? Is Kesler really THAT unproductive right now? Cause if they really are and do suck like this, then one has to wonder how things are going to be be in 14/15?? I guess it's a 'bridge that Linden and the new GM will have to cross when we get there.

They have been sucking since after Christmas so your weak argument does not compute...we draft low because they actually suck this year!

[ClamRussel]

On a slightly different note: I wonder to myself if the Sedin's, Kesler, and some others, have been instructed in a round about way to let go of any concerns about winning right now? I ask that cause, as much as it's gratifying to see us get into position to acquire a good draft pick, a concern that arises is, are we REALLY this bad? Do the Sedin's suck as bad as they appear right now? Is Kesler really THAT unproductive right now? Cause if they really are and do suck like this, then one has to wonder how things are going to be be in 14/15?? I guess it's a 'bridge that Linden and the new GM will have to cross when we get there.

I believe what you are seeing is an exhausted injured & frustrated team that has nothing really to play for at this point. There's a huge difference in being a veteran team that went from the top to this....compared to a young Oilers squad who never seem to get out of the basement (in terms of mindset for meaningless games like this). The Oilers were also digging deep for Smyth, the Canucks have clearly mailed it in.

[nuckster]

They have been sucking since after Christmas so your weak argument does not compute...we draft low because they actually suck this year!

I wasn't 'arguing' anything, I was posing some questions. I noticed that your response was basically a simplistic, 'We've been sucking since X-mas..."... do you think anyone who is a Canuck fan doesn't know that? Brilliant!

I was illuminating the mixed view how on one hand it's great to see us acquire a good draft pick, but on the other hand, looking forward, it's really unclear about how or what our future holds given how bad our main players have played. Clam raised a couple of good points. I seem to recall over the years that there's been a number of veteran laden teams that have had off seasons and then 're-tooled' and turned things around again in short order. Naturally, I'm hoping that's us - the Canucks.

[dbr]

I guess it's out of the Canucks' hands now, but if Trevor wanted to improve our chances of a high pick I wonder if he shouldn't have got word to the players that they'd be playing for John Tortorella's job the rest of the way..

[Hockey Widow]

I guess it's out of the Canucks' hands now, but if Trevor wanted to improve our chances of a high pick I wonder if he shouldn't have got word to the players that they'd be playing for John Tortorella's job the rest of the way..

Well since this Trevor lead team is 0-2 I think they are already playing for Torts's job, or not.

[Cornuck]

Well since this Trevor lead team is 0-2

Fire the President!!!

[Island Nucklehead]

I believe what you are seeing is an exhausted injured & frustrated team that has nothing really to play for at this point. There's a huge difference in being a veteran team that went from the top to this....compared to a young Oilers squad who never seem to get out of the basement (in terms of mindset for meaningless games like this). The Oilers were also digging deep for Smyth, the Canucks have clearly mailed it in.

Yep. This is a team that literally has nothing to play for.

1. Playoffs are long gone.
2. Coach is most likely long gone.
3. Most of the core has some form of NTC.
4. Lots of the guys are banged up and fatigued.

When you can't make the playoffs, you don't need to impress a coach going into next season, you pretty much control where you play next year, and you've been banged up and playing too much, it's hard to get up against a game when you can see the cottage and beers with the boys a couple days away.

[ClamRussel]

Well, with Carolina's shootout victory today (after blowing several leads) it looks like we have the 6 spot in the draft (depending on the lottery of course). So thats very exciting actually, I like the potential of a top 6 prospect in this year's draft as opposed to going on a hot streak and landing the 11th or 12th pick. Gives potential to move up or snag any of those top prospects who are left at that point. It will be very promising to add another blue chip player to our current crop in the system.

[Betamax]

Well, with Carolina's shootout victory today (after blowing several leads) it looks like we have the 6 spot in the draft (depending on the lottery of course). So thats very exciting actually, I like the potential of a top 6 prospect in this year's draft as opposed to going on a hot streak and landing the 11th or 12th pick. Gives potential to move up or snag any of those top prospects who are left at that point. It will be very promising to add another blue chip player to our current crop in the system.

I read ya ... Now a Canucks' fan could cheer for the Canucks to actually win their final game against the Flames without any potential negative consequences, since they've secured the sixth worst record this season.

How good or bad is that?

[Hockey Widow]

Well, with Carolina's shootout victory today (after blowing several leads) it looks like we have the 6 spot in the draft (depending on the lottery of course). So thats very exciting actually, I like the potential of a top 6 prospect in this year's draft as opposed to going on a hot streak and landing the 11th or 12th pick. Gives potential to move up or snag any of those top prospects who are left at that point. It will be very promising to add another blue chip player to our current crop in the system.

I read ya ... Now a Canucks' fan could cheer for the Canucks to actually win their final game against the Flames without any potential negative consequences, since they've secured the sixth worst record this season.

How good or bad is that?

I'll be watching and pumped for them to win one for Markstrom, Quinn, and Trevor!!!