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Picker of Cherries wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2026 2:45 pm Canucks sign Novotny:

https://www.nhl.com/canucks/news/canuck ... l-contract

Remember just because he will be the best winger for the Canucks at training camp, he shouldn’t be on the Vancouver Canucks next season.
He will only be the best because the rest of the wingers are shit.
Let him develop properly. Keep him off the team!

Amen.

Picker of Cherries wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2026 2:45 pm Canucks sign Novotny:

https://www.nhl.com/canucks/news/canuck ... l-contract

Remember just because he will be the best winger for the Canucks at training camp, he shouldn’t be on the Vancouver Canucks next season.
He will only be the best because the rest of the wingers are shit.
Let him develop properly. Keep him off the team!

+1

His scouting reports indicated that he was one of the more "pro-ready" prospects in the first round. We'll see come camp.

I wager if he shows up and shows off this training camp, he'll get the Cootes treatment and get a cup of coffee to get a taste of it before going back to junior with a training plan.

I am thinking of going to the leaves vs Canucks on Oct 31, where is the best places to buy tickets?

Edit - figured it out, TicketMaster, seems single tickets go on sale tomorrow for general public.

Picker of Cherries wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2026 2:45 pm Remember just because he will be the best winger for the Canucks at training camp, he shouldn’t be on the Vancouver Canucks next season.
He will only be the best because the rest of the wingers are shit.
Let him develop properly. Keep him off the team!

Unlike Cootes, the Canucks can't put Novotny in the AHL. He's in the CHL or the NHL.

Which between the two is the best place to develop is an open question. I lean against the NHL, but I think you have to be flexible to the circumstances with the individual player. If comes in and looks like a Kindel (for a recent example of a player that few had on their radar for being in the NHL last year), then developing in the NHL may be better. I suspect he's a good candidate to get the 9 game (or whatever it is) look see. That look see is a benefit of the CHL over the NCAA, but that's the only one. Kind of wish he was developing in the NCAA....

He can also go play in the Czech league again. Probably the best scenario for his development

Cousin Strawberry wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2026 8:53 am He can also go play in the Czech league again. Probably the best scenario for his development

Maybe that's true.

Though truth be told, guys in Novotny's position have played another year or two (I think at his age it is two) in juniors after the draft and that's just how they developed and they did just fine. I am not certain he has more to learn in the CHL, but its not like he was so dominate that its silly to return. His numbers were very good for a 17 year old, but they weren't video game numbers.

Nowadays, its just that there's more options, and that guys with advanced physical maturity (like Novotny) could benefit from those options. (I guess the europe option is always there for players, and for europeans its a more attractive alternative).

But we are definitely moving in the direction of the NCAA as the preferred post-draft (and sometimes pre-draft) stopover. There was a lot of fear that the CHL would suffer for this, but it looks like that the effect is actually just going to be the CHL gets more younger talent. The guys going junior A or USHL to maintain NCAA eligibility will go CHL. And sometimes these are very good players. NCAA was always a "look two steps ahead" thing for Canadians; it was the default pathway for Americans. But since you can go CHL to NCAA, there are so many Americans who are taking that option. So there's *more* talent going to the CHL, but they are staying for a shorter period.

The real losers from the new arrangement are junior A and the USNDP.

He's a late birthdate so he only needs one more year of junior before he can go to Abby. And actually, as a late birthdate with just one year of junior eligibility left, he might be eligible for the Abby 19 year old first round pick spot along with Cootes. This highlights a potential problem with this new rule for teams with more than one eligible player. Although the Czech league (or even Sweden or Finland) is an option as Cousin Strawberry mentioned.

So it has been reported that the Canucks attempted to trade picks 33 and 41 to Ottawa for picks 25 and 72. Ottawa thought on it until pick 25 came up and they picked Jonas Lagerberg-Hoen who they had ranked at 16 overall. Not sure who the Canucks were after at 25 but it has been suggested they got him at 33.

So maybe a good trade to not have happen.

My guess is they were after the big 6’7 Dman, Sokolovskii we had talked about who was picked a couple picks after Ottawa picked.