Vancouver Canucks 2016 NHL Draft Profile: W Tim Gettinger
The Vancouver Canucks are preparing for the 2016 NHL Entry Draft — and so are we.
Unfortunately, the 2015-16 season was cut short for the Vancouver Canucks, which means we have a long offseason ahead of us. Canucks GM Jim Benning and his staff will use the time to prepare next season’s roster, and the 2016 NHL Entry Draft will certainly play an important part in that process.
Vancouver started off strong in the fall of 2015 but ended the season with a thud. Thanks to their abysmal 28th rank in the league standings, the Canucks own seven picks early in each round. Benning did a great job in his first two years at the job and another successful draft could certainly help boost the rebuild.
Here at The Canuck Way, we will do our best to prepare you for the upcoming event by profiling as many draft-eligible players as we possibly can. Keep in mind that we are not saying these are players the Canucks are targeting. Instead, these are players that we think the Canucks could or should have interest in.
Let’s take a look at winger Tim Gettinger of the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds!
Name: Tim Gettinger
Position: Left Wing/Right Wing
Shoots: Left
Height, weight: 6’6”, 203 lbs
Team/League: Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, OHL
Stats (from eliteprospects.com):
G
A
P
PIM
+/-
6017223932-4
NHL CSS Ranking: 37th (North American Skaters)
Risk, Reward: 3.5/5, 4/5
NHL-potential: Top-Six Forward
Draft Range: Second to Third Round
Scouting report
"Oversized lanky wing with surprising feet and mobility, hockey sense and hands. has long term potential as an NHL power forward down the road. Plays on bothe the PP and PK. A three zone player with a good release, soft hands, and inside touch. Plays pretty strong with the puck and along the boards, and makes good decisions in all phases. Long term prospect with good upside. (Bill Placzek, Draftsite.com)"
Strengths
Tim Gettinger is a huge winger who possesses a lot of raw talent that turns him into a high-risk, high-reward player.
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The most obvious asset is his size. At 6-foot-6, 203 pounds, Gettinger is huge, not only for junior hockey standards. When he stands in front of the net to screen the goalie and deflects shots, you need a player at least Gettinger’s size to move him out of the way. He uses his body well to win battles along the boards, shield the puck or drive to the net.
Despite that size, Gettinger is definitely a solid skater. He has good speed and is quite mobile. As opposed to many other players of his size, he does not struggle with ‘east-west mobility’.
Furthermore, Gettinger has decent hockey sense, a good, strong shot — again thanks to his size — and he moves the puck well. Now don’t be fooled when I tell you that this is the end of the strength section for Gettinger but he will likely still be a second-round pick. There is a reason.
Weaknesses
The reason why Gettinger is not ranked higher is that he has a lot of raw tools and does many things right, but nothing outstanding. For now, that is a weakness. If he develops each and every one of those tools, though, he can become an absolute home-run pick.
The biggest thing scouts criticize is the use of his body. While Gettinger does use his frame well to shield the puck and battle along the boards, he does not hit much. If he changed that, he could be a punishing power forward of the Milan Lucic kind.
However, it is not like Gettinger never hits and never makes great plays. He just doesn’t do it consistently enough. His 17 goals and 39 points are alright, but they are not worth a first or even second-round pick. Then we do see flashes of what he can do every once in a while — hit, battle, drive to the net, score — and envisioning what kind of player he could be at the next level is intriguing.
Raw skill, a gigantic frame and too little consistency.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for big, amazing plays, you are looking at the wrong player — for now. As mentioned before, he has the potential to be a home-run pick. But he could end up being a fourth-line grinder just as well. Just maybe a fourth-line grinder who doesn’t hit very much.
Because of that, Gettinger can most certainly be labelled a high-risk, high-reward pick. Unlike Alex DeBrincat, who was the last player to get that label in our profiles, Gettinger does not have that one outstanding skill that would justify a first or early second-round selection. Therefore, he will be a third-round option for the Vancouver Canucks.
Teams never want too many risky picks in one draft. Getting as many future NHL players as possible is one of the most important goals. But one pick in the third round can’t hurt, right?
If the Canucks go ‘safe’ in the first two rounds and go with, say, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Patric Laberge, why not make a risky pick for a winger with a sky-high ceiling?
Next: More 2016 NHL Draft Profiles
Gettinger’s size, skating and skill should allow him to make the NHL eventually, so he is not an entirely unsafe pick. The question is whether he will become a top-six power forward or a fourth-line grinder. Nobody wants to use a second-round pick on a fourth liner.