So, after the Canucks emerge from the brutal drafting strategies of Pat Quinn, Brian Burke takes over and makes an immediate splash by drafting not one, but two furture superstars for the team in Daniel and Henrik Sedin.  But would Burke continue his drafting success, or succumb to the mediocrity to which most of his predecessors eventually succumbed? In some ways yes, in other ways no.  Drafting R.J. Umberger was a great pick, but Burke’s stubbornness in contract negotiations allowed a young strong center with hands to walk away from the club.  Also, how would Duncan Keith look on the Canucks blue line next to Kevin Bieksa and Erik Karlsson? It could have happened.  And, when Dave Nonis and Mike Gillis take the team into the modern era, is there any reason to  be hopeful in Canuck nation?  Probably not.

While this is not an argument to bring back Brian Burke, Burke’s draft picks are very good compared to the rest of the motley assortment of GM’s who have managed this franchise.  Overall though, it is difficult to deny that the Canucks and the draft have had a malodorous relationship in the forty or so years of the team’s existence explaining, in part, why the team has never won a Stanley Cup.

The infamous Cam Neely trade was not the only thing then Canucks GM Jack Gordon botched. Canucks drafting in the middle years was bad.

Previous to this, I had a look at the draft years at the early stages and the dynasty that could have been.  The Canucks, unlike the more established franchises, seemed determined to pass up on hall-of-fame and perennial all-star calibre players in favour of serviceable NHL’ers who sometimes gave the team a few decent years.  In 1984 alone, the Canucks could have drafted Gary Roberts, Patrick Roy, Brett Hull, and Luc Robitaille in the same draft.  Obviously one cannot expect the team to nail all their picks, but it seemed quite clear the Canucks team builders of the early years weren’t good at that scouting thing.

The early years were marked as much by their tendency to yield incompetent play and poor decisions on the ice, as they were by their tendency to change in the head office. In the franchise’s first ten years, they changed coaches six times and captains five.  Four General Managers Bud Poile (1970-1973), Hal Laycoe (’73-’74), Phil Maloney (’74-76), and Jake Milford (’77-’81) made picks for the team in the 70′s.  It was Milford who drafted something that resembled a new core for the 80′s, adding stable and productive players such as Thomas Gradin, Stan Smyl and Richard Brodeur.  Despite having losing season after losing season, the Canucks led by draft picks Smyl, Brodeur, and Gradin, did muster a miraculous Stanley Cup playoff run in 1982, but the success did not materialize on the ice in the following seasons.

After the Jake Milford tenure, it was Harry Neale’s turn to steer the Canucks for three years between 1982 and 1985.   Neale saw the team slip into its worst period of the 80′s and his drafting tactics seemed no better than his predecessors so he was fired for the man who would be remembered as having the dubious distinction of facilitating the worst trade in the history of the franchise, the infamous “Cam Neely trade”. According to this post, the Bruins received no less than 13 players and counting for Barry Pederson as a residual effect  Two thirds of the Bruins current second line, Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic, are playing for the B’s thanks to none other than the Canucks GM between 1985-1987, Jack Gordon.

Not coincidentally, Gordon would never receive a job offer from another NHL team after the Canucks fired and replaced him with the true founder of the NHL team as we know it today, former expansion draft pick and Pat Quinn commits 4 penalties on one hit” href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UWpW-Z3BmY” target=”_blank”>Bobby Orr nemesis, Pat Quinn. Not all of Quinn’s picks were home runs, but the big Irishman had a knack for selecting game changing talents and taking calculated risks with his picks.  Sometimes it didn’t hurt that Trevor Linden landed in his lap, but it hurt a lot when Quinn selected Petr Nedved over Jaromir Jagr. At any rate, Quinn’s tenure between 1987-1997, represents the single most important figure in the team’s history. When he was eventaully replaced by his protege, Brian Burke, the team had Quinn’s handprints all over it for his abilities as a trader.  But did he know his stuff when it came to drafts?  Check it out below.

Mike Bossy could have been a Vancouver Canuck. Image source: Joe Pelletier’s Greatest HockeyLegends

By 1980 The Canucks could have won a Stanley Cup.  Imagine a team with a  back end with the likes of Mark Howe, Randy Carlyle, Larry Robinson, Rod Langway and Ray Bourque pushing pucks up to Darryl Sittler, Steve Shutt, Lanny McDonald, Stan Smyl, Barry Pederson and Mike Bossy.  By 1984, the Canucks could have added Al MacInnis to the aging blue line, and Dave Andreychuk to replace the retiring Sittler.  If they played their cards right, Patrick Roy could have backstopped the team moving forward into the 90′s.

It could have been the Canucks and not the Oilers, Canadiens or Islanders that, by 1980 were a perennial dynastic cup favourite.

The early years of Canucks drafting tell a tale of a franchise learning how to assess NHL caliber players.  Many fans lament about being burned on the initial entry draft roulette wheel which cost the team consensus number one Gilbert Perreault, but considering the names that got away, fans are probably better off questioning the team’s scouting, especially in the early years.  The list of “should have drafted’s”  in the early days is enough to fill a wing in the Hockey Hall of Fame.Consider any one of the following scenarios and how they could have changed the Canucks’ fortune.

Next week:  The Middle Years and how Burke changed everything.