Vancouver Canucks Will Select 5th Overall at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft

For the second consecutive year, the Vancouver Canucks fall out of the top three into the fifth overall pick at the draft.

The NHL held its 2017 Draft Lottery Saturday night, and the Vancouver Canucks went into it with 12-percent odds to win the first-overall pick.

For the second year in a row, the lottery didn’t go their way, and they fell to fifth.

In fact, by the time deputy commissioner Bill Daly announced the seventh pick, it was clear that Vancouver had fallen yet again. Three teams below them had already moved into the top three spots: the Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers. Together they pushed the Canucks down from second to fifth.

Entering the lottery, the Flyers had just a 2.2-percent chance of picking first. The Stars had a 5.8-percent chance, while the Devils had an 8.5-percent chance.

When the dust had settled, it was Devils general manager Ray Shero who had won it all:

Dallas will pick third, while Philadelphia will pick second.

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The Canucks, meanwhile, struggled all year to win on the ice. It’s sadly appropriate that they also couldn’t manage to win tonight, either. As president Trevor Linden later said on TSN 1040, “they’re bouncing ping-pong out of a water cooler.” At the end of the day, despite finishing second-last, the Canucks just didn’t have enough balls.

Fans had hoped to see one of Nolan Patrick or Nico Hischier, both centermen, don a Vancouver uniform on draft day. Sadly, that won’t be the case.

However, there are still many other highly-rated prospects who may be available after pick four. Casey Mittelstadt, Gabriel Vilardi and Michael Rasmussen are all centers. Owen Tippett is a right winger who shot up the draft rankings with an outstanding season. And Timothy Liljegren looks like he could be an excellent two-way defenseman.

So, while picking in the top three would have been better, the Canucks now face a much more intriguing choice. After the first two picks, there are a number of players who are fairly evenly matched. Ranking them has been difficult.

It’s anyone’s guess which of these players will be selected third and fourth. Ultimately, we can’t know until draft day.

Next: All 2017 Draft Player Profiles

Once the Vancouver Canucks step to the podium, they will have a difficult choice ahead of them. Unfortunately, it’s not the “Nolan/Nico” choice they were hoping.