Vancouver Canucks: 5 prospects in The Hockey News Top 100
By Alex Hoegler
The Hockey News published a list of the top 100 NHL prospect in their “Future Watch” magazine. A look at which Canucks made the list, and how their future stacks up against the others.
There’s no denying that 2017-18 has been another letdown year for the Vancouver Canucks and their fans — who thought some form of progress would be made this year.
Despite a Calder Trophy-caliber season from Brock Boeser and sustained excellence from Bo Horvat and the Sedin twins, Vancouver is surely going to finish in the bottom-three this year. Perhaps dead last.
Of course, there is a silver lining to everything. The Canucks are going to have a prime chance to win the draft lottery and select generational defenceman Rasmus Dahlin with the first pick. If not, they can still draft a big-time scorer in Filip Zadina or Andrei Svechnikov. Left winger Brady Tkachuk and blueliner Adam Boqvist are also potential franchise-changing players.
But while general manager Jim Benning gets a ton of heat for some head-scratching trades (hello Brandon Sutter), and questionable signings (Loui Eriksson), there’s no denying he’s built the best prospect pipeline in this team’s history.
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The Hockey News published their 2018 “Future Watch” edition. What they did was rank the top 100 NHL prospects, while ranking every team’s young core/pipeline system and giving each one a grade.
The Canucks “Future Watch” garnered a B+ rating and was ranked ninth-overall. Elias Pettersson — the fifth pick in last year’s draft — was ranked as the second-best prospect. Only Casey Mittelstadt of the Buffalo Sabres was ranked higher.
Defenceman Olli Juolevi (21st), goalie Thatcher Demko (38th), forward Jonathan Dahlen (66th), and crafty centre Adam Gaudette (77th), were the other Canuck prospects to make the list.
No team had more prospects ranked in the top 100 than the Canucks (five). The Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators were the only other ones to also have five.
And with that, the harshest of Benning critics need to step back and applaud the fourth-year GM for his work. Keep in mind that he went off the board in taking Pettersson — whom many scouts didn’t think would be a top-10 pick.
Demko was a steal with the 36th pick in 2014, while Gaudette wasn’t taken until the 149th selection in 2015. And don’t forget that Benning turned ageing veteran Alexandre Burrows into Dahlen (thanks, Ottawa).
Of course, many are also blaming Benning for drafting Juolevi over big forward Matthew Tkachuk — who’s enjoying a 24-goal, 49-point season with the Calgary Flames. But Juolevi has trained extensively under former Canuck blueliner Sami Salo, and he has a chance to turn pro next season.
But the man deserves more credit than criticism when it comes to the prospect/pipeline system. Vancouver owns world class talents in Boeser and Pettersson, with perhaps much more on the way.
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The Canucks own one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL right now, and it’s only going to get deeper when they pick in the top-10 again this year. That should give the frustrated fans something to be happy about.