The Canuck Way
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Vancouver Canucks will pick seventh in 2018 NHL Draft

By Alex Hoegler

VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 28: (L-R) NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Francesco Aquilini, Vancouver Canucks Chairman and Governor and Trevor Linden, Vancouver Canucks President Hockey Operations hold a 2019 Vancouver Canucks 2019 Draft jersey during a press conference at Rogers Arena February 28, 2018 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Vancouver Canucks will host the 2019 NHL Draft at Rogers Arena, the National Hockey League, Canucks and City of Vancouver announced today. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 28: (L-R) NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Francesco Aquilini, Vancouver Canucks Chairman and Governor and Trevor Linden, Vancouver Canucks President Hockey Operations hold a 2019 Vancouver Canucks 2019 Draft jersey during a press conference at Rogers Arena February 28, 2018 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Vancouver Canucks will host the 2019 NHL Draft at Rogers Arena, the National Hockey League, Canucks and City of Vancouver announced today. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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For the third straight year, the NHL Draft Lottery was unkind to the Vancouver Canucks, who moved down one spot and will pick seventh in 2018.

It’s safe to assume that many Vancouver Canucks fans had very minor hope about winning the 2018 NHL Draft Lottery, considering the long history of this team’s misfortunes when it comes to picking the lucky numbers.

With just a 7.5 percent chance of winning and less than a one-in-four chance of picking in the top-three, Canucks fans knew their chances weren’t great. And sure enough, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly pulled up the team’s card earlier than the fans had hoped for.

Once again, the Canucks will miss out on the chance to draft a generational player. It was Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine in 2016, and it’ll be Rasmus Dahlin in 2018. It’s frustrating, but the Canucks never had the odds in their favour.

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But it’s important for fans to once again find the silver lining. Last year, they moved down and took Elias Pettersson with the fifth selection, and he’s looking like the man who could be the best player from the 2017 class.

It’s almost a lock that the Canucks will take a defenceman at this point. Dahlin will easily go first overall, while forwards Filip Zadina and Andrei Svechnikov look like easy top-five picks.

Of course, Vancouver also needs a blueliner more than they need a winger anyway. Even if they moved into the second or third slot, picking a defenceman would be the easy call.

With Dahlin, Svechnikov, Zadina and Brady Tkachuk all likely to go in the top-six, Vancouver will get a talented blueliner.

Noah Dobson, Evan Bouchard, Adam Boqvist and Quinn Hughes are all intriguing options. And let’s not forget there’s the opportunity for general manager Jim Benning to trade up or move down.

And moving down to seventh is not all that bad, as the Canucks could have fallen down to the eighth or ninth slots as well:

This year’s draft class is widely regarded as one of the best in recent memory, so it’s not all that bad for the Canucks to move down one spot. At the end of the day, only the winner of the Rasmus Dahlin sweepstakes can be fully content.

Next: Canucks: Stop chasing another team's model

It’ll be interesting to see how the Canucks approach the draft, as Benning will have many options in either trading up, moving down or standing pat. All that matters if that he finds that franchise blueliner they need most.

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