Vancouver Canucks: Why Jim Benning shouldn’t trade up in draft
By Alex Hoegler
Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning owns the seventh pick in this year’s draft. He needs to be content with that pick, because there’s no reason to trade up in this class.
For the third consecutive year, lady luck was against the Vancouver Canucks as they fell down to the seventh spot in the 2018 NHL draft lottery, though the drop off wasn’t as bad compared to the previous two years.
In 2016, the 28th-placed Canucks moved down two spots. Last year was even worse, as they finished second-last but also fell down to the fifth selection. This year, however, they only moved down one place.
And that will do just fine. Rasmus Dahlin is going to the Buffalo Sabres with the top pick. Filip Zadina and Andrei Svechnikov will almost certainly be two of the next three selections.
By the time Benning drafts, he may get a chance at forward Brady Tkachuk, otherwise one of the next top blueliners in Noah Dobson, Evan Bouchard, Quinn Hughes or Adam Boqvist.
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With that, there is literally no reason at all for Benning to trade up. Tkachuk is probably the best player out of those five, but the organizational need is on defence. If Benning wants Tkachuk and tries to trade up one or two spots, he’s making the wrong decision.
Tkachuk is a great player, but Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser, Jake Virtanen, Adam Gaudette, Elias Pettersson and Jonathan Dahlen offer up enough reason for optimism at forward.
Dobson, Hughes, Boqvist and Bouchard are all nearly equal in talent, and Benning can’t go wrong with either choice.
So what’s the point in trading up? In this draft, he’d easily have to surrender one or two additional picks, along with his first.
The gap between Tkachuk and these four blueliners isn’t big enough to warrant moving up two or three spots by giving up more picks.
And here’s the main problem: Benning wasn’t able to acquire more picks at this year’s draft. Giving up your only second and/or third to move up a couple of spots? No thanks. Not unless Dahlin is magically available, and we all know he’s going first overall.
If Benning decides to move out of the seventh spot, he should be moving down if anything else. Trading to fall back one or two spots by securing additional picks is no problem at all, especially if the team trading up opts to choose a forward.
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The Canucks have never traded up in the first round under Jim Benning, and 2018 isn’t the year for him to do it. 2016 would have made more sense, but he’s looking at getting a quality blueliner with the seventh choice. As such, he has no incentive to move up one or two spots, and the cost wouldn’t be worth it.