Vancouver Canucks: Quinn Hughes is the final piece needed
By Alex Hoegler
Somehow and some way, Quinn Hughes fell down to the seventh spot and was picked up by the Vancouver Canucks. Now, fans just need to simply wait as the young core comes together. Bright times are ahead.
The Vancouver Canucks didn’t win the actual draft lottery in April, but general manager Jim Benning got lucky and hit the jackpot when he selected skilled defenceman Quinn Hughes with the seventh pick.
Nobody really knows why or how, but Hughes somehow slipped all the way down to the Canucks at seven. The Montreal Canadiens passed on Filip Zadina and Brady Tkachuk to take centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi at No. 3.
It was the Arizona Coyotes who went off the board and took centre Barrett Hayton with the fifth pick — who was expected to go outside of the top 10. And even though the Detroit Red Wings and Hughes were a match made in heaven, general manager Ken Holland just couldn’t pass up on Zadina.
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The Canucks should be sending gift baskets to Montreal, Detroit and Arizona. Not because they made bad picks, but simply because the Canucks are going to love Hughes.
Now look three to five years down the road, and we have the makings of a Stanley Cup contender.
The 1-2 scoring punch at centre will be led by Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat. They’ll have sniper Brock Boeser on the wing.
If all goes well, Jake Virtanen will be the power forward who can score his 20 goals and 40-50 points. And let’s not discount Jonathan Dahlen, Kole Lind or Adam Gaudette. These guys could provide ample scoring as well.
The Canucks blue line now has so much promise. All they need from Olli Juolevi is a guy who can play in the top-four. Now with Hughes being the team’s top blueline prospect, the pressure is completely off of Juolevi.
Benning may have also found a steal in Jett Woo with the 37th pick. Like Juolevi, he doesn’t come with plenty of offensive upside. But Woo became renowned for his strong defensive play, and the Canucks need that.
We all know Horvat and Boeser are going to be reliable scorers from here on out. Pettersson is going to be a major star. Hughes will be that top-pairing defenceman and power play quarterback. He’s feeding the puck to Pettersson and Boeser. Oh, how fun this will be.
No, the Canucks won’t be winning the Stanley Cup in 2019 or 2020. But look at the long-term picture. This team has just about everything in store to morph into a championship contender in the coming years.
Next: NHL draft 2018: Vancouver Canucks picks in rounds 5, 6 and 7
With plenty of scoring talent on the roster and in the system and three potential top-four blueliners on the way, Benning has set this team in stone. It could be a couple of more years until the results show, but the Hughes pick makes that light at the end of the tunnel that much brighter.