Vancouver Canucks: Three NHL prospects if they pick 11 to 20th
By Chris Faber
The Vancouver Canucks are currently a playoff bubble team. There’s time to secure a playoff spot, but also time to fall to the basement of the standings. For now, let’s imagine the Canucks were to fall in the 11th to 20th range in the draft. Here are the prospects they should be looking at.
The Vancouver Canucks sit at 23-22-26, good for 52 points, and tied with the Colorado Avalanche for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
When teams use their first round pick, many of us can expect them to simply draftthe best player available. It’s common knowledge that first round picks are more likely to hit than any other round, but at the same time, you don’t want to reach too far and end up grabbing a lesser player due to positional need.
Luckily for the Canucks, the centre depth is solid right now. The emergence of Elias Pettersson and big steps taken by Bo Horvat have been more than we could have asked for this season.
Pettersson has shown immediate potential to be a sure thing a No. 1 centre, and Horvat looks to be the right guy you would want to have centering a second line on a playoff team. So where does that leave the rest of the team?
The goaltending looks nice with the new NHLer Thatcher Demko getting games while backing up Jacob Markstrom. Meanwhile, prospect Michael DiPietro is hanging tight in the wing for now. His time is coming.
Two positions are locked down for now, so let’s get to the other spots.
The wingers and defencemen.
I’m not going to name off the guys we have on the team right now but with young players in the system like Quinn Hughes, Jett Woo, Kole Lind, Jonah Gadjovich, Tyler Madden and Zack MacEwen, there is something in the pipeline.
Unlike what we have seen in the past with this team. So what should the Canucks target in the 2019 NHL draft? As much as I’d love to see Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko in the blue and green, or black and yellow? Let’s not forget, we will be seeing those sweet flying skate jerseys next year.
It’s likely that the Canucks don’t draft in the top two. We will have to do more research on players outside of the top 10, in regards to whom the difference makers could be for this team.
This exercise is to inform about some players out of the much debated top 10 that could turn out to be something down the road for the Canucks, while at the same time fitting the mold of what they’ll likely be targeting in the draft.