Vancouver Canucks: Three NHL prospects if they pick 11 to 20th: Part 2

We are still months away from the draft, but it’s hard to not look ahead with our city hosting it. Let’s do it all again and look into some more options for the Vancouver Canucks if they draft 11-20th at this years draft.

In my previous article, we looked at how the Vancouver Canucks have locked down some tough positions to fill recently. The centre core is strong and left defence has a promising future with Quinn Hughes, Olli Juolevi, Jack Rathbone, Ben Hutton and who knows, I might as well say it, Nikita Tryamkin.

It’s been a while since we have heard from BFG, the last time was on a Canucks Instagram live video.

Aside from that pipe dream, why don’t we explore some players who could actually be in a Canucks uniform in a few years. This article is aimed at more of a positional need instead of best player available for the Canucks, as we look at two right-handed shot defencemen and a winger who could possibly project into being a top six player.

These players are not ranked in any order for me, I may give my idea on who I believe is the best prospect of the bunch in the conclusion but for now the idea of these articles is to inform you about the possible prospects for the Canucks and what my take is on these young men who will be featured in the 2019 draft.

There are many of 2019 draft prospects that fit this category, this draft could see up to four or possibly five right-handed defencemen be drafted in the first 31 picks. So without boring you with anymore of this 344 word introduction why don’t we just dive right into the prospects that we will talking about in this article.

Victor Söderström, Right Defenceman

5″11′, 176lbs, Brynäs IF (SHL)

HockeyProspect.com #13

Future Considerations #13

Corey Pronman of The Athletic (Subscription required) #20

Small, Swedish, right shot defencemen, it seems we are seeing more and more of them drafted every year in the top 20, with previous guys like Adam Boqvist and Timothy Liljegren leading the way. Victor Söderström may be similar in size to these guys but he does play a bit of a different game.

From watching the tape on Söderström, something popped out to me in multiple games at the SHL level, and that was actually his defence, he plays bigger than 5-foot-11 and 176 pounds, and shows a Troy Stecher like drive in the defensive zone, using a low center of gravity and nifty stick work to get himself between the puck and his man in the corners.

Söderström does still exhibit quite a bit of skill when put in offensive situations, that shows with his recent introduction to Brynäs IF’s power play over the past couple of months after starting with their U-20 team. It took a few games for Söderström to get onto the power play but now that he is there he is showing that his cross ice passes are hard and on the tape. That is especially difficult at the SHL level, let’s not forget about the ice size difference in the SHL compared to a Major Junior leagues in Canada.

Speed and skill is very prevalent in Söderström’s game but comparing him to Adam Boqvist of last year’s draft, Söderström is a way better defender. That is shown in his ability to contribute to a SHL team in five on five play and also chipping in on the penalty kill. He has the ability to unleash accurate one-timers, and by accurate I mean on net, nothing really stuck out on his sniping ability but with smaller ice and more time to develop a stronger body that could come.

The number one reason that I think has Söderström showing up in everyone’s top 20 draft boards is his awareness, not really offensive or defensive specifically but his overall awareness on the ice. The thing that kept popping up when watching his film was how often he is scanning the ice, his head in constantly moving from side to side, watching where his teammates are and that head movement is synced up with his feet moving him into the right area on the ice.

I spoke with my Swedish scouting insider Jimmy Hamrin of McKeens Hockey and he was clear and simple when talking about what his thoughts were on Söderström.

“Smart 2-way D. He can move his feet and the puck well and defend well. He has a good mind of whats going on and what going to happen. He’s elusive. Great passer. Can play both PK and PP. His shot could get better though. Unsure if he has elite NHL offensive skill from the point but a good bet for a top 4 maybe even top pair D.” Jimmy Hamrin, McKeensHockey.com

He covers for his defensive partner when he pinches and knows when a backchecking forward is able to take the man, allowing him to be one step ahead of opposing players looking for rebounds. I was almost shocked on how much his eyes do the work for him while he was also able to rotate in the offensive zone to find the free area for an open point shot. His hockey IQ is very impressive and it stuck out to me more than anything else in his game, I think he is a very smart player and that is likely his biggest strength.

As for weaknesses, it was kind of hard to find many, he does at times move out-of-the-way of blocking shots but this was something I came to see very often in the Swedish Hockey League.

On a side note, this SHL was a hell of a lot of fun to watch games, the skill and speed is so much fun to follow and the big ice gives so much more room for these guys to rotate on the point with the puck. The forwards are very good at swapping places with defencemen when the blueliner want to pinch and get deep in the offensive zone.

Back to Söderström’s weaknesses, like I said before there wasn’t a lot. Söderström does take some soft penalties, plenty of them for tripping when the players are just escaping from him, that is likely to do with how active he is with his stick and could probably be cleaned up with some coaching when he jumps over to the North American game.

I think Canucks fans would be very happy to land a player of Söderström’s quality in this year’s draft. He plays bigger than he stands and is one of the rising prospects with what he has been doing lately in the SHL, getting more opportunity and showing that he can not only play with these men but be one of the better two-way defenceman in the SHL, all very impressive for a 17-year-old kid.

I was blown away from watching his games, there were two or three full SHL games where he did not make one mistake, this kid is legit.

Raphael Lavoie, Right Wing

6″4′, 200lbs, Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL)

HockeyProspects.com #28

Future Considerations #11

Corey Pronman of TheAthletic.com #18

Big, strong, fast and tough. Those are some of the things you will see when looking at Raphael Lavoie‘s scouting reports and they are not wrong. Lavoie looks like a monster on the ice and has a very quick stride, not only for his size either, he is fast when compared to NHL players and has a fairly accurate wrist shot with a quick release.

Transitioning from Victor Söderström’s tape to Raphael Lavoie’s tape was hard, Söderström was like sipping on a smooth whiskey with two perfect ice cubes. Watching Lavoie’s tape was the last pint of a pitcher where the beer was starting to get warm.

It’s clear that Lavoie has great speed, that was something amazing to see and the size really ticks all the boxes that would have an early 2000’s general nanager salivating. But there was a lot to dislike in his game too, I’ll save that for a few paragraphs down.

More from Draft

• Recapping the Canucks picks from rounds five to seven
• Canucks take Daimon Gardner in fourth round
• Canucks select Elias Pettersson in third round
• Canucks select Jonathan Lekkerimäki with 15th overall pick
• Five players the Canucks could draft with the 15th overall pick

Let’s talk about the positives in his game, he is tough and willing to stand up for himself or his teammates. He can fight, even as a 16-year-old in the QMJHL he was dropping the gloves to stand up for his team’s captain.

Lavoie has the ability to drive by defenders with his combination of speed and size, leaning on defencemen while he pumps his feet to get to the net for a quick move to his forehand followed by a flick of the wrist and the puck would be in the top right corner.

It’s his move.

He can play on the penalty kill as well, this is where he was found to be taking faceoffs, normally on the right size as his right-handedness would benefit him while he muscles the draw into the corner for his defenceman to clear the puck. He was very good at blocking shots and can easily out-muscle any player on the boards.

His passing is average to below average, many of his passes were too hard for the receiver to handle or was caught up in his skates as they were moving up the ice. When receiving passes, Lavoie does show an impressive ability to take passes from all areas with ease, whether that be kicking it up to himself or using his long reach to snag a bad pass.

Lavoie does show that he can get to the slot with ease at the QMJHL level, his toe drag move seems to be one of his other go to moves, moving in on the right-wing and creating space for himself in a one on one situation and firing a hard wrist shot that finds its way through many goaltenders. He plays the left wing side of the power play for the Mooseheads and benefited from Filip Zadina being on the other side of the man advantage unit last season.

A lot of his goals come from driving through defenders with their feet caught in quicksand while he splits a pair and goes from the back hand to the forehand to the top right corner, as I previously mentioned, he likes that move and is damn good at it.

It’s his move.

Lavoie does struggle with consistency, he has games where he is absent from sight and there were a few time where I had to fast forward a bit just to make sure he was in that game. He lacks some quick decision-making ability and coming off of the Söderström tapes, it was very clear to see the difference when I began diving into Lavoie.

He plays on one of the better teams in the QMJHL in the Halifax Mooseheads (34-11-3), he has become a leader on that team due to his tough style of hockey. He also loves to shoot the puck with 156 shots on goal in only 47 games this season.

When watching the tape I couldn’t help but think of Jake Virtanen, a fast skater with size who can dominate weaker defenders in a Major Junior league, there were even some bad things that popped up in both Lavoie and Virtanen’s game. There is just that one thing that is missing from their game, that quick trigger passing and the ability to think the play out before it even happens.

All and all I was curious about the big winger before going in-depth into him but now that I have done that I don’t think there is a place for Lavoie on this team, I could be wrong but I don’t know if he will be much more than a good third line scorer. With the right team he could find his way into a top six but as the Canucks have Kole Lind, Brock Boeser and Virtanen in their pipeline I wouldn’t wasted a first round pick on Lavoie.

He’s still got plenty of potential! The size and speed are both very impressive, it’s a pass for me though, one good move can work in Junior but can it really translate to NHL success?

Wrap up

So I’m sure you can’t tell but out of these three Victor Söderström is my guy and if the Canucks end up picking somewhere between 10 and 14 I would be ecstatic if the Canucks could land this right-handed Swedish stud. He may be a few years away from stepping into the NHL but I would love to see him compete with some NHL players at camp and see what he can do.

If Söderström were to go back to Sweden after the NHL draft I would bet he will put up some very impressive numbers in the SHL during his draft +1 season. Not to the level of Elias Pettersson but definitely would be looked at as one of the elite defenceman in that league.

Raphael Lavoie is more of a write off for me, I was excited when I saw his size and read a couple reports saying he can fly like the wind and has a powerful shot, which are all things that he did have, but I saw too much of Virtanen in him and I think that he just would not have a spot on this team aside from maybe pushing for a second line roll while being a third line energy guy.

At the same time, there were games where Lavoie lacked energy and was the most inconsistent of the trio for sure, so personally for Canucks management I would stay away from Lavoie. He may surprise me but he could just have a ceiling of Virtanen.

Moritz Seider was very intriguing, his skating was smooth, he was the best player at the division two world championships but it’s just hard to put him ahead of Söderström. Seider has a size advantage and is a smart guy, he moves the puck nicely for a big guy and is a hammer in the open ice. Seider and Söderström probably both have the floor of being fourth or fifth defencemen on an NHL team but Seider does not have a ceiling as high as Söderström, so personally if you’re looking to draft a right shot defenceman I would love to see the Canucks snag Söderström.

Victor Söderström playing with Quinn Hughes in two or three years really excites me, pair that up with Juolevi and Woo to round out your top six and you have some great puck moving defencemen with some very high hockey IQ.

The Canucks will have multiple options and it’s all speculation at this point because we don’t even know what spot we will be drafting in this year. It’s fun to speculate for me and it’s fun to research these guys, watching film of Söderström almost overwhelmed me though, he looks like a poised young man and right now he may be my favourite player that I have scouted out of these prospects that the Canucks could target if they draft 11-20th at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.

Question for the comments: Are you on board with Söderström or do you feel like Lavoie or Seider is a better option and fit for the Vancouver Canucks?