Canucks: Analyzing Jim Benning’s success at the draft
Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann
Boston Bruins star David Pastrnak has emerged as an elite goal scorer, which is something that nearly every general manager in the league has had to kick themselves for passing on.
During the Vancouver’s first season with Benning at the helm, it was coming off a year where the Canucks were severely lacking pushback — as well as the heavy style of play that Benning had so much success with in Boston.
With the sixth overall pick, they chose Jake Virtanen from the WHL Calgary Hitmen. The move was fairly criticized on Twitter, and looking at who the team passed on, it looks like it may have been justified.
Canucks Twitter tells me Virtanen is a bust. Glad we figured that out early!
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) June 27, 2014
Jared McCann was drafted with the 24th pick and it seems like the reason for his trade (rumoured to be an attitude issue) was apparent from day one, maybe a little bit more recognizance.
I'm pretty sure McCann's "it is what it is" has to do with falling down the draft board, not about being picked by the Canucks. ..... Right?
— Jason Brough 🙁 (@SadClubCommish) June 28, 2014
In a redraft, the Canucks lost the first round: Virtanen dropped out of the first round on NHL.com , The Sportster has him drop to 11th (minus-five) and Draftsite.com has him going 23rd overall (minus-17). There is no doubting that the Canucks should not have chosen Virtanen in this draft. And even if you take Pastrnak out of the equation, there are just better players available.
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McCann is a different story (the player was handled very poorly by the organization, not getting value and giving up more in addition). NHL.com has McCann going 19th, The Sportster has him going 18th and Draftsite.com actually has him dropping to 27th.
On average, the Canucks drafted 15 slots lower than where a redraft would put them with Jake Virtanen. They gained 3 slots of value on the McCann pick, but promptly did other unspeakable things with that value.
Thatcher Demko crept his way into some redraft rankings: The Sportster bringing him up to 19th overaall; and DraftSite.com has them at 30th. All of these redraft averages give the Canucks three first round picks in the 2014 entry draft
Other redraft notes:
- The Sportster has Gustav Forsling as the 26th overall pick moving up 100 picks.
- Draftsite.com has Forsling moving up to 12th overall pick moving up 114 picks.
This tells me that overall the depth of the 2014 entry draft was not a very deep one. The few steals that the Canucks made in this draft are long gone, and all the Canucks are left with is Virtanen. The actions and trades that took place afterwards are where the team lost value.