Canucks: Top 3 candidates to replace Judd Brackett
The Vancouver Canucks and amateur scouting director Judd Brackett have agreed to part ways. Here are some possible replacements for the position.
Over the last five years, the Vancouver Canucks have had the best draft showings in franchise history.
A big reason for that is Judd Brackett, who was hired by the Canucks in 2008 as a scout before he was promoted to director of amateur scouting in the 2015-16 season. Since taking that position the Canucks have put good use to their first rounds picks using them on Brock Boeser, Olli Juolevi, Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, and most recently Vasili Podkolzin.
Three of those players are currently on the team and have made a big impact so far. The first to join was Boeser in 2017, who put up 55 points (29 goals,26 assists) in 62 games. He looked like he could win the Calder Memorial Trophy but had an injury that would cut his season short. He still ended up finishing second in votes.
The next year Pettersson joined the team and became a fan-favorite almost immediately, and for good reason. He scored 66 points (28 goals,38 assists) in 71 games, which was good enough to win the Calder Memorial Trophy and also set a new best point total for a Canucks rookie which was previously held by Pavel Bure at 60 points.
This last season Hughes gave the Canucks something they have never had before. A true number one defenseman. For now, there is no way of knowing if he will win the Calder, but he should still be a finalist. In the 68 games he played, he had eight goals and 45 assists. These three players are looking to be the core that could lead the Canucks into being playoff contenders again.
Although the first-round picks look impressive, it is what the Canucks have been able to find in the later rounds that makes the situation of losing Brackett hard to cope with. Players like Adam Gaudette and Thatcher Demko who might not be as crucial to the team but still add to the strength of it. Jack Rathbone and Aidan McDonough also look like players that can add something to this Canuck team in the future.
The only thing that can be done now is to move forward. So how does that happen? How do the Canucks find someone to replace a man who has given the Canucks a bright future?
Whoever replaces Brackett not only needs to find success almost immediately in the first round, they will also need to find a hidden gem in the later rounds. I used the CHL as a starting point to find a replacement because seven teams in the NHL currently have a director of amauter scouting that started in the CHL.
There is also one that is an assistant director of amateur scouting. I was looking for players that had at least suited up for 100 games or more that were drafted from the CHL. While doing that, I saw that after 2016, there were hardly any players who met the number of games played.
I started with the 2010 draft and between then and 2016, 131 players were taken from the CHL in the first round. In fact, 696 came from the CHL in those years. Of those players, 179 have played 100 games or more. The most amount of players from the 179 came to the OHL which was 95, the second-highest in the WHL at 49, and 35 came from the QMJHL.
Since I started with the 2010 NHL draft, I started looking at the CHL drafts in 2008. There were a lot of scouts who done a tremendous job, but I found three candidates that stood above the rest who could be a good fit for the Vancouver Canucks.
3. Scott Scoville
Scott Scoville started his career as head scout for Everett Silvertips in 2002, and he was promoted to Director of player development in the 2005-2006 season. He stayed with the organization until 2011.
During that time, the Silvertips drafted three players that would go on to the NHL Carter Hart, Radko Gudas and Peter Mueller. During his time with Everett, the team finished first in their division four times and made it to the WHL finals once. He then joined the Winnipeg Jets in 2011 as an amatuer scout.
More from The Canuck Way
- Which team won the Bo Horvat trade?
- What to expect from newcomers Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Räty
- Back to the future: How the skate uniforms became a regular Canucks’ feature night
- Canucks kick off 2023 with disappointing 6-2 loss to Islanders
- 2nd period penalty trouble sinks Canucks in 4-2 loss against Winnipeg
The Jets have picked a total of 13 guys from the WHL since Scoville joined the team. Eight of those picks are from the third round or later, and only one of those picks currently plays in the NHL (Adam Lowry). They also only took one WHL player from the first round which was Josh Morrissey.
That leaves four remaining picks from the second round. One is Nic Petan who is floating around the NHL looking for a permanent role on the team.
Another played 29 games this year for the Jets, and that was Jansen Harkins. The only two are currently in the AHL. While he doesn’t have the same success as Brackett, he was still able to find some players past the first round.
2. Terry Doran
Terry Doran has had an interesting career starting as an assistant general manager for the Newmarket Royals followed by a GM role for Sarina Sting.
With his two years as GM, Doran traded for Jon Sim, Eric Boulton and Andy Delmore, and he drafted Trevor Letowski. All four of them played 100 games or more in the NHL.
In both his years there as GM, the club made the playoffs. Doran then had his first scouting job for the NHL with the Phoenix Coyotes from 1996 to 2000. During this time, they drafted Robert Esche and Letowski from the OHL.
Doran then returned to Sarnia as GM in 2000-01, where he continued his success of finding players who would make it to the NHL. He drafted Dan Fritsche, Daniel Carcillo, Micheal Haley and Richard Clune.
The Sting finished first in their division once in those four years. He then started his scouting career at the OHL level joining, the Windsor Spitfires from 2005 to 2012. From 2005 to 2012 the Spitfires drafted Adam Henrique, Ryan Ellis, Taylor Hall, Austin Watson, Mikhail Sergachyov, and Richard Panik.
Doran was promoted to assistant general manager in 2012 and stayed there for two years. There, they drafted future Arizona Coyotes blueliner Jakob Chychrun.
In 2014, he joined the Calgary Flames as an amateur scout, where Doran remains. He has continued scouting players from the OHL and it has benefited the Flames by finding players like Sam Bennett, Rasmus Andersson, Andrew Mangiapane and Matthew Tkachuk.
The thing I like about Doran is his experience. He made it to the NHL level as a scout and couldn’t hold on to it the first time, but when he went back to the OHL, Doran found a way to be more successful. Now he’s back in the NHL.
The Flames selected nine players from the OHL, and four of them currently play on the team. His experience as a GM should help too, because he would have to take what others say and determine what would be the best result.
1. Jim McKellar
Jim McKellar was the assistant GM for the London Knights from the 2000-01 season to 2010-2011. During his time, there the Knights finished first in their conference four times, second twice and never missed the playoffs.
The Knights also won the Memorial Cup in 2005. A big part of the success there was being able to draft successfully. They drafted 15 players who have played at least 100 games in the NHL: Rick Nash, Corey Perry, Kyle Quincey, Marc Methot, Dave Bolland, Steve Mason, Pat Maroon, Sam Gagner, John Carlson, Andreas Athanasiou, Chris Tierney, Bo Horvat, Vladislav Namestnikov, Sergei Kostitsyn and Olli Maatta.
McKellar then joined the Chicago Blackhawks as an amateur scout in 2011, where he still works. There are only four notable names that have come from the OHL during McKellar’s tenure in Chicago. Those players are Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw, Ryan Hartman and Alex DeBrincat — all taken after the first round. There were only three other selections made from the OHL in the nine years with McKellar.
He is a great candidate for replacing Brackett, as shown by his ability to find talent outside the first round of the draft.
There is one wild card that I want to add into the mix of possibly being a good replacement, the only reason he isn’t in the top three is because he doesn’t have a lot of NHL experience. That person is Grant Armstrong.
Armstrong was director of player personnel for the Portland Winterhawks in 2007-2008, before moving into a head scout role from 2008-2009 to 2011-2012. In those five years, the team drafted Ryan Johansen, Joe Morrow, Derrick Pouliot, Nino Niederreiter, Sven Baertschi, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Brendan Leipsic, the aforementioned Petan, Ty Rattie and Caleb Jones.
That averaged to two players a year.
In the 2012-2013 season, became the Victoria Royals’ director of player personnel, staying there until the 2015-2016 season. He briefly served as the assistant GM of the Royals during his tenure.
It’s still to early to see who might turn into a NHL regular from these years, but the Royals did make the playoffs every year under Armstrong. In his last year, they finished first in their division.
He then served as GM of the Brandon Wheat Kings from 2016-17 to 2018-19. The Wheat Kings made the playoffs two of the three years he was there. Thompson is now an amateur scout for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It’s hard to ignore the success Armstrong has had with the Knights, and he might be worthy of the opportunity to replace Brackett.
The Canucks were fortunate to have someone who was right more often than wrong at the draft. These candidates could help fill the hole that Brackett has left on this team.
Canucks roundtable: Predicting series vs. Wild. dark. Next
All in all, we can only hope thatthis is just the beginning of an era where the Canucks can be successful.