Canucks: Top 3 candidates to replace Judd Brackett

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.

All in all, we can only hope thatthis is just the beginning of an era where the Canucks can be successful.