VANCOUVER, BC – One look at the Vancouver Canucks and you can see a bright future ahead of them despite missing the NHL playoffs the last four seasons and five out of their last six. The Canucks are currently stocked with a very promising group of prospects and when the NHL Entry Draft comes to Vancouver in June, you can bet the Canucks will slide another quality blue chip prospect into the mix picking where they hold the 10th overall pick. Between now and then, let the speculation begin.
The Canucks finished the regular season nine points out of a playoff spot in the NHL’s Western Conference behind the Colorado Avalanche. Overall they finished 23rd in the league standings. Vancouver finished tied for 26th in goals for and tied for 17th in goals against, 19th in face-offs, 22nd on the power play, and 11th on the penalty kill.
On offense,rookie Elias Pettersson led all Canucks in scoring with 28 goals, 38 assists, and 66 points. Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser were the only other Canucks with 20 or more goals with 27 and 26 goals respectively.
The Canucks are in pretty good shape in terms of free agency with most everyone on offense signed through next season. For the most part, the defense is signed as well with the exception of Alex Edler and Luke Schenn but Edler is the only real concern Vancouver has on the blueline.
The Canucks selected a defenseman with their first and second round picks in last year’s draft and also took a defenseman in the first round in 2016. PHN doesn’t expect to see another defenseman this time around for Vancouver in what is considered a very forward driven draft, especially at the top of the draft where only one defenseman, Bowen Byram, might get taken in the top 10.
In the system, two of Vancouver’s top three prospects are defensemen. The Canucks need to add more scoring help up front. In PHN’s Mock Draft, for some reason center Kirby Dach is still on the board. You can bet if that ends up being the case on June 21st in Vancouver, the Canucks won’t walk the pick up to the podium, they might do a mild sprint up to it.
In real life, PHN doesn’t expect Dach to be there at #10 but assume in our Mock Draft he is. At the end of the day the Canucks have a tough decision to make if Dach isn’t there but if he is we expect Vancouver to make the following call some draft day.
“With the 10th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft the Vancouver Canucks select, from the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League, Kirby Dach.”
Brian Jennings covers the Philadelphia Flyers for prohockeynews.com and can be found on twitter at @Flyersfan22.
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