Have the canucks quietly built up a solid prospect pool?

[Hit the post]

If the blueline didn't suck balls and the prospect pool there didn't just essentially consist of just Juolevi (5th overall selection), I'd actually feel pretty good about the future.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

If the blueline didn't suck balls and the prospect pool there didn't just essentially consist of just Juolevi (5th overall selection), I'd actually feel pretty good about the future.

Yeah... But it would have to be a seriously legit prospect at the blueline.

We are really not on schedule to create a contender core around the cheap contracts of our current top6 graduates.

 

[pahlsson]

shhhh its supposed to be a secret

even benning doesnt know about it

 

[Zippgunn]

Hmmmm we have our biases but here they are (including rookies):

Goalie:

Demko
Dipietro

Fwd:

Pettersson
Gaudette
Boeser
Dahlen
Lindy Boy

Lockwood
Palmu

D:

We need d prospects

Guess Juolevi is already a bust (despite having played zero NHL games) in your opinion...

 

[theoriginalBCF]

Yes, but they still need to add to it.

 

[CanaFan]

Guess Juolevi is already a bust (despite having played zero NHL games) in your opinion...

Technically most busts play zero games

 

[Zippgunn]

Prospect pool isn’t the problem. The problem is the lack of productive trades over the past 4 years. I count exactly one trade - Dahlen - that looks like it has the potential to be a long term part of a rebuild. The remainder - Gudbranson, Sutter, Baertschi, Granlund, Prust - have just frittered assets away while contributing nothing of long term value to the team.

A team like Winnipeg, in addition to their drafting, acquired core pieces like Byfuglien, Wheeler, and Myers in trades over that time. Not to say Benning should be able to match the quality of those deals - those may be among the best trades in the past 8 years - but he needs to accomplish more than just Dahlen over a span of 5 summers. Relying entirely on the draft for talent - esp when no additional picks are being acquired - is what will keep this rebuild on a snail’s pace.

What about Goldobin for Hansen?

 

[Zippgunn]

Technically most busts play zero games

So Dahlen, Demko and Elias are busts too? Good to know...

 

[CanaFan]

So Dahlen, Demko and Elias are busts too? Good to know...

Could be. We don’t know they aren’t.

 

[Hit the post]

Yeah... But it would have to be a seriously legit prospect at the blueline.

We are really not on schedule to create a contender core around the cheap contracts of our current top6 graduates.

They'll certainly be entertaining & with Demko hopefully succeeding - the team might be able to get into the playoffs with a meh blueline. Course, any kind of post-season success will need a much better D which Benning hasn't shown any indication of acquiring.

 

[Zippgunn]

Could be. We don’t know they aren’t.

Spoken like a true Benning hater. Keep the faith bro...

 

[CanaFan]

Spoken like a true Benning hater. Keep the faith bro...

Learn to read bro.

 

[Shareefruck]

Unpopular opinion, but it always seems kind of stupid to me that players are no longer considered prospects the moment they graduate to the NHL. Just the idea that you could be viewed as having a poor prospect pool just because all of your prospects were good enough to be in the NHL right away..... doesn't compute to me.

As for the question, (including Boeser as a prospect) it's an otherwise pretty good prospect pool that has a MASSIVE MASSIVE hole on defense, which is enough to make or break a team's future.

Side note, I feel like some posters perspectives get really skewed by what we're used to as Canuck fans over the past few decades. We're used to our prospects performing so poorly in the past that anything solid looks amazing. Similarly, we're used to relying on unlikely late bloomers that we got really lucky with so often that we think every poorly progressing prospect is going to come around.

 

[CanaFan]

Unpopular opinion, but it always seems kind of stupid to me that players are no longer considered prospects the moment they graduate to the NHL. Just the idea that you could be viewed has having a poor prospect pool just because all of your prospects were good enough to be in the NHL right away..... doesn't compute to me.

That’s true, which is why a lot of publications do U21 rankings now, regardless of being in the NHL or not.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

Spoken like a true Benning hater. Keep the faith bro...

Stop with the personal attacks. If you have a point, make it.

 

[Melvin]

Unpopular opinion, but it always seems kind of stupid to me that players are no longer considered prospects the moment they graduate to the NHL. Just the idea that you could be viewed has having a poor prospect pool just because all of your prospects were good enough to be in the NHL right away..... doesn't compute to me.

That's not an argument against considering those players as non-prospects, it's an argument against talking about having a good prospect pool as if it's a meaningful thing.

Having a good prospect pool means by definition having a bunch of players who haven't proven anything. It's not something anyone should brag about and doesn't matter to anything.

It is like bragging about the fact that you have ten job interviews scheduled. Like it's good to have a lot of job interviews but it's better to have a job.

 

[Shareefruck]

That's not an argument against considering those players as non-prospects, it's an argument against talking about having a good prospect pool as if it's a meaningful thing.

Having a good prospect pool means by definition having a bunch of players who haven't proven anything. It's not something anyone should brag about and doesn't matter to anything.

Either conclusion could be drawn (it seems like we should either change the way the word is used or find a better word for the more meaningful but inaccurate interpretation of it).

That said, the word "prospect" has never inherently communicated this for me by its definition alone, personally. Calling Boeser a prospect makes enough sense to me. He's still a candidate that we anticipate and look forward to seeing becoming a greater thing in the future. It's not that he's reached his prospective goal early and has nothing more to prove, it's just that his prospective goal extends beyond merely making the NHL now.

 

[Melvin]

Either conclusion could be drawn (it seems like we should either change the way the word is used or find a better word for the more meaningful but inaccurate interpretation of it). That said, the word "prospect" has never inherently communicated this for me by its definition alone, personally. Calling Boeser a prospect makes enough sense to me. He's still a candidate that we look forward to seeing becoming a greater thing in the future.

I suppose, but it's a reasonably bright line that you can draw which would be difficult to draw otherwise. Is Connor McDavid still a prospect? Seems weird after multiple Hart trophies but he was drafted the same year as Boeser and still probably hasn't had his best season.

You go on a few dates with someone and she's a prospect but if you're calling her your girlfriend then that's something else, even if you're looking forward to the future.

 

[rypper]

I don't think anyone would dispute that this is probably the best collection of prospects this team has had in the last decade, or potentially ever. But it just should be so much better.

Too much time and picks wasted along the way trying to make one last push, try to sneak into the wild card spot, take shortcuts etc whatever you want to call it. This team should have been rebuilding from the get go under Jim Benning. Instead they chased two goals and failed at both.

Everyone raves about the prospects taken later in the drafts but the fact of the matter is we should have 2-3 Linds in our pool. 2-3 Jaseks or Palmu's etc. They've made some great picks throughout but there just isn't the volume that should be there for (one of) the worst team in the league over the last 3 seasons.

It looks like things are on track now, but there still seems to be some refusal to trade for picks. We're already looking at double the tlength of time the rebuild should have taken and it will only prolong the longer they refuse to commit fully.

 

[Shareefruck]

I suppose, but it's a reasonably bright line that you can draw which would be difficult to draw otherwise. Is Connor McDavid still a prospect? Seems weird after multiple Hart trophies but he was drafted the same year as Boeser and still probably hasn't had his best season.

You go on a few dates with someone and she's a prospect but if you're calling her your girlfriend then that's something else, even if you're looking forward to the future.

Edit: You're right, it's not so much an issue with the meaning of the word itself but the connotations that we associate with it, how we use it, and the usefulness of what it actually means.

 

[Kryten]

Players should be referred to as prospects until they finish their ELC. Virtanen is no longer a prospect, Boeser is, Pettersson is even if he gets 75 points next year, Stecher isnt etc

 

[varano]

I fail to see why Boeser is still included in the "prospect pool" after finishing his first full season. Sure he is of course still very young but I wouldnt count him a prospect anymore. So that leaves the Canucks with Pettersson, Demko, Dahlen and Juolevi as the top prospects along with some solid guys in Lind and Gaudette.

Its probably save to say the Canucks have an above average prospect pool but even if you look at who has graduated (Boeser, Virtanen) its hardly something to get overly excited about in particular if you consider what could have been if they were really rebuilding instead of just being the worst team over the last 3 years caused by sheer incompetence.

I include him in the prospect pool because he's far from reached he has a big room to grow and its on an ELC

 

[varano]

Hmmmm we have our biases but here they are (including rookies):

Goalie:

Demko
Dipietro

Fwd:

Pettersson
Gaudette
Boeser
Dahlen
Lindy Boy

Lockwood
Palmu

D:

We need d prospects

How is Juolevi (sp?)

 

[Guardian452]

Players should be referred to as prospects until they finish their ELC. Virtanen is no longer a prospect, Boeser is, Pettersson is even if he gets 75 points next year, Stecher isnt etc

By that logic, players like McDavid, Laine and Matthews are still prospects. The general consensus is that a player who has remained on an active NHL roster for the better part of a season is no longer considered a prospect.

 

[varano]

It's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. For a team that's been so awful for several seasons, we SHOULD have a good prospect pool. And we do. Boeser has graduated from the prospect ranks and become a legitimate impact player, but Pettersson is exciting as all get out, Demko looks like a stud, Virtanen and Juolevi are still developing, and hopefully guys like Lind, Dahlen, Gadjovich, DiPietro, Lockwood, etc. can pan out.

There is the point, though, that it could have been even better - Virtanen and Juolevi are still developing, but it's tough to watch the guys picked immediately after them (some of whom a large number of posters here badly wanted the Canucks to pick) already making an impact in the NHL.

Anyway - to answer your question: yes, I think the Canucks have built a pretty damn good prospect pool, although it hasn't been very quiet! It could have been a bit better with some shrewder decisions at the draft table, too.

I don't know about Virtanen, I think he tops out as a middle 6 player but I could be wrong