Vancouver Canucks Top Shelf Prospects Scouting Reports

[LastWordArmy]

Our 30 teams in 30 days Prospects Series continues with the Vancouver Canucks.

Hope you Enjoy.

http://lastwordonsports.com/2016/07/30/tsp-vancouver-canucks-prospects-3/

Click to read more...

 

[canucks10]

Nice summaries.
It's funny that one off season/draft turned our defence prospects from our weakness into our strength

 

[VanJack]

Nice summaries.
It's funny that one off season/draft turned our defence prospects from our weakness into our strength

Yes....this is most surprising thing about the last couple of years....Canuck blueline used to be like Death Valley in terms of prospects....now with guys like Juloevi, Hutton, Tryamkin, Stecher and Subban, it's been a game-changer....looks like all of them will make it...and considering three guys were drafted in rounds 3-5 and another signed as a college UFA, this is pretty impressive.

 

[CanaFan]

Nice summaries.
It's funny that one off season/draft turned our defence prospects from our weakness into our strength

Except outside of Juolevi (a 5th pick, those tend to be good), it really hasn't changed. As I argued before the draft, defense isn't the big weakness some people were making it out to be. Hutton, Tanev, Gudbranson, Tryamkin, Subban, Brisebois, Olsen is a pretty good collection of under-30 NHLers, AHLers, and junior prospects, at least compared to our barren forward cupboard. Now certainly adding Juolevi gives us a blue chipper that we were lacking but other than that we are pretty much the same as we were before this draft/off season. Stetcher is a nice signing but doesn't really change that much. Ditto for Candella who, at the end of the day, is still just a long shot 5th rounder.

 

[Pip]

Hutton and to a much lesser extent Tryamkin emerging along with Juolevi has helped our d going forward a ton. With the trades over the past year we do look fairly weak up front with young guys though unless a coupe guys surprise.

 

[PetterssonSimp]

This season makes or breaks the Canucks prospect pool IMHO. You rather see the Canucks fail, lose and sell and recoup some draft picks to add some even long shot type forwards in the 2/3 round area or you see the Canucks fail to rebuild but make the playoffs, probably selling middle round picks and prospects for a slightly better chance at a wildcard position.

 

[Archangel]

we still do not have depth on the blue line

 

[Luck 6]

This season makes or breaks the Canucks prospect pool IMHO. You rather see the Canucks fail, lose and sell and recoup some draft picks to add some even long shot type forwards in the 2/3 round area or you see the Canucks fail to rebuild but make the playoffs, probably selling middle round picks and prospects for a slightly better chance at a wildcard position.

I'm kind of hoping some of these guys take a step forward and Benning looks like a genius haha. Hutton 40 pts
Baertschi 50 pts
Horvat 55 pts
Virtanen 40 pts
Etc.

We'd look pretty solid then

 

[Rotting Corpse*]

Yes....this is most surprising thing about the last couple of years....Canuck blueline used to be like Death Valley in terms of prospects....now with guys like Juloevi, Hutton, Tryamkin, Stecher and Subban, it's been a game-changer....looks like all of them will make it...and considering three guys were drafted in rounds 3-5 and another signed as a college UFA, this is pretty impressive.

 

[Catamarca Livin]

Disagree? The d prospect depth has improved. The d also is quite young now. Are you one of those still suffering from the loss of Frankie? Or perhaps the Harvard guy?

 

[CanaFan]

I'm kind of hoping some of these guys take a step forward and Benning looks like a genius haha. Hutton 40 pts
Baertschi 50 pts
Horvat 55 pts
Virtanen 40 pts
Etc.

We'd look pretty solid then

Wouldn't Hutton make Gillis look like a genius though?

 

[PetterssonSimp]

I'm kind of hoping some of these guys take a step forward and Benning looks like a genius haha. Hutton 40 pts
Baertschi 50 pts
Horvat 55 pts
Virtanen 40 pts
Etc.

We'd look pretty solid then

I said last season a 30-40 point season for Bo a 35 point season for Bae were IMHO solid and major improvement seasons. Each hit those totals and each were huge improvements all over the ice. I have come to almost expect Bo to continue to improve at this rate as he's just so damn competitive. But I think this might be a plateau season if we see a 70 or better game season from Sutter. A 45-50 point season is a realistic expectation, a slightly lesser defensive role let's hope this season, and not as much #1 shutdown minutes. Bae I just hope hits 25 goals, that's my hopes for him as I feel they will be saddled with Hansen more likely than Virtanen. Jake I feel takes the Bae like development, slower and more steady but from the 3/4 lines as WillieD'ontKnowWhatImDoing is still in charge

 

[RandV]

Disagree? The d prospect depth has improved. The d also is quite young now. Are you one of those still suffering from the loss of Frankie? Or perhaps the Harvard guy?

Personally I think it's a bit meaningless. Benning inherited a defense of Edler, Tanev, Hamhuis, Garrison, Bieksa, Stanton, and Weber, with a modest prospect pool of Corrado, Hutton, and Subban.

Yes our D prospect pool is certainly better, Benning has had 3 drafts to add more players and took a dman 5th overall, but we're still a long ways from having as a good a blueline as we had under Burke/Nonis/Gillis.

The thing is, for all that we like to rag on the Canucks past drafting performances, going back to the 90's we've always been good at two things: developing top 4 dmen and two-way forwards. The scouting staff has been historically brutal at finding scoring forwards, but in those two area's above they've been pretty good.

And on the blueline you only need to dress six starting dmen. A deep and promising D prospect pool is nice, but if you start with a solid group and you can promote one good player every few years, that's all you really need. Hutton <- Tanev <- Edler <- Beiksa <- etc. These guys were always supplemented with good trades for top 4 guys like Jovo, Salo, Ehrhoff, and Gillis started making some headway with UFA signings. Though of course that one thing we've always been missing and has really hurt our Cup aspirations is an elite Norris caliber guy.

So to sum it up: good D prospect pool (while nice to have) does not equal good NHL blueline, and bad D prospect pool does not equal bad NHL blueline. If you can't have both and had to choose between the two you're much better off with the latter.

 

[VanJack]

Agreed....for some reason the Canucks have had a history of unearthing decent d-men and even goalies in later rounds....before the current crop, guys like Sopel, Bieksa and Aucoin represented pretty good value for where they were picked.....still, what's amazing is that Juolevi is the only d-man they've invested either a first or seconder in...the current prospect group of Hutton, Tryamkin, Subban, Stecher, and even guys like Brisebois and Olson were all acquired from rounds 3-7 or in the case of Stecher were a UFA...then there's Pedan who was picked up for a third-rounder.....so the question is a good one, why has the same scouting group been so abysmal in finding forward gems in later rounds?