Your 1st round picks since 2014

[Shattered Dreams]

2014: Nikolaj Ehlers and Jared McCann
I really liked Ehlers that year since I caught a bunch of Mooseheads games. For 24th overall, I was torn between Pastrnak and McCann, but I really liked McCann's upside as a top 6 center since we had no succession plan for the Sedins.

2015: Brock Boeser
Really liked Boeser from the start of his draft year. Incredible shot and hockey IQ. I thought he would have been one of the Bruins' picks, but the Jets, Islanders and us were really lucky that the Bruins flubbed on three straight picks.

2016: Matthew Tkachuk
I watched almost every London Knights game that year, getting a good look at Juolevi and Tkachuk. I know people thought the secondary assists were concerning, but Jim Benning was right when he said Tkachuk was the best player below the hash marks. Still can't believe Juolevi was picked over him.

2017: Elias Pettersson
This pick was awesome. Up until this point, I felt the Canucks never tried to swing for the fences on a player with a high skill ceiling. Glass and Vilardi were probably safer picks, but this team needs skill moving forward and I think Pettersson can bring that in spades.

 

[terrible dee]

Easy big fella. We're more than happy w one of these bad boys

I'm not saying that it was a bad pick, I'm very "wait and see" about it,

I'm just saying there was a lot of talk before that draft and I don't remember him coming up in anyone's armchair drafting session.

To the point that when his name was called, I had to look him up the 4-5 players I thought were possible I had researched to death, as well as others in our range, my memory of Petterson was that he was consensus ranked somewhere around #12 so I never thought he was a serious option.

And I just find it a little hard to believe that he was the #1 most wanted player by everyone here who is claiming he was their pick, as again, I don't recall him being brought up by anyone, not once

 

[HasbeenHallzy]

2014: Ehlers or Virtanen
2015: My Aho man crush began, but at the time was dead set on Konecny with him there.
2016: PLD, after he was taken I was hoping we'd trade down to take Chychrun and Mascherin
2017: Glass

 

[PG Canuck]

I don't remember there being any talk at all about Petterson prior to the pick, he wasn't even on my radar, nobody mentioned him so I never thought about him.

I still say he's waaaay to much Henrik and not enough Towes, does this team want presidents trophies or Stanley Cups?

Pettersson was in contention to be picked 3rd by some people. Not sure where you were. He was also being talked as, as a player who could end up having the most skill out of this draft.

 

[bossram]

2014: Nylander and Scherbak (missed that but Pasta was my number 2!!!)
2015: Konecny
2016: Keller
2017: Glass

 

[groovygoodwine]

2014: Nylander/Virtanen - McCann/Barbashev
2015: Barzal/Juulsen
2016: Juolevi/Bean (was indifferent in this draft after losing out on laine/matthews)
2017: Makar/Glass

 

[Tryamkin]

Nylander
Konecny
Tkachuk
Rasmussen

 

[Love]

At the time I wanted:

2014: 6th - Nylander 24th - Honestly can't remember
2015: 23rd - Konecny
2016: 5th - Tkachuk
2017: 5th - Pettersson

 

[pitseleh]

Too bad a lot of old threads were deleted - would be nice to look back on. Based on memory:

2014: Thought there were arguments for each of Ehlers, Nylander and Ritchie, but preferred Ehlers. Barbashev with the second pick.
2015: Didn't really follow this draft.
2016: Keller, though Tkachuk would have been fine too.
2017: Glass, but Pettersson was defensible.

 

[Bleach Clean]

In the interest of forum posterity:

My picks always go down to the wire, sometimes to the time when VAN is about to step to the podium:

2014: Ritchie and Barbashev. I still believe Nick Ritchie will reach a 60~ point level. He's been slower to develop, but I expected this. Barbashev pick preference was well documented.

2015: Favoured Konecny, but Boeser was always on the radar. At the time of the draft, I felt they made the right call in taking Boeser.

2016: Tkachuk was higher than PLD on my final list. I felt that he had too much going for him not to be the BPA at pick #5.

2017: Favoured Vilardi, but Pettersson was right there. Again, I felt like the scouting staff made the right call in taking Pettersson.




Re-Cap:

2014: Ritchie, Barbashev
2015: Boeser
2016: Tkachuk
2017: Pettersson

 

[Zombotron]

2014: I trusted HFVancouver's preference for Nylander + Ehlers and Barbashev, having not paid attention to the draft for most of the year.
2015: Boeser. With Konecny still on the board at our pick, it was either Konecny or Boeser, but I was more attached to Boeser. Will not forget popping the champagne with Ahmon after that pick.
2016: PLD. When PLD was swiped early, it was unreservedly Tkachuk or Sergachev. Was very attached to Sergachev. Was not 100% sold on Clayton Keller - dumb, in hindsight.
2017: Pettersson, with Vilardi slightly behind and Glass further behind. The tipping point was Pettersson's production in the Allsvenskan and subsequent endorsement by elements of the analytics community

 

[GPNuck]

2014.. Ehlers
2015.. Konecny
2016.. Tkachuk
2017.. Pettersson

 

[canuckslover10]

Ehlers barbashev
Boeser
Tkachuk
Glass

 

[thekernel]

'14. Ehlers, Ho-Sang
'15. I actually didn't look into this draft very much, but I remember thinking Arizona was crazy to pass up on having Marner with Domi and Dvorak. Didn't like the Strome pick for them at all.
'16. Sergachev
'17. Glass

 

[xtra]

My picks were as follows:

2014: Nylander easily
2015: konecky and Aho
2016: Tkachuk
2017: Valardi then glass but I understand why they took Peterson so not upset here.