2011 NHL Draft: Vancouver Canucks placed puzzling bets

[HF Article]

Photo: Alexandre Grenier made his NHL debut in 2015-16, not accomplishing much on the scoreboard during six games, but emerging in one piece (courtesy of Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images)


</p> For the Vancouver Canucks, the question of*whom to select at the 2011 NHL*Draft was secondary. After clinching the President’s Trophy and a Western Conference title, the primary concern was adding pieces to make another run to the Stanley Cup finals, not the state of the prospect pool.

Reigning NHL*GM of the Year Mike Gillis nonetheless took bold action on the draft floor, acquiring additional picks from the host Minnesota Wild by trading down from 60th overall.… read more

The post 2011 NHL Draft: Vancouver Canucks placed puzzling bets appeared first on Hockey's Future.



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[ProstheticConscience]

Breaking news, our drafting sucked for a decade. Also interesting, water continues to be wet.

 

[DFAC]

While he does not project to be a top-pairing defenseman in the NHL, nor one who puts up a lot of points, Corrado does look like an NHL player. Losing an inexpensive player who can fill a roster spot, especially at this stage in Canucks history, is a serious error. The Canucks took a lot of time developing Corrado, and now another team gets the benefit of a solid pick at this stage of the draft.

Spot on....

Giving away young players for free is dumb and management should feel bad

 

[EpochLink]

Jensen LMAO

 

[VanJack]

The Canucks placed some 'puzzling bets' in the 2011 draft?...you don't say?...you could pick virtually any year prior to that and come up with 'puzzling bets'....helps explain the mess they're in today.

 

[Huggy]

issue is like most stanely cup champions drafting is the key to sustained competitiveness.

the sedins needed young players for 2013-2014 season

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

issue is like most stanely cup champions drafting is the key to sustained competitiveness.

the sedins needed young players for 2013-2014 season

And the Germans shouldn't have invaded Russia.

The issue was we didn't draft well-enough in the 2006-2011 portion of the decade. It doesn't matter that we were SC contenders, you have to hit on your picks and we didn't. You can't just say, well we picked from 20-30 that's why we sucked at that. BS. Pearson available, Saad available, Rakell, Namestnikov, Jenner, Klingberg, Gallagher, Stone, O'Reilly, Tatar, Barrie, etc.

The talent is out there. We just don't find it. One of the main saving graces Benning has is his scouting. And we insist on shipping 2nd round picks out like they are completely expendable. This is my problem.

 

[Huggy]

And the Germans shouldn't have invaded Russia.

The issue was we didn't draft well-enough in the 2006-2011 portion of the decade. It doesn't matter that we were SC contenders, you have to hit on your picks and we didn't. You can't just say, well we picked from 20-30 that's why we sucked at that. BS. Pearson available, Saad available, Rakell, Namestnikov, Jenner, Klingberg, Gallagher, Stone, O'Reilly, Tatar, Barrie, etc.

The talent is out there. We just don't find it. One of the main saving graces Benning has is his scouting. And we insist on shipping 2nd round picks out like they are completely expendable. This is my problem.

i wonder if gillis feels bad about being terrible at his job. i know i would. making a city feel so great and them having it swept away in a fury of self hatred.

i hope he gets every ounce of bad juju.

 

[BerSTUzzi]

ahhh the draft where if we only picked BPA instead of reaching we'd be laughing instead of laughing stock of the 2011 draft.

29th Saad (rated ahead of Jensen)
71st Quine (picked Honzik)
90th Grenier is still fine here
101st Johnny Hockey (picked 3 spots later, we took Labate)
150th Corrado was a solid pick


One can say Palat was drafted in the 7th but he was not on anyone's radar.

 

[thepuckmonster]

ahhh the draft where if we only picked BPA instead of reaching we'd be laughing instead of laughing stock of the 2011 draft.

29th Saad (rated ahead of Jensen)
71st Quine (picked Honzik)
90th Grenier is still fine here
101st Johnny Hockey (picked 3 spots later, we took Labate)
150th Corrado was a solid pick


One can say Palat was drafted in the 7th but he was not on anyone's radar.

Wasn't Kucherov a second rounder in 2011 as well?

 

[Jimson Hogarth*]

Dark days at the draft table. Funny thing is 2010 was worse. Not picking until round 4, the notorious draft list plus passing on local workhorse and fan fave Gallagher twice.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

ahhh the draft where if we only picked BPA instead of reaching we'd be laughing instead of laughing stock of the 2011 draft.

29th Saad (rated ahead of Jensen)
71st Quine (picked Honzik)
90th Grenier is still fine here
101st Johnny Hockey (picked 3 spots later, we took Labate)
150th Corrado was a solid pick


One can say Palat was drafted in the 7th but he was not on anyone's radar.

Literally no one outside of Saad was on anyone's radar. Gaudreau wasn't even a mainstreamer.

Wasn't Kucherov a second rounder in 2011 as well?

The Gillis regime shied away from Ruskies, another mistake as good talent was out there (Kuzya) in 2010. I would have kept the 2010 pick and gave FLA the 2011 one when we were clearly gunning for the Cup in 2011.

In short, Gillis ****ed up our drafts pretty bad, one thing but probably the most important thing for the Detroit model he wanted to strive for.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Dark days at the draft table. Funny thing is 2010 was worse. Not picking until round 4, the notorious draft list plus passing on local workhorse and fan fave Gallagher twice.

fan fave, yeah, but what's so special about having a local boy on the team really? I'd forget Virtanen was from Abby if I wasn't reminded by fans every single time they talk about him.

 

[thepuckmonster]

fan fave, yeah, but what's so special about having a local boy on the team really? I'd forget Virtanen was from Abby if I wasn't reminded by fans every single time they talk about him.

Yeah I don't get the obsession of drafting hometown kids. In hindsight Gallagher and Benn look like massive **** ups but there is a reason they weren't picked until the 5th rounds. Benn wasn't even 100% committed to playing hockey, he was waivering on whether he would go the baseball route and Gallagher was 5'6". That's like ******** on teams for not drafting Tanev (including us technically) because he was 5'6" in his draft year. Development isn't linear and there are ways to evaluate but a lot of mid-late round picks are nothing but gambles. It helps to have more balls in that lottery by having a multitude of picks but it's still more luck than talent evaluation a lot of the time.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Yeah I don't get the obsession of drafting hometown kids. In hindsight Gallagher and Benn look like massive **** ups but there is a reason they weren't picked until the 5th rounds. Benn wasn't even 100% committed to playing hockey, he was waivering on whether he would go the baseball route and Gallagher was 5'6". That's like ******** on teams for not drafting Tanev (including us technically) because he was 5'6" in his draft year. Development isn't linear and there are ways to evaluate but a lot of mid-late round picks are nothing but gambles. It helps to have more balls in that lottery by having a multitude of picks but it's still more luck than talent evaluation a lot of the time.

Assessing Gally thoroughly, he would have been a great draft.

Ironic that some of the people who fart on Gillis for not drafting "hometown" "hard-worker" Gallagher want a "bigger, tougher" team like the B's.

The way I see it though, everyone is hometown if they are committed to the Canucks and want to be in Vancouver. The Sedins, Edler, Burrows, and even Bieksa all seem to me like hometown players because they've always wanted to be in Vancouver.

 

[Hit the post]

Jensen LMAO

I'd be willing to wager not many were "LMAO" when player was first selected.

Compare that to "WTF" posts probably following the selection of Patrick White (though I'd guess SOME where willing to give our US amateur scouts a bit of slack given there comparative success compared to our domesting amateur scouts).

 

[Tiranis]

ahhh the draft where if we only picked BPA instead of reaching we'd be laughing instead of laughing stock of the 2011 draft.

29th Saad (rated ahead of Jensen)
71st Quine (picked Honzik)
90th Grenier is still fine here
101st Johnny Hockey (picked 3 spots later, we took Labate)
150th Corrado was a solid pick

LaBate was ranked 140 spots ahead of Gaudreau. Chicago passed on Saad three times with two 1sts & early 2nd. Every single team out there had major concerns about him.

Still drafted better than Boston...

 

[thepuckmonster]

Despite the Canucks making questionable 2011 picks I don't think anything will enrage me more than Mallet in 2012.

 

[BerSTUzzi]

LaBate was ranked 140 spots ahead of Gaudreau. Chicago passed on Saad three times with two 1sts & early 2nd. Every single team out there had major concerns about him.

Still drafted better than Boston...

I know where Gaudreau was rated but I do remember the chatter leading up to the draft of who will draft Gaudreau based on his skill, rather than height.

I know he was still a reach even with Calgary's pick.

In terms of Saad, I know I am reaching but I was actually hoping for Jenner at our spot. I was in the "not a bad pick" when we took Jensen.

 

[thepuckmonster]

I know where Gaudreau was rated but I do remember the chatter leading up to the draft of who will draft Gaudreau based on his skill, rather than height.

I know he was still a reach even with Calgary's pick.

In terms of Saad, I know I am reaching but I was actually hoping for Jenner at our spot. I was in the "not a bad pick" when we took Jensen.

Ditto. I didn't hate Jensen, he wasn't a horriawful pick at the time if you look at his junior numbers. I wanted Jenner too over Saad who had some injury concerns in his draft year IIRC.

Jensen made himself a bad pick with **** work ethic. I remember being so stoked on him after his year in Sweden too.

 

[PancakeHero]

You can say one thing for Benning. His drafting (tentatively) has been lights out compared to Gillis.

 

[coldsteel79]

You can say one thing for Benning. His drafting (tentatively) has been lights out compared to Gillis.

Pancake, it's actually Crawford that gets the credit for bennings first year and the scouting group for his 2nd year.

 

[Diamonddog01]

LaBate was ranked 140 spots ahead of Gaudreau. Chicago passed on Saad three times with two 1sts & early 2nd. Every single team out there had major concerns about him.

Still drafted better than Boston...

Huh? Boston drafted Hamilton and Koko that year. Koko likely gets an extended stint in the big league this year.

 

[opendoor]

Huh? Boston drafted Hamilton and Koko that year. Koko likely gets an extended stint in the big league this year.

Didn't he sign in the KHL last month?

 

[NoShowWilly]

was a pretty bad draft overall

22 players(21+gibson) chosen after Jensen have played 90+ games in the nhl to this point. only a few more will ever make it to that.