2014 Draft will go down as best in Canucks history

[Fat Tony]

Mccann and Virtanen: 2 top 6 forwards
Demko: Possible future starter

If Demko pans out, it will be the best ever (aside from the Sedins in 99).

So, backtrack from thread title?

 

[valkynax]

As much as I want to say I'm impressed by our young players, I'm not.

One can say these guys look promising, or how much better they may become. But right now, I'm not seeing any consistent and concrete performance. Flashes of brilliance on rare occasions but nothing more.

Until I can see some of the young kids put 50 pts at the end of the season, I remain skeptical.

 

[MarkMM]

No. I doubt it'll beat Henrik and Daniel Sedin taken together, I doubt Virtanen and McCann will both win Art Ross trophies, one win the Hart and the other be nominated for it.

But if both McCann and Virtanen become top-line stars and Demko keeps up his progression and becomes the next Carey Price...okay, then you'll have a case.

 

[AwesomeInTheory]

Actually, the 2357 Draft will be the best in Canucks history.

Source: John Titor's descendants.

 

[Pip]

Poor Jake. Already the most hated pick in Nucks history and he is only 19 and just beginning his NHL career.

What? No.

 

[Huggy]

How about greatest 3 years.

Has to be horvat gaunce hutton shinkaruk demko virtanen mccann.

Basically a rebuild in as least possible time.

 

[SillyRabbit]

2014 is the year we whiffed on Nylander and Ehlers to draft a third liner, but okay

This lol.

McCann looks good but all of the guys drafted in that area look good.

Pastrnak, Scherbak, Barbashev, McCann, you can't go wrong with any of them.

If I didn't know any better i'd think that OP was Jim Benning's mom trying to convince us that he's some kind of drafting genius.

 

[Hit the post]

The 1999 draft was incredibly weak.

And we have 4 of the top 10 players in that draft on our team currently

Ryan Miller
Sedins
Vrbata

That ain't the half of it!

Other former *EX-CANUCK* players from the 1st round in that draft:

Kris Beech
Taylor Pyatt
Maxime Ouellet
Steve McCarthy

 

[Cupless44]

Poor Jake. Already the most hated pick in Nucks history and he is only 19 and just beginning his NHL career.

Not me. I love the guy.

Like the Canucks cant use a big, fast, skilled, tough power forward.

The kid is 2 months past his 19th birthday. If you have watched hockey long enough then you know that power forwards take longer to develop and require some patience.

We traded Neely foolishly at 21. Bertuzzi took til 24. John LeClair... the list goes on an on. Keith Tkaczuk would be the rare exception who made impact at 20.

The other coveted power forward in that draft, Nick Ritchie is starting his career in the minors at 20.

 

[Cupless44]

As much as I want to say I'm impressed by our young players, I'm not.

One can say these guys look promising, or how much better they may become. But right now, I'm not seeing any consistent and concrete performance. Flashes of brilliance on rare occasions but nothing more.

Until I can see some of the young kids put 50 pts at the end of the season, I remain skeptical.

Wow temper your expectations. Do you realize how low the percentage is of players who actually make the NHL before 20?

 

[Cupless44]

This lol.

McCann looks good but all of the guys drafted in that area look good.

Pastrnak, Scherbak, Barbashev, McCann, you can't go wrong with any of them.

If I didn't know any better i'd think that OP was Jim Benning's mom trying to convince us that he's some kind of drafting genius.

Scherbak and Barbashev are in the AHL and not exactly lighting it up while they adjust to pro hockey.

I will take McCann gladly from that group. he is a center, plays with grit and will do so more as he fills out.

 

[Love]

I wouldn't at all be surprised if 2013 turns out better than 2014.

Horvat/Shinkaruk could be better than Virtanen/McCann.

Then in the later rounds you have Cassels, Subban vs. Demko, Tryamkin. It will be interesting to compare the two drafts.

 

[FroshaugFan2]

Scherbak and Barbashev are in the AHL and not exactly lighting it up while they adjust to pro hockey.

I will take McCann gladly from that group. he is a center, plays with grit and will do so more as he fills out.

Not sure where you're getting your info from, but Barbashev is also a center and plays with more grit than McCann. He's over a PPG as a rookie who hasn't turned 20 yet. Not going to comment on who was the right pick, but Barbashev is looking very good as well.

 

[Dissonance]

The 2014 draft is looking good right now, but it still has a long ways to surpass even 2004, which gave us an elite goalie (Schneider), a top-pairing defenseman (Edler), an elite third liner (Hansen), plus another guy who has played 350 NHL games (Brown).

We'll see. The real wild cards here are Virtanen's development and whether Demko can make the leap to pros. And unfortunately this draft would look much better for us right now if we'd kept the Vey pick (and drafted, say, Mckeown) and hadn't gifted Forsling away. But no changing that now.

 

[Hit the post]

The 2014 draft is looking good right now, but it still has a long ways to surpass even 2004, which gave us an elite goalie (Schneider), a top-pairing defenseman (Edler), an elite third liner (Hansen), plus another guy who has played 350 NHL games (Brown).

1979 NHL draft:

Canuck picks:

One guy who scored 50+ goals three times in his career (ok, it was during the time it seemed like everyone was scoring 50 goals ).

One guy who won the Selke (on another team)

Brent Ashton - who in his close to 1000 NHL game career.


1980 NHL draft:

Marc Crawford won a Stanley Cup (.....as a coach...on a stacked team )
Doug Lidster
Patrick Sundstrom

 

[Hardyvan123]

It's a draft class that has the makings of giving us a future. If not for that draft year, our future is looking pretty terrible.

I would agree but it will take 5 years or so before we know where this draft class ranks (in a weak Canucks history).

It's looking like one of the top 3 since 99 when we took the Sedins but that's a very low bar too.

 

[Fat Tony]

Wow temper your expectations. Do you realize how low the percentage is of players who actually make the NHL before 20?

That is what he is doing by waiting for results. A person who declares a draft class to be the best ever after a year is the one who should temper expectations.

 

[Hardyvan123]

78,79,80 and 81 is probably our best 4 year stretch in drafting, both in terms of quality depth and % success of all the draftees.

80-81 draft saw 18 of 20 draftees playing an NHL game and 6 of them more than 300 GP.

 

[TruKnyte]

 

[Fat Tony]

^^ That pick was so good, GMs from other teams filed protests with the league to have it nullified.

 

[Soups On]

Not me. I love the guy.

Like the Canucks cant use a big, fast, skilled, tough power forward.

The kid is 2 months past his 19th birthday. If you have watched hockey long enough then you know that power forwards take longer to develop and require some patience.

We traded Neely foolishly at 21. Bertuzzi took til 24. John LeClair... the list goes on an on. Keith Tkaczuk would be the rare exception who made impact at 20.

The other coveted power forward in that draft, Nick Ritchie is starting his career in the minors at 20.

Power forwards have to adjust their game when entering the pros because they're playing 200lbs men and not 170lbs boys. It's an interesting approach for Willie and Benning to get Virtanen playing against men this quick, it could pay out dividends. If Virtanen can learn how to play a more efficient "east-west" game from the Sedin's and have his conditioning controlled by NHL level staff, he could become a prime powerforward at a younger age. He may not be putting up the points now but he's shown just how powerful he is at 19.


And for the topic at hand... Like most posters said, nothing will top the 99' draft. With that said, 2012, 2013 and 2014 are looking really good this early on and the rebuild could be over really fast..

2012: Gaunce + Hutton
2013: Horvat, Shinkaruk, Cassels, Subban
2014: Virtanen, McCann, Demko

(And Boeser looks extremely impressive too...)

These kids are really young, but it looks pretty good!

 

[Dissonance]

78,79,80 and 81 is probably our best 4 year stretch in drafting, both in terms of quality depth and % success of all the draftees.

80-81 draft saw 18 of 20 draftees playing an NHL game and 6 of them more than 300 GP.

I'd forgotten how strong those drafts were. Pretty impressive. And really underscores how disastrously inept Harry Neale's post-1982 rebuild of the team was.

 

[Hit the post]

^^ That pick was so good, GMs from other teams filed protests with the league to have it nullified.

You mean mysterious records appearing out of nowhere shouldn't be viewed with suspicion?

But it ain't 'cheating if you don't get caught' (eg., NHL ruled it was legit).

I'd forgotten how strong those drafts were. Pretty impressive. And really underscores how disastrously inept Harry Neale's post-1982 rebuild of the team was.

To be fair, one of those 'mortgage the future' type of deals was a strong contributing factor in us getting to the Finals in 1982.

(heh, granted, it *also* took one of the greatest upsets in NHL history - as well as other upsets - to clear that path to the Finals)

Odd thing is, that HHOF team - Islanders - themselves I think almost got knocked out of the playoffs. Our 'good luck' just came a little bit short...

 

[Hardyvan123]

Not me. I love the guy.

Like the Canucks cant use a big, fast, skilled, tough power forward.

The kid is 2 months past his 19th birthday. If you have watched hockey long enough then you know that power forwards take longer to develop and require some patience.

We traded Neely foolishly at 21. Bertuzzi took til 24. John LeClair... the list goes on an on. Keith Tkaczuk would be the rare exception who made impact at 20.

The other coveted power forward in that draft, Nick Ritchie is starting his career in the minors at 20.

Ritchie is off to a very good start in his pro career with a 10-8-2-10 line but I think the point remains that the next forwards taken after Jake are all looking to be big time high skill players in Nylander and Ehlers.

 

[Canuxxx]

So, backtrack from thread title?

Yes and no. No, I am not saying that that Virtanen/Mccann will be two art ross winners and future hoofers. So, in that sense, the 99 draft is undeniably better.

However, the 2014 draft is better in the sense that I believe where we were at as an organization dramatically changed the face of our organization quickly. We have two kids that are already in the lineup and are future top 6 forwards. And maybe a future starter between the pipes. This coupled with the fact that we still have a semi competitive team has led to a successful retool and not a full out rebuild.

In 99 after drafting the twins, the team was still crap, they were ridiculed as the sedan sisters and the bucks weren't relevant until the days of the WCE.

IF the kids from 2014 continue to develop quickly, the canucks are in a better position now than where they were in 99/00 immediately after drafting the Sedins.