2014 NHL Draft: Vancouver Canucks draft review

[HF Article]

 

The Vancouver Canucks were one of the busiest teams during the 2014 NHL Draft, selecting seven players, while moving disgruntled center Ryan Kesler to Anaheim and defenseman Jason Garrison to Tampa Bay.



New General Manager Jim Benning made four different moves at the NHL draft that will significantly impact the organization for years to come. Benning selected a winger, two centers, a goaltender, and three defensemen with their picks. Right wing Linden Vey was acquired in exchange for Vancouver’s 50th selection in the draft.

Of note, Benning placed the onus on improving the size of the team, particularly with the defensemen they acquired with their picks.… read more



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[Canucks LB]

Enjoyed the article

 

[CanaFan]

Nice to see this little piece of misinformation keeps making the rounds...

"Another concern was that Virtanen had strong linemates in Brady Brassart (MIN) and Greg Chase (EDM), who both had 35 goals each, and finished with 85 points. It begs the question: Did Virtanen make his linemates better, and if so, why did he manage only 26 assists?"


Jake didn't play on the top line with Brassart and Chase. He played with a mix of different players on Calgary's 2nd line.

Between misinformed crap like this and the CA "analysis" it's no wonder half our fanbase thinks we drafted a 3rd line banger...

 

[CanaFan]

Here's a better authority than me on Jake's line placement...

Longtime Calgary Hitmen fan here...

Jake is an amazing talent and you can tell that even at 17 that he can dominate at the junior level. However, this past year for him was a real catch-22: He didn't play 1st line time with the Calgary Hitmen, as the team constantly went with the older veterans for the PP, the last few minutes, and for the majority of the ice time. The other side of the coin is that while he was getting less ice time and playing with 2nd/3rd line players, he consistently got into a "puck hog" mentality as the guys with him were not at the same offensive level.

 

[Seatoo]

Ya well it's not like they have the stones to admit they made a mistake and amend the article, it's almost in the "why bother" category.

 

[Canucks LB]

I thought the rest of the article was a good read, but the jake Virtanen research is pretty embarrassing once again.

 

[BeardyCanuck03]

I think Chase and Brassart were his linemates to start but once the Hitmen brought in Tambellini, and others he got shifted to a line with younger teamates. I think he was playing with Elliott Peterson a lot in the playoffs.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Another person who reads (that Canucks blog that i will not name) and thinks its gospel. My question is why anyone would just 'assume' Virtanen was playing with those 2 guys in the first place. A lazy assumption?

It occured to me that there is a way to tell simply by looking at boxscores who played with who on the Hitmen. Simply mouse your pointer over the +- box for any goal scored and you'll see who was on the ice.

Here's a random game against Red Deer:
http://whl.ca/schedule/show/game/65893

Virtanen was +2, he was on the ice with: Draude and Penner for the 1st goal; Lang and Winther for the 3rd
Here's the Hitmen schedule:
http://whl.ca/schedule/list/subseason/221/team/27/time_zone/rel

 

[RogerRoger]

Another person who reads (that Canucks blog that i will not name) and thinks its gospel. My question is why anyone would just 'assume' Virtanen was playing with those 2 guys in the first place. A lazy assumption?

It occured to me that there is a way to tell simply by looking at boxscores who played with who on the Hitmen. Simply mouse your pointer over the +- box for any goal scored and you'll see who was on the ice.

Well, Virtanen is a first line quality player in WHL, so it's not too far-fetched to assume he'd play on the first line. So yeah, it shows lazyness, but I think it's easy to see why someone would take that shortcut.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Well, Virtanen is a first line quality player in WHL, so it's not too far-fetched to assume he'd play on the first line. So yeah, it shows lazyness, but I think it's easy to see why someone would take that shortcut.

I can see why random fans might make that assumption. If you're a writer and you're about to write a 1000 word essay on why the Canucks shouldn't draft Virtanen (the blog, not this article) you might want to do a tiny little bit of research I would think. Apperently that's asking too much of bloggers these days (or that blog at least).

 

[DCantheDDad]

Overall, I liked the article. Gave a bit of perspective on the last two picks, but yeah, the Virtanen oversight is...about what I'd expect from a HF article on Canucks prospects.

 

[CanaFan]

Another person who reads (that Canucks blog that i will not name) and thinks its gospel. My question is why anyone would just 'assume' Virtanen was playing with those 2 guys in the first place. A lazy assumption?

It occured to me that there is a way to tell simply by looking at boxscores who played with who on the Hitmen. Simply mouse your pointer over the +- box for any goal scored and you'll see who was on the ice.

Here's a random game against Red Deer:
http://whl.ca/schedule/show/game/65893

Virtanen was +2, he was on the ice with: Draude and Penner for the 1st goal; Lang and Winther for the 3rd
Here's the Hitmen schedule:
http://whl.ca/schedule/list/subseason/221/team/27/time_zone/rel

Interesting you bring this up, as I ran through all the Hitmen game sheets a while back and compiled a list of the players who had assists on Virtanen's 45 goals. Shows Brassart assisted on a few of his goals (2 PP and 7 EV) but Chase assisted on just 1. In fact no single player really had a large number of assists and 2 of his 3 highest contributors were defensemen (Helgesen and Rissling).

K. Helgesen 13
B. Brassart 9
J. Rissling 8
R. Fazzleev 6
A. Tambellini 6
P Padakin 5
Unassisted 4
T. Sanheim 4
Z. Jones 4
C. Rankin 3
J. Thrower 2
A. Roach 2
J. Zgraggen 1
C. Brooks 1
C. Harmsworth 1
G. Chase 1
J. Mahon 1
C. Lang 1
E. Peterson 1

 

[bo2shink*]

Hey HF, can I write about the Canucks winning the Cup in 2011? I assume they must have, they won the first 2 games.

 

[Iridescent*]

That's all great, but what is his letter and number allocation? I can't know anything about our prospects until I know if they're a 6B or 8D. That is really the most important thing in evaluating these kids.