Proposal: 2015 1st Round Pick. Forward or D-Man?

[MISC*]

I am not asking who we should pick. I am asking the position we should pick based on club needs.

And for the sake of argument lets suppose we choose 10th and have both a forward and a DMan ranked very closely according to all the hockey scouts (choice of DMan ranked 10th and forward ranked 11th or vice versa).

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[Pip]

Forward if all things are the same. They generally make the jump sooner and can contribute early on in their career. I feel as though even a poor drafting team like us can still get good defensemen later on in the draft.

 

[DCantheDDad]

All other things being equal, I would go with the Forward. D-Men are "easier" to get later in the draft, as they have a different development curve and are harder to project at 17/18 than a forward.

 

[canucks10]

Defenceman - just take a look at our forward prospect pool then look at our defenceman prospects if there are two very closely ranked we should grab the defenceman

 

[kurt]

Forwards always seem like a safer bet, but I'm not sure if there's evidence from recent drafts to back that up. It just seems like draft eligible forwards are usually closer to their breakout age, and as a result easier to scout. Defensemen and goaltenders seem to have a bit of a different development path that is tricky to predict.

 

[Love]

It all depends where we are picking and who is available.

 

[Vankiller Whale]

Whoever the BPA is.

 

[BeardyCanuck03]

The Canucks don't have a top notch defense prospect right now. I'm not saying they should pick a dman but I'm saying the system lacks high level talent on the blue line and picking up a player who fills that void would be good.

 

[duplo]

It's always about who's available from where we draft and who's BPA. It's never really about positional needs, it's more about getting the most value from where we're picking.

If the Canucks somehow had a top 10 pick this year though, I'd hope they pick one of the many centres in this year's draft that projects to be a 1C.

 

[Proto]

I almost always say F. Unless Oliver Kylington is available...

 

[Win One Before I Die]

Who ever can eat the most meat and potatoes.

 

[Domecile]

GOALTENDER.

 

[BeardyCanuck03]

I almost always say F. Unless Oliver Kylington is available...

Or Noah Hanifin, but I think both will be top 10 picks. So unless the Canucks bomb I doubt they will be available.

 

[arsmaster*]

The best player. Position doesn't matter.

 

[nuckfan insk]

The best player. Position doesn't matter.

This draft BPA
Trade for position

Ex. If we had no room on the wing but needed d we could trade a winger
We need a influx of quality skilled youth. Position doesn't matter. The BPA does

 

[BeardyCanuck03]

This draft BPA
Trade for position

Ex. If we had no room on the wing but needed d we could trade a winger
We need a influx of quality skilled youth. Position doesn't matter. The BPA does

Position does come into affect when you are talking BPA. How much? It varies depending on how teams value certain types of players and their positions.

 

[nuckfan insk]

Position does come into affect when you are talking BPA. How much? It varies depending on how teams value certain types of players and their positions.

By position I am meaning a lack of d prospects vs a lot of centre prospects. If you have a center ranked higher then the next available dman you have to take the center

 

[member 105785]

BPA but I prefer to pick forwards in round 1 because of my own personal drafting strategy

 

[Proto]

Or Noah Hanifin, but I think both will be top 10 picks. So unless the Canucks bomb I doubt they will be available.

Yes.

Depends, though. This team is a Henrik Sedin injury away from a Top 5 pick. A run of injuries to other key players could easily put the team somewhere in the Top 10.

Roster is probably good enough to finish 6-10 if all breaks well, but who knows what will happen.

 

[knoxdown]

The correct answer is usually BPA.

I'd go a little further and say Forward. Any way you look at it the Sedin's will be gone in half a decade and that is production we will need to find elsewhere. Our new forward prospects are nice and all but getting that 1 more offensive cornerstone is insurance in case a gaunce or shinkaruk can't make the jump.

On defense I think we are okay.

Corrado is slowly becoming an NHL ready defenseman, Hutton is a very underrated prospect, and we have 4 other defenseman on the roster that are still RFA status after this season. Throw in the fact Edler has 5 more years on his contract and that Hamhuis and Bieksa could be reliable 4-6 options when their next contracts come up and our defense will still be stable.

This doesn't even include Subban who is a wild card and the 2 D prospects we chose this year who flew under the radar of a lot of teams scouts.

Forward, preferably a LW, I think.

 

[arsmaster*]

I'm not adverse to selecting a defensman, I just think with this draft in particular (at these early stages) it looks like getting an impact forward is more likely outside the top 10. I see us competing for the playoffs but narrowly missing leaving us in the 12-14 overall range.

I like Jeremy Roy in that range but there are high end forwards who will likely be available.

Super intrigued by the russian forward playing for Cape Breton, Evgeny Svechnikov. Looks to be a game breaker.

 

[Shareefruck]

I think it's assumed that we're talking about all things being equal, right?

If there is a guy available who looks like he could be a blue-chip #1 center prospect, EVEN if their is the equivalent d-man available, you take the center, IMO.

In every other scenario (especially if the center available is no better than a Horvat/McCann), take the defenseman (if they're similar caliber, of course)

 

[Kirk Mclean]

Forward, especially centre. People talk about our abundance of centre prospects, but none of them look like they will be top 6 centres in the NHL, let alone a 1C.

IMO the only way we can get away with having a guy like Horvat as a 2C is if you can manage to draft and develop a really good centre for the top line. A d-man can either be found later in the draft or traded for using a guy like Virtanen or Shinkaruk further down the road if they have value and D is still a need.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Whoever the BPA is.

Yahtzee. Really hard to pinpoint who we should pick without having the foggiest idea of where we will be picking.

I think from an organizational perspective, we're light on top flight D prospects. But the real top notch ones are also pretty hard to come by.

 

[Bankerguy]

I tend to think that you should always take BPA

but...

if the canucks are drafting top 7 or 8 i would lean toward taking a forward. Forwards are more of a 'sure bet' than Dman... another top notch forward like Virtanen or Horvat would be real nice. C or RW please.

..if they are drafting 20-30...then i would take a Dman if the players are about equal ... Canucks dont need another Jensen/ Gaucne level forward... but a Dman of equal value would be better at that spot.

say 10-20...i dunno... bpa i guess.