Canucks Biggest Draft Booms and Busts since 2000

[Fedz]

As for 2003, Marc-Andre Bernier is one of the lowkey worst Canuck picks ever. Ponderous, awful player who scored 1 career AHL goal, and 3 of the 4 players taken after him were Max Lapierre, David Backes, and Jimmy Howard.

I remember watching Bernier at development camp and wondering how in the world he was a 2nd rounder. The playoff run he had in his draft year sealed his/our fate. Probably the best Hockey he's ever played.

Although not a exactly a bust as a 7th rounder (in a 9 round draft though) but I always wondered who signed off on Marc-Andre Roy as an actual draft pick instead of a camp invite...Mind boggling. 432 reasons I guess...

 

[President of Hockey]

I remember watching Bernier at development camp and wondering how in the world he was a 2nd rounder. The playoff run he had in his draft year sealed his/our fate. Probably the best Hockey he's ever played.

Although not a exactly a bust as a 7th rounder (in a 9 round draft though) but I always wondered who signed off on Marc-Andre Roy as an actual draft pick instead of a camp invite...Mind boggling. 432 reasons I guess...

Same with Mallet. Also mind-boggling how he turned out to be a second round pick. If I remember correctly, no team had less second round picks this century than the Canucks and even the ones they have are used for these kind of picks in some cases.

It's not only about the first round picks. If you want to build a successful team, it helps a lot to have some hits in the later rounds.

 

[Hit the post]

Same with Mallet. Also mind-boggling how he turned out to be a second round pick. If I remember correctly, no team had less second round picks this century than the Canucks and even the ones they have are used for these kind of picks in some cases.

It's not only about the first round picks. If you want to build a successful team, it helps a lot to have some hits in the later rounds.

Ok, draft picks, particularly late round picks are often a hope and a prayer but what about actually giving an ELC contract to a guy like Mackenze Stewart? Complete waste of a contract slot.

 

[Jay Cee]

Though it was not a big flub in the same neighborhood as some of the people are talking about, I was crushed we picked Kesler over Mike Richards. Richards was a warrior of a player and had a much better start to his career. That pick looks a lot better over time though.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

I remember watching Bernier at development camp and wondering how in the world he was a 2nd rounder. The playoff run he had in his draft year sealed his/our fate. Probably the best Hockey he's ever played.

Although not a exactly a bust as a 7th rounder (in a 9 round draft though) but I always wondered who signed off on Marc-Andre Roy as an actual draft pick instead of a camp invite...Mind boggling. 432 reasons I guess...

Heh, were you around for the Marc-Andre Roy fan club we had at the prospect camp that year?

Man, 653 PIMs in his final season in the Q. That’s insane.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

only tangentially ot but what a weird ride it’s been for valeri nichushin. left for the KHL, came back, was bought out, and now apparently he’s a selke sleeper this year and advanced stats superstar.

meanwhile, horvat was sixth in pp goals.

 

[VanJack]

only tangentially ot but what a weird ride it’s been for valeri nichushin. left for the KHL, came back, was bought out, and now apparently he’s a selke sleeper this year and advanced stats superstar.

meanwhile, horvat was sixth in pp goals.

Yep...I remember when some Canuck posters were bent out of shape that the Canucks picked Horvat, while Nichushkin went next to Dallas. But his career in Dallas quickly went off the rails....first hip surgery, then a contract dispute and eventually back to the KHL before returning.

Dallas bought him out making him a UFA. Always thought he was a player the Canucks should have shown an interest in. But they probably didn't have the cap space. After all, you only have so much money when you're paying 'depth forwards' like Beagle, Schaller, Roussel and Sutter.

So Colorado signs him and he immediately resurrects his career.....thought at times he was one of their most effective forwards down the stretch.

But just goes to show that you never want to give up on high draft picks too early, particularly the bigger 'power forward' types. So still hope for guys like Virtanen and Puljujarvi.

 

[Fedz]

Heh, were you around for the Marc-Andre Roy fan club we had at the prospect camp that year?

Man, 653 PIMs in his final season in the Q. That’s insane.

You bet I was...Man we were diehards, eh? Burnaby 8 Rinks...Poor guy didn't know how to react. We did make the Province though! I think that was Kesler's first camp with us too..he was using a Nike Apollo stick.

I still try to make it to development camp every year. One of my more enjoyable events.

 

[Fedz]

Ok, draft picks, particularly late round picks are often a hope and a prayer but what about actually giving an ELC contract to a guy like Mackenze Stewart? Complete waste of a contract slot.

Am I way off base to say that a collective group of us would run the Canucks better over the next 10 years than anyone they could hire?

Every move should have to go through an HF fan vote...We'd avoid so many land mines, I swear.

 

[archangel2]

The thing about Nathan Smith, Patrick White and Nik Jensen is that they were drafted well into the bottom half of the first round. That's often because these players were dropping during their draft year, and never really improved much in their draft-plus-one season.

In fact using that criterion, other examples of a 'mild to medium busts' would be Jordan Schroeder, Hunter Shinkaruk and Brendan Gaunce.

But a better example might be Cody Hodgson, a legitimate top-10 pick at the time, who's career was derailed by injury and illness. Still, you expect a lot more from a guy picked in the top-10.

And that is why the moment I realized it was an article from lastword I regretted coming into the thread. While the yard stick got moved due to expansion. I view any pick after 21 being a long term project. The only guy I view as being a bust is Olli Juolevi

 

[EpochLink]

I remember doing cartwheels when Kopitar fell to us, and my slack jawed awe that we didn’t pick him. I think Bourdon would have developed into a top four defender, but Kopitar was the guy I wanted. RIP Luc. In 2003 I wanted Jeff Tambellini and was kind of pissed when we took Kesler. That one went the other way on me.

Nonis thinking at that time...we just resigned Morrison, Henrik was still our second line centre and Kesler was just coming up.

And wasn’t there this big misconception of how players from Slovenia would transfer their skills to the NHL? Ugh, hindsight now we should’ve taken Kopitar but Bourdon would’ve blossomed into a great defensemen.

 

[Hit the post]

Didn't realize that the defenseman picked before Bourdon that draft year was a dud as well (Brian Lee).

 

[Bubbles]

funny anecdote from ferraro this week: LA fired their director of amateur scouting before that draft but used his list. walked away with kopitar and quick. don’t feel too bad for that guy though, he took over tampa’s scouting dept and drafted kuch, palat, vasi, paquette, point, and cirelli all outside the first round.

Man, the Canucks should throw all the money in the world for Al Murray. The Lightning are the best drafting team for the last 10 years.

I'll admit, I was fairly confident that Shinkaruk was going to be a heck of a NHL player. Yikes.

I think the problem was, the Canucks would always take "safe" guys in the later rounds, when you should be taking skilled guys. More often than not, they would choose some plugger from the OHL/WHL other than a European skater that had some skill.

 

[David71]

I remember doing cartwheels when Kopitar fell to us, and my slack jawed awe that we didn’t pick him. I think Bourdon would have developed into a top four defender, but Kopitar was the guy I wanted. RIP Luc. In 2003 I wanted Jeff Tambellini and was kind of pissed when we took Kesler. That one went the other way on me.

what if kopitar was a pick for vancouver? they'd be set in the C position for years. deep. henrik/kesler/kopi? malhotra wow.

 

[rypper]

I think the problem was, the Canucks would always take "safe" guys in the later rounds, when you should be taking skilled guys. More often than not, they would choose some plugger from the OHL/WHL other than a European skater that had some skill.

We'll always have the 2017 draft.




Also I'm envious of how the TBL are run.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Didn't realize that the defenseman picked before Bourdon that draft year was a dud as well (Brian Lee).

at the time i was beyond stunned that ottawa not only passed on kopitar for a dman but that that dman wasn't marc staal.

then nonis walked onto the stage

 

[F A N]

Same with Mallet. Also mind-boggling how he turned out to be a second round pick. If I remember correctly, no team had less second round picks this century than the Canucks and even the ones they have are used for these kind of picks in some cases.

It's not only about the first round picks. If you want to build a successful team, it helps a lot to have some hits in the later rounds.

Blame Tanner Pearson. Seriously, Gillis was thinking about Pearson when he made the Mallet pick. In hindsight, the Canucks should have drafted a Dman in that slot. There's actually an unusually large percentage of Dmen drafted over the next 30 or so picks that actually became decent NHL Dmen or better.

 

[Dr Black]

alot of "what ifs" should if could'nt have. that 2016 draft... imagine tkachuk right now in a nucks uniform.

Imagine Tkachuk, or Sergachev, or Chychrun, or McAvoy, or Keller. One of those 5 guys they could have and should have picked!

As someone else has already pointed out, Juolevi is the only Top-5 pick since about 1974 to not have played a single NHL game through his Draft+4 season. For that reason alone, (other reasons as well) I consider him the Canucks worst draft bust since 2000.

Yes, there's still a chance that he turns his career around and becomes an NHL regular, but that window is closing fast. Even at that, it is certain that he will never come close to Tkachuk, nor will he ever live up to his draft position.

Right now, the most realistic best-case scenario is that Joulevi makes the NHL and plays enough games to not be compared to Jason Herter and Dan Woodly.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

As someone else has already pointed out, Juolevi is the only Top-5 pick since about 1974 to not have played a single NHL game through his Draft+4 season. For that reason alone, (other reasons as well) I consider him the Canucks worst draft bust since 2000.

wow how can that even be true?

but then i'm thinking about it and the last high defenceman pick that didn't play four years out is... former 8th overall pick jason herter.

 

[VanJack]

Imagine Tkachuk, or Sergachev, or Chychrun, or McAvoy, or Keller. One of those 5 guys they could have and should have picked!

As someone else has already pointed out, Juolevi is the only Top-5 pick since about 1974 to not have played a single NHL game through his Draft+4 season. For that reason alone, (other reasons as well) I consider him the Canucks worst draft bust since 2000.

Yes, there's still a chance that he turns his career around and becomes an NHL regular, but that window is closing fast. Even at that, it is certain that he will never come close to Tkachuk, nor will he ever live up to his draft position.

Right now, the most realistic best-case scenario is that Joulevi makes the NHL and plays enough games to not be compared to Jason Herter and Dan Woodly.

Long before that 'best case scenario' takes place, in all likelihood Juolevi will be flipped for another failed prospect. Or alternatively is a 'throw-in' on a bigger deal for the Canucks to acquire another player they need. And if history is any guide, it'll be for another d-man to compensate for the top-five pick who should have in their top-four by now, or at the very least a depth option at the NHL-level.

Benning apologists will blame all the injuries. And no doubt health has been an issue with this guy. But the sad fact is, he just wasn't that great from the get-go.

 

[I am toxic]

Imagine Tkachuk, or Sergachev, or Chychrun, or McAvoy, or Keller. One of those 5 guys they could have and should have picked!

As someone else has already pointed out, Juolevi is the only Top-5 pick since about 1974 to not have played a single NHL game through his Draft+4 season. For that reason alone, (other reasons as well) I consider him the Canucks worst draft bust since 2000.

Yes, there's still a chance that he turns his career around and becomes an NHL regular, but that window is closing fast. Even at that, it is certain that he will never come close to Tkachuk, nor will he ever live up to his draft position.

Right now, the most realistic best-case scenario is that Joulevi makes the NHL and plays enough games to not be compared to Jason Herter and Dan Woodly.

No, the window is not closing fast.

It closed a long time ago.

Then it was boarded up.

Then graffiti was painted all over the boards.

Then more boards were put over it to cover the graffiti.

 

[Kryten]

Really seems like OJ is the rumoured player to have a bad gaming addiction that was talked about a few years ago

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Wasn't the biggest bust, but Hunter Shinkaruk...The Canucks unloaded him after only 2 years..Always seemed rather odd to dispatch a 1st round player (even though it was late in the 1st) so quickly after being drafted.

 

[David71]

Imagine Tkachuk, or Sergachev, or Chychrun, or McAvoy, or Keller. One of those 5 guys they could have and should have picked!

As someone else has already pointed out, Juolevi is the only Top-5 pick since about 1974 to not have played a single NHL game through his Draft+4 season. For that reason alone, (other reasons as well) I consider him the Canucks worst draft bust since 2000.

Yes, there's still a chance that he turns his career around and becomes an NHL regular, but that window is closing fast. Even at that, it is certain that he will never come close to Tkachuk, nor will he ever live up to his draft position.

Right now, the most realistic best-case scenario is that Joulevi makes the NHL and plays enough games to not be compared to Jason Herter and Dan Woodly.

i don't think juolevi will be in a nucks uniform for much longer.. either he gets packaged alongside somebody or traded for a draft pick.

 

[Fedz]

Really seems like OJ is the rumoured player to have a bad gaming addiction that was talked about a few years ago

I mean I'd have to think video game addiction or not, the injuries are the main reason for Juolevi's very slow progression. Having said that, I could actually seem some merit to this. Marek specified that it was a prominent team and you know it was a top pick playing in the OHL. Things that make you go hmm..