Vancouver Canucks Preseason Top 20 shows new patience with prospects

[HF Article]

Photo: Vancouver’s top prospect Jake Virtanen has an abundance of physical tools but needs to refine his mental game to reach his full potential (courtesy of Marissa Baecker/Getty Images)


</p>Drafting and developing have not been strong suits for the Vancouver Canucks over the last few years. With Jim Benning and Trevor Linden in charge there seems to be efforts being made to rectify years of poor drafting and developing of their own players, though certain moves have not come without controversy.



In recent years, 2009 first round pick Jordan Schroeder was allowed to walk away after failing to break into the NHL with Vancouver, and has found a depth role with the Minnesota Wild.… read more

The post Vancouver Canucks Preseason Top 20 shows new patience with prospects appeared first on Hockey's Future.



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[Love]

Photo: Vancouver’s top prospect Jake Virtanen has an abundance of physical tools but needs to refine his mental game to reach his full potential (courtesy of Marissa Baecker/Getty Images)


</p>Drafting and developing have not been strong suits for the Vancouver Canucks over the last few years. With Jim Benning and Trevor Linden in charge there seems to be efforts being made to rectify years of poor drafting and developing of their own players, though certain moves have not come without controversy.



In recent years, 2009 first round pick Jordan Schroeder was allowed to walk away after failing to break into the NHL with Vancouver, and has found a depth role with the Minnesota Wild.… read more

The post Vancouver Canucks Preseason Top 20 shows new patience with prospects appeared first on Hockey's Future.



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Thanks for posting.

I think the top 5 is pretty much a consensus, and I think it's a solid top 5 at that. After Virtanen at #1 people have differing opinions on Boeser, Demko, Cassels, and McCann to round out the top 5 and they could be shuffled in almost any order depending who you ask.

Subban is a bit low IMO... I think he has a very good shot of being an NHL defenceman. His height is a concern of course, but there are a lot of small defenceman in the NHL nowadays who plays the PP quarterback/offensive specialist role and it is a valuable role at that. I'm thinking of guys like Spurgeon, Vatanen, Ellis, and Barrie. I think Subban could reach those heights as his max potential, but I could also see him developing into a Yannick Weber type who is also very valuable player to have.

Also Jensen is too high IMO.. People have kind of given up on him as an NHL prospect and I have to agree with them.

Also I'm not sure that McEneny (SP?) is still with our organization? Wasn't he traded to SJ or something?

 

[ATypicalCanadian]

Thanks for posting.
Also I'm not sure that McEneny (SP?) is still with our organization? Wasn't he traded to SJ or something?

That was Patrick McNally , and McEneny is signed by the Canucks. I believe he'll be playing for Utica ?

 

[Love]

That was Patrick McNally , and McEneny is signed by the Canucks. I believe he'll be playing for Utica ?

Ahh that's right. I got the two confused.

 

[VanJack]

Wow....Cole Cassels all the way up to #3!....not too shabby for a third rounder...this guy's going to be a player for VanCity much sooner than many expect:

 

[Nuckles]

The top 25 list as voted on by this board: http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1936325

After almost a month of voting, the HFCanucks top 25 ranking is complete!

(please note that Adam Clendening was traded after he was ranked 10th on this list, so we did an additional poll to make up for his departure)

Rank | Player | POS | HT | WT | DOB | 2014 Rank | Poll%
1| Jake Virtanen |RW|6.01|207|Aug 17, 1996|2 (↑1)| 80.00%
2| Jared McCann |C|6.00|185|May 31, 1996|6 (↑4)| 68.21%
3| Brock Boeser |RW|6.00|191|Feb 25, 1997|Not Ranked| 57.14%
4| Thatcher Demko |G|6.04|195|Dec 8, 1995|10 (↑6)| 48.87%
5| Cole Cassels |C|6.00|180|May 4, 1995|12 (↑7)| 51.45%
6| Hunter Shinkaruk |LW|5.11|180|Oct 13, 1994|3 (↓3)| 58.67%
7| Brendan Gaunce |C/W|6.02|207|Mar 25, 1994|5 (↓2)| 34.59%
8| Ronalds Kenins |LW|6.00|201|Feb 28, 1991|17 (↑9)| 38.96%
9| Frank Corrado |D|6.00|190|Mar 26, 1993|7 (↓2)| 53.59% 10 | Adam Clendening | D | 6.00 | 190 | Oct 26, 1992 | Not Ranked | 26.06%
11| Ben Hutton |D|6.03|200|Apr 20, 1993|9 (↓2)| 27.48%
12| Jordan Subban |D|5.09|185|Mar 3, 1995|15 (↑3)| 32.76%
13| Guillaume Brisebois |D|6.02|175|Jul 21, 1997|Not Ranked| 38.46%
14| Alexandre Grenier |RW|6.05|200|Sep 5, 1991|20 (↑6)| 39.81%
15| Andrey Pedan |D|6.05|215|Jul 3, 1993|Not Ranked| 54.62%
16| Dmitri Zhukenov |C|5.11|170|Mar 24, 1997|Not Ranked| 33.33%
17| Nikita Tryamkin |D|6.07|228|Aug 30, 1994|14 (↓3)| 43.97%
18| Nicklas Jensen |RW|6.03|202|Mar 6, 1993|4 (↓14)| 58.88%
19| Lukas Jasek |RW|6.00|170|Aug 28, 1997|Not Ranked| 72.09%
20| Evan McEneny |D|6.02|212|May 22, 1994|Not Ranked| 32.08%
21| Dane Fox |C/LW|6.00|188|Oct 13, 1993|11 (↓10)| 31.33%
22| Anton Cederholm |D|6.02|209|Feb 21, 1995 |21 (↓1)| 35.71%
23| Joseph Labate |C|6.04|210|Apr 16, 1993|25 (↑2)| 23.26%
24| Mackenze Stewart |D|6.03|240|Aug 10, 1995|Not Ranked| 27.71%
25| Carl Neill |D|6.03|206|Jul 6 1996|Not Ranked| 30.56%
26| Adam Gaudette |C|6.01|170|Oct 3, 1996|Not Ranked| 42.47%

 

[RandV]

Wow....Cole Cassels all the way up to #3!....not too shabby for a third rounder...this guy's going to be a player for VanCity much sooner than many expect:

It's great having a 3rd rounder in this position but careful there, he still needs to transition to the pro game.

 

[Hardyvan123]

It's great having a 3rd rounder in this position but careful there, he still needs to transition to the pro game.

This and it's not a deep prospect pipeline right now, after the top 5 it's kinda full of projects and question marks and real longshots.

 

[ihaveyuidonttouchme]

respectable list (probably one of few hf lists in all time that didnt made me angry)

McEneny imho is too low. me thinks he should be behind Hutton (from the original list)
Hutton imo should b at least in the same ball park as Pedan or ahead
though u could probably say the same thing for everyone in that group
as there arent a lot of gap between them
no problem with CC in #3 spot

 

[skyo]

Next year I foresee Jensen and especially Lukas Jasek rise up the ranks.