Prospect Info: Vancouver Canucks Top 25 Prospects 2015 - #1

[Nuckles]

It's that time of year again! The HF Vancouver Canucks board will be ranking the team's top 20 prospects (including the 2015 draft selections). Polls will be left open for 24 hours.

Feel free to explain your choices and suggest who should be added to the list for the next poll.

Rank | Player | POS | HT | WT | DOB | Poll%
1|???|???|???|???|???| ???

*Please note that only players that Hockey's Future considers to be prospects will be included, meaning Horvat, Baertschi, Vey, and Markstrom will be excluded from voting.

2014 ranking: http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1719893
2013 ranking: http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1486113

Click to read more...

 

[y2kcanucks]

Jake Virtanen
Jared McCann
Hunter Shinkaruk
Brock Boeser
Cole Cassels
Ronalds Kenins
Brendan Gaunce
Thatcher Demko
Frank Corrado
Adam Clendening
Jordan Subban

 

[Nuckles]

Virtanen is the #1 prospect for me. He isn't miles ahead of our other top guys, but I think he has the edge over guys like McCann and Boeser. And no, draft position has nothing to do with it.

 

[CloutierForVezina]

Virtanen slightly ahead of McCann and Boeser, who are slightly ahead of Shinkaruk IMO.

 

[tc 23]

Virtanen by a bit for his upside

 

[Freakshow]

Virtanen - kids gonna be a beauty!

 

[Taelin]

Virtanen for his upside. If he puts it all together, we're going to have a beast in our hands.

 

[The Jesus*]

McCann I think has the highest upside on that list.

 

[VC]

Would Kenins not now be too old to be considered a prospect? He hasn't played 65 NHL games but has played his 24 year old season or is there sometime to do with his birth date? Does a late February make a difference?

 

[kilgore111]

Virtanen and McCann. I have been hearing that McCann is starting to put the offence together more. Only concern with Virtanen is not his talent, it is there but IMO you would expect more scoring, if he puts it together he is going to be a great prospect. Shinkaruk I think has a ton of talent but is he another Gilbert Brule unable to take the pounding and stay healthy. Cole Cassels is a nice surprise probably third and don't know much about Boeser other than he is a scorer it OK size maybe one dimensional but if that dimension is goals pretty good.

I really wanted the Canucks to taken Merkley or Konecny with the pick but Benning I guess wants size

 

[DCantheDDad]

Virtanen for me. Hopefully he can bring his offensive game to the pros...

 

[ihaveyuidonttouchme]

not really a fan of having guys who are waiver eligible on these lists...
having said that, Virtanen quite easily followed by McCann narrowly edging Corrado

 

[Canucker]

I went with Demko...I'm not sold on Virtanen as the #1 prospect. I can see Demko being a top end goalie in the NHL.

 

[The Jesus*]

Virtanen for me. Hopefully he can bring his offensive game to the pros...

What offensive game? He had one good season in junior. That's it. He wasn't great in his rookie year. He had a good draft year, but still didn't go above ppg. Then he went back to having a 'meh' year again, on top of putting up only 1 point in 10 AHL games.

Where is this "upside" everyone keeps talking about? Where is this "offense" he's supposed to be bringing to the NHL? Because I don't see it. People are rating him on draft pedigree, but he'd go probably lower than McCann in a re-draft.

 

[Siludin]

What offensive game? He had one good season in junior. That's it. He wasn't great in his rookie year. He had a good draft year, but still didn't go above ppg. Then he went back to having a 'meh' year again, on top of putting up only 1 point in 10 AHL games.

Where is this "upside" everyone keeps talking about? Where is this "offense" he's supposed to be bringing to the NHL? Because I don't see it. People are rating him on draft pedigree, but he'd go probably lower than McCann in a re-draft.

Virtanen's offense comes from his speed and that he can create it all by himself. He doesn't really play on the top line because they rely on him for all the secondary scoring. He doesn't provide the same type of offense that the Sedins do, which requires offensive zone starts and special team play. He plays strong even-strength minutes and doesn't rely on his linemates, which is very important. A good NHL team scores in many different ways.

 

[The Jesus*]

Virtanen's offense comes from his speed and that he can create it all by himself. He doesn't really play on the top line because they rely on him for all the secondary scoring. He doesn't provide the same type of offense that the Sedins do, which requires offensive zone starts and special team play. He plays strong even-strength minutes and doesn't rely on his linemates, which is very important. A good NHL team scores in many different ways.

Ok, you're just listing a bunch of tools. What has he done as a prospect to show you that he has offense that will translate to the NHL?

A weak rookie year, an ok draft year, and a weak draft+1 year followed by a weak AHL showing. Even kids who go 1.5ppg in juniors sometimes end up as depth players in the NHL.

What has he done so far, outside of being mistakenly taken at 6th, to prove to anyone he has all this "potential"? Hopes and wishes?

 

[ItsAllPartOfThePlan]

went with McCann. there are some concerns with Virtanen ' s offense that lead me to question if he will hit his ceiling

 

[Nucker101]

Virtanen, McCann and Boeser are all in the same top tier for me.

 

[Huggy]

Virtanen's speed is going to be top in the nhl.

If horvat went from skating being his weajness to what we saw against calgary. Then i await virtanens speed

 

[m9]

As always, I'm curious how people rank these.

I go purely by asset value, and it comes down to the same hypothetical question for me every time:

If a trade is announced and it is stated "The Canucks have traded a prospect in the deal", which name do you not want to hear?

That said, Virtanen is the easy choice for me here.

 

[Verviticus]

there's nothing but draft position that suggests virtanen should be ahead of mccann or boeser at this point

As always, I'm curious how people rank these.

I go purely by asset value, and it comes down to the same hypothetical question for me every time:

this is the only sane way to approach this

 

[m9]

there's nothing but draft position that suggests virtanen should be ahead of mccann or boeser at this point



this is the only sane way to approach this

I would think so, but I know other people have wacky ways they make their picks.

 

[The Jesus*]

there's nothing but draft position that suggests virtanen should be ahead of mccann or boeser at this point

Exactly. People are basing their opinions on hopes and wishes because a guy was taken WAY ahead of where he should have been taken.

McCann has gotten better every single year. Just like Horvat took a step up like you'd expect in his draft+1 year, so did McCann. A big step up. That's what you expect from prospects you think will be top 6 players.

Jake was at ppg in his draft year, which isn't anything to write home about. It's actually pretty weak production for a top 10 pick, but he scored 40 goals. So...

Then he stagnated and put up ppg numbers again in his draft+1 year, but scoring half as many goals. Then only managed 1 point in 10 AHL games.

Nothing about his curve suggests he'll be a good top 6 player. It is literally just hopes and wishes.

 

[Soth]

Jake Virtanen
Jared McCann
Hunter Shinkaruk
Brock Boeser
Cole Cassels
Ronalds Kenins
Brendan Gaunce
Thatcher Demko
Frank Corrado
Adam Clendening
Jordan Subban

It feels really strange to agree with y2k... Now I must question reality itself.

The only change I would make is dropping Shinkaruk way down to just above Thatcher Demko:

Jake Virtanen
Jared McCann
Brock Boeser
Cole Cassels
Ronalds Kenins
Brendan Gaunce
Hunter Shinkaruk
Thatcher Demko
Frank Corrado
Adam Clendening
Jordan Subban

 

[NoShowWilly]

Virtanen