SPORTS: The Canucks haven’t drafted this well since 2004
Vancouver concentrates on much-needed scorers with team’s first three picks in the draft
For a team coming off a disastrous season in which they ranked 29th in the National Hockey League in offence, the Vancouver Canucks stuck to their game plan in the early rounds of this weekend’s draft in Chicago. And for that they should be saluted.
The Canucks appear to have gone to the Windy City with the realization they needed scorers in abundance. And wouldn’t you know it, it looks like they found a bunch.
It started with Elias Pettersson fifth overall on Friday night, and by the time the second round ended, they had added Kole Lind out of Kelowna and Owen Sound’s Jonah Gadjovich.
It was like the dam burst and high-octane hockey players keep spewing forth. It was glorious. Wave after wave after wave of players who know their way to the net and understand what to do once they get there.
This organization is so starved for offence at both the NHL level and on the farm, they needed to find a surplus of scorers to add to their burgeoning prospect pool. And while it will be years still until any true verdict can be rendered on the 2017 draft, it made so much sense for the Canucks to go all in on offensive-minded players.
But this was more than just adding forwards.
This was adding three players who in some pre-draft rankings were all pegged to have their names called in Friday’s first round.
Pettersson produced at rates in the Swedish second league that haven’t been seen in years while Lind scored 30 goals in the Western League and Gadjovich, plucked with the pick the Canucks received from Columbus as compensation for hiring John Tortorella, ran wild with 46 in the Ontario Hockey League.
In 2013, the Canucks used their first three picks on Bo Horvat, Hunter Shinkaruk and Cole Cassels.
Ten years earlier, they used their top three selections to nab Ryan Kesler, Marc-Andre Bernier and Brandon Nolan.
All were forwards, but Cassels, Bernier and Nolan were all taken outside the top 60 in their draft years and, as such, were considered long-shots to ever make the NHL, let alone produce.
That trio has combined for a grand total of six NHL games and has yet to score a goal with Cassels now the only hope to bump those totals.
To give you a better sense of what the Canucks accomplished in Chicago this weekend, you must go back to 1983 to find the last time the organization held three picks in the top 55 and used all of them on forwards: Cam Neely (ninth overall), David Bruce (30th) and Scott Tottle (50th).
Astoundingly, it’s been 34 years since the Canucks pushed their chips to the middle of the table and bet on offence the way the did in this year’s draft.
They’ll have to be patient now and play the waiting game before knowing if they hit the jackpot with any of this year’s selections.
But it just seemed like such a long-overdue action plan for a team that has tested the limits of its fan base recently. It’s one thing to struggle. It’s another altogether to be bad and boring.
Hopefully, the darkest of the days are behind the Canucks and players like Pettersson, Lind and Gadjovich will join forces with Horvat, Brock Boeser, Markus Granlund, Nikolay Goldobin, Jonathan Dahlen and Adam Gaudette to produce the next wave of scorers for the hockey club.
At least now you can see the faint outline of a plan to put the puck in the net.
Dare to dream.
ONE FINAL WORD
This will be my last column in this space.
The ever-changing landscape in the sports media in this city has led to an opportunity to become TSN 1040’s full-time Canucks reporter.
As such, I want to thank The Province — and the many talented people in the newspaper’s sports department — for the chance to share my thoughts on the Canucks on a weekly basis.
I also want to thank all the readers for their loyalty and support.