Mixed emotions for Canucks fans
Faithful left to ponder whether surprise first-round draft pick was a wonder or a waste
It’s a day of mixed emotions for the faithful, and if you’re familiar with the unfortunate history of the Vancouver Canucks, you understand why their supporters are feeling conflicted about the National Hockey League Entry Draft.
On the one hand the draft represents hope and opportunity, the chance at rebirth, the exhilarating possibility that their team has found the next great thing.
In 1994, for example, the Ottawa Senators took Daniel Alfredsson with the 133rd pick in the sixth round. He would play 17 seasons with the Senators, scoring 426 goals.
It can happen. One pick can help transform a franchise.
On the other hand, well, there’s that history, isn’t there?
We need not recount every tortured step along the way — every miss, every ‘what could have been’ — but the sad fact is that draft record is the predominant storyline in the Canucks’ 47 years of existence. If you have the stomach, you can go to Hockeydb.com for the full accounting and relive every pick. If you don’t, best stay away. So will this be any different? Will this be the moment the faithful look back at 10 years from now and say: “This is where it all changed.”
You know the answer to that. But there’s also that one infinitesimal chance, the Lloyd Christmas, onein-a-million shot, that the Canucks drafted that guy in Elias Pettersson on Friday.
That’s the fascination of the draft and that’s what keeps the faithful coming back. Something, lord knows, must. “I think there’s a huge North American bias when it comes to the draft,” team president Trevor Linden said shortly after the Canucks’ selected Pettersson, the slight Swedish centre, with the draft’s fifth overall pick.
“We rely on our (scouts) to work through the process and project who will be the best players in two or three years.
“I think there are a lot of factors that tipped it for Elias. His performance in men’s league (the Swedish second division), he’s a puck distributor, a great scorer, he has vision. There’s a lot to like there.”
And look at it this way. You can’t accuse the Canucks of taking the easy popular choice.
For all the intrigue and breathless speculation that preceded Friday’s events, the top part of that draft played out pretty much according to form before the Canucks’ turn to pick.
To the surprise of no one, centres Nico Hischier and Nolan Patrick went one-two.
Dallas somehow resisted the urge to trade for Canucks defenceman Chris Tanev and took Finnish blue-liner Miro Heiskanen.
When Colorado followed by taking Cale Makar, the stage was set for the Canucks to fill a positional need while capturing the imagination of their fan base.
Pettersson, as it happens, was the player they wanted all along, but they also selected him over a group of three North American centres — Gabe Vilardi, Cody Glass and Casey Mittelstadt — who drew more notoriety in the run-up to the draft.
Vilardi starred for the Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires.
Glass recorded 94 points with the Portland Winterhawks.
Mittelstadt, who split his time between the USHL and Eden Prairie High School, is a different animal, but he knocked out scouts with his skill set.
Pettersson to be sure is a gifted playmaker and he played with Canucks prospect Jonathan Dahlen in Timra last season.
He’s also 6-foot-2, weighs 161 pounds, and looks to be in urgent need of a square meal. Linden, himself a rail-thin first-rounder three decades ago, said not to worry. Pettersson will fill out.
But that makes Pettersson’s landing date at least two or three years away and patience will be needed here for a team that is overdrawn at the patience bank.
At the Canucks’ draft party in the Rogers Arena SportsBar, the pick was met with a stony response. No cheering. No applause. Just massive indifference.
Again, in the big picture that doesn’t mean anything.
Benning was hired principally on his drafting expertise. Over his first three drafts, his record has been decent as the Canucks have assembled a nice group of prospects.
But Benning’s first rounders also include Jake Virtanen, Jared McCann and Olli Juolevi.
McCann has since been traded and the jury is still out on Virtanen, the sixth overall pick in 2014, and Juolevi, selected fifth overall in 2016.
This time around Pettersson was his guy.
Benning and the Canucks have a lot invested in this pick. Like the faithful, they could use a win.