Sedins still hold key to future
Canucks need aging stars to mentor young Swedes until they’re ready for prime time
The Sedins were drafted 18 years ago, but are currently as important to the future of the Vancouver Canucks as they’ve ever been.
Suddenly, what the soon-to-be 37-year-old brothers plan to do next year and beyond seems important.
The Canucks did something this weekend they hardly ever do. With their first pick, they took the forward, in Elias Pettersson, who had the most offensive upside on the board.
They didn’t worry if he’s a little undersized; people are making way too much of Pettersson’s frame. Listed at 165 pounds at the draft, Pettersson has four fewer pounds than William Nylander had in 2014 and three more than Nik Ehlers in that same class. He’s also taller than both by a couple of inches.
Jake Virtanen outweighed the pair of 2014 draft picks by nearly 40 pounds. How’s that working out?
Pettersson is the type of pick a significant chunk of the city’s hockey fans have been craving. He has puck skills for days. He can actually dangle. He can make passes that lesser players don’t even think about trying. He can score shootout goals, the kind you show your buddy on your phone the next day.
Most importantly, he has first-line ceiling. The Canucks haven’t drafted a player with anything close to Pettersson’s skill set since 2009 when they took a chance on Jordan Schroeder. That didn’t work out, and the same could happen to Pettersson.
But while Schroeder is 5-foot-8 and a bit, Pettersson is around 6-foot-2. It’s worth noting.
Of course, there is risk with Pettersson, who could be years away from playing his first NHL games. But it’s not like Cody Glass, who many in Vancouver wanted the team to take, is expected to play in the NHL any time soon. Either way, the pair will be closely scrutinized in the coming seasons.
Because Pettersson has to physically mature, he may take longer than many top-five prospects, which is where the Sedins come in again.
The patience the Canucks and their fans are going to need with Pettersson leaves the team doing what they’ve done for much of the past decade: still counting on the twins.
The questions, however, are no longer about how far the Sedins can carry a team into the post-season. Instead, now they’re about how much they can help the Canucks develop a pair of Swedes-in-waiting, Pettersson and Jonathan Dahlen.
The Sedins’ contracts are up at the end of this season, but the Canucks need them back, not just to mentor the next ones, but to create an environment where the team isn’t cornered into forcing Pettersson into the lineup before he’s ready.
It’s a scenario the organization believes led to a negative season for both Virtanen and Jared McCann two years ago when they were playing in the pros before, it now seems, they were mentally prepared for it.
It’s not like Henrik and Daniel are the only players who can play this role. If they retire, the Canucks could potentially sign a top-six centre to bridge the gap or trade for one.
Neither of those scenarios, however, is going to be easy. Top-six centres rarely make it to free agency, and when they do, there are usually plenty of good teams who will pay premium prices and term for them.
Trading for one is even more problematic because it means either unloading some youth or draft picks, which a rebuilding team can’t do, or it means dealing a veteran. Any veteran is an asset that could be turned into something far more valuable if the Canucks deal for futures instead of someone to fill a generational gap between the Sedins and Pettersson.
Of course, the team could also say ‘screw it’ if the Sedins retire, and let Bo Horvat and Brandon Sutter centre the top two lines.
But if Sutter is centring a second line for any length of time next year, fans will be going bananas with demands that Pettersson be given a chance.
So right now, the Canucks sure look like a team that needs the Sedins back on a one-year deal in 2018-19 and probably in 2019-20 as well.