WILD, WILD WEST
If the NHL’s return to play plan goes according to script, the Canucks will face the Minnesota Wild in the playoffs. Exactly where or when remains unclear
Jim Benning was pretty good at math in high school. “It wasn’t my favourite subject, but one I enjoyed,” the Vancouver Canucks general manager said on Tuesday.
That could come in handy if Benning wants to wade through the complicated NHL draft lottery computations.
The lottery could go a number of ways for seven non-playoff clubs and the eight that don’t advance out of best-of-five qualifying rounds to set the 16-team Stanley Cup tournament field. The first phase goes June 26, before the qualifying round.
“I could figure it out — that’s easy enough,” said Benning.
The first draw of the initial phase determines the club selecting first. The second draw sets the club picking second and the third will determine the team selecting third.
If a club that’s not in the bottom seven wins any of the first three draws, then a second phase of the draft lottery will be held with the eight teams eliminated after the opening qualifying round — and before the 16-team playoffs.
What Benning really wants is for the Canucks to take their next big step by defeating the Minnesota Wild in the qualifier to advance to the playoffs for the first time in five years. Losing will drop the Canucks into the draft lottery and push the conditional first-round pick they gave up for J.T. Miller to 2021. That’s not the plan.
“We put ourselves in a position to be in this playdown, and it’s important for our young guys to have that experience,” Benning said of advancing to the post-season based on points percentage. “That’s our goal, to be as successful as we can be.
“But it’s going to be different because players have been off so long. And those who can get going early, can have success.”
A season placed on pause back on March 12 by the novel coronavirus outbreak also works for the Canucks on another crucial front.
With the draft date pushed back to the conclusion of the playoffs, Benning could benefit from working a trade to recoup a second-round pick they surrendered in acquiring Tyler Toffoli. A draft before the end of the season wouldn’t allow trades because rosters were frozen after the trade deadline.
In Benning’s world, it could be a win-win scenario.
Win and get into the 16-team playoffs and win back a draft pick. There’s an obvious comfort level in both — especially if he can recover a pick — because a projected salary cap next season of US$81.5 million is going to tax teams.
They may not be able to re-sign top free agents and may look for cheaper solutions.
“We’ll now see how it’s going to play out with the playdowns, and we have time to make decisions,” said Benning. “This gives us time to get back in the game to recover draft picks and sign some of the UFA guys.
“We’ll have to see where the cap ends up, but this (playing) will give us a better idea where we’re at.”
The easiest way to be cap compliant is to shed salary via a trade. Benning has an excess of wingers and that’s usually the currency to recover a second-round pick. And you really learn the true value of a player through his performance in the post-season. That’s a bonus.
“We’re going to have to phone around and see what that entails and go from there,” said Benning.
“It’s going to depend on how players perform when they get back. Maybe we’re in a position to move a player out because we’ve got some depth to reacquire that second-round pick.
“And if we don’t, we could still end up with a pretty good player in the third round.”
The Canucks haven’t gone without a pick in the first two rounds since 2010.
They didn’t pick until the fourth round that year — having surrendered a first to Florida, a second to Columbus and a third to Carolina in previous transactions — and they also didn’t select well.
The Canucks didn’t miss out when the Panthers took winger Quinton Howden (97 NHL games), the Blue Jackets selected winger Petr Straka (three NHL games) or when the Hurricanes grabbed defenceman Austin Levi (zero NHL games).
However, they swung and missed with all four of their picks.
The Canucks selected Patrick McNally in the fourth round, Adam Polasek in the fifth, Alex Friesen in the sixth and Sawyer Hannay in the seventh round.
They combined for one NHL game and that was Friesen in 2015-16.
Meanwhile, the lead-up to the 2020 draft has been different.
No draft combine or final look at European prospects at the world under-18 championship. That’s been replaced by video and meetings and Zoom calls with prospects.
As many as eight members of the Canucks’ hockey operations department quiz a prospect. It’s a more staid and hollow process because those face-to-face interviews at the combine usually reveal the most.
“Usually, you kind of get to know them better and figure out what makes them tick and what’s important to them,” said Benning.
“This (Zoom) is a good substitute for not being able to do that at a combine. But I still enjoy when you can sit down with a kid and you look him in the eye and he looks at you and you get a good feel of what he’s all about.
“It’s harder on a Zoom call to get that back-and-forth interaction because they’re not in the same room. It’s more business like, They’re at their home, so from the personal side, it’s a little bit more businesslike.”
OVERTIME: Vancouver remains in consideration as a potential hub city along with Las Vegas, Edmonton, Columbus, Toronto, Dallas, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Los Angeles. Two sites will be chosen to host 12-team conference playdowns when the season resumes. Las Vegas and Columbus may be favoured because of Canada’s health edict that states players returning from abroad need to self-isolate for 14 days.