Playmaking Makar would aid blue-line
Vancouver mulls picking junior hockey standout at 2017 NHL draft
They could trade up, they could trade down or they could stand pat.
The only certainty is uncertainty as the Vancouver Canucks prepare for the 2017 National Hockey League draft June 23-24 in Chicago. And depending what the hockey operations department and scouting staff values in splitting evaluation hairs, the consensus that the Canucks will select a centre, should they remain in the fifth selection spot, isn’t a slamdunk.
If the Canucks believe creative Cale Makar of the Brooks Bandits projects as a top-pairing offensive defenceman — he’s a back-to-back winner of most valuable player and top blueliner in the Canadian Junior Hockey League — scouts say that trumps any available centre predicted to play on the second line.
And if centre Gabriel Valardi is off the draft board and middlemen Cody Glass, Elias Petterssen and Casey Mittelstadt are sitting there, that’s where it’s going to get interesting.
Canucks general manager Jim Benning has two pressing positional needs — a playmaking centre and power play point man — and it’s hard to imagine he won’t take a centre. But hang on.
A year ago, the offensively challenged Canucks were so high on Olli Juolevi, they passed on winger Matthew Tkachuk and the Finnish blueliner became their no-brainer pick at fifth overall.
If Benning believes Makar is a future first-pairing possibility with Juolevi, the GM can point to the Nashville Predators’ mobile and productive back end to help sell that package potential here because Makar has already been compared to a budding Erik Karlsson.
“It’s the rarity of the position,” said Shane Malloy, who has scouted NHL prospects for a dozen years, is the author of The Art of Scouting and co-host of Hockey Prospects Radio on Sirius XM, NHL Network Radio and TSN Radio. “The two positions that are the most rare are an offensive defenceman and power forward.
“A guy who can move the puck, rush it and quarterback the power play — and if it all projects to the NHL level — you’d be crazy not to consider that. You have to. But it’s all about the projection and I wouldn’t be shocked if they (Canucks) took him at No. 5.” That’s understandable.
The Canucks not only interviewed Makar during the NHL Draft Combine, Benning and Trevor Linden, the president of hockey operations, were among a four-person entourage that took the highly-touted defenceman to dinner later that night to demonstrate their heightened level of interest.
The polite and soft-spoken Makar, a team-first guy, checks a lot of competitive and character boxes.
“My parents raised me right and kept me humble as I was growing up,” said Makar. “I had to work for everything I got and I’m not a guy who likes to talk about himself. I have to give credit to my teammates and all the coaches I’ve had for sure.”
Makar has been compared to a National Basketball Association point guard because of what he does in transition, how he finds teammates and how he finishes. In his last two full seasons in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, he amassed 35 goals and 100 assists in 111 games. That alone commanded attention, but there was much more.
At the 2017 World Junior A Championship in December, he had five goals and four assists in eight games and that’s when the light bulb went on. As much as Makar set a goal to be the topranked defenceman for this draft, his performance at the worlds and the added attention only heighten his resolve.
Makar also assisted on both goals in the RBC Cup final but the Bandits fell 3-2 in overtime to Ontario’s Cobourg Cougars.
All that is why the 18-year-old Calgary native maintained his Central Scouting Bureau rank of North American skaters — 10th at midterm and ninth in the final assessment. The 5-foot-11, 184pound blueliner added leg strength and quickness and that led to 24 goals and 51 assists this season.
Makar has been slotted as high as third overall in mock drafts because of what he did on various stages. It was Karlsson-like.
“People started comparing and I started watching highlights and saw that we have a lot of similar tendencies like breaking out the puck and walking the line,” added Makar. “Before that, I kind of looked at Shayne Gostisbehere (Philadelphia Flyers) who came out of college.
“One of the things I’ve noticed in his game is deceptiveness. It’s something I had never seen at such a high level and something I had in my game, so I kind of kept tabs on him.”
The 5-foot-11, 186 pound Gostisbehere had 46 points (17-29) in his 2015-16 rookie season — and has signed a six-year, US$27-million extension — while Makar has committed to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He wants to follow a similar development path because he will play less and practise more and study business marketing, which runs in his family.
Maker was drafted by the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League, if you’re looking for another Canucks connection, but he has a cousin who took the NCAA route and is sold on that route.
There’s a scouting consensus that Makar is the most dynamic puck mover in this draft. Speed and creativity allow him easier zone entries, a big requirement in today’s NHL game.
Even though some doubt the competitive level of the AJHL or any other Tier 2 league — despite 13 grads advancing to this year’s Stanley Cup Final — a closer look reveals an additional challenge Makar has handled at this level. The AJHL allows six overage players and the Western Hockey League three.
“They’re bigger, stronger and faster — and maybe not as skilled — but as a smaller defenceman, you have these behemoths coming down on you on the forecheck and when they’re trying to kill you, you see how good the player is,” stressed Malloy.
“They’re gunning for him because he’s the No. 1 defenceman and yet there he still is making plays.”
Makar also made his mark during NHL Combine testing. While there’s great debate as to the validity of some of the testing in how it converts to skilled players, he finished 10th in the vertical jump.
“That shows a tremendous amount of power generation,” noted Malloy. “Most of the tests are irrelevant. The ones that make a difference in projections are the standing long jump because that’s power, the vertical jump, the agility test and the VO2 max (oxygen consumption).”
Regardless of testing debates, this one is clear. Nobody doubts Makar has passed all the crucial tests.
A guy who can move the puck, rush it and quarterback the power play — and if it all projects to the NHL level — you’d be crazy not to consider that.