PONDERING PROSPEROUS POWER PICKS
Trevor Linden says the Canucks could use some luck in Saturday’s draft lottery, but he’s confident they’ll eventually net a skilled player
Trevor Linden has a suggestion for the Vancouver Canucks faithful in advance of Saturday’s NHL draft lottery in Toronto.
Head to a convenience store and purchase a lottery ticket. Choose the random draw option or, if you’re into favourite numbers, include 12, 1, 2 and 4. The Canucks have a 12.124 chance — second to the Colorado Avalanche at 17.936 per cent — of winning the weighted system to select first at the June draft in Chicago.
“That’s about as much preparation as you can do,” said Linden, the Canucks’ president of hockey operations who hasn’t played the draft lottery simulator this year, but “might have” a year ago when Auston Matthews was the coveted prize.
“It’s a helpless feeling. And it’s nerve-racking because you have no control.”
The lottery will be part of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast and the suspense starts shortly after 4:30 p.m. Vancouver time.
However, before the card-flipping reveal of the draft order, there will be a curiosity about how 15 ping-pong balls for lottery eligible teams in that drum actually pop up. We don’t see that play out on television. Neither does Linden.
“I don’t and I can’t,” said Linden. “You’re sequestered. I’m not a big conspiracy theorist. What we saw last year (Winnipeg moving from sixth to second with only the fifthbest odds of that ascension) is going to be more normal. You have a better chance to move down than staying where you are and there’s nothing you can do about it. “Those are the rules.” The Canucks slipped from third to fifth last year. And rules that don’t guarantee the league’s second-worst team higher odds of getting the first two picks seem odd.
But with the expansion Vegas Golden Knights receiving the third-best odds Saturday — and the third selection in each round after that — there’s a slow movement to make it tougher for bottom-feeders to gain top selections by supposedly tanking.
In Vancouver, that thought became a social-media staple. The Canucks dropped their final eight regular-season games and that was played as proof of The Tank. Not the fact they lost 462 man-games to injury, were forced to use 39 players and tried to get a leg up on next season with auditions in the final month.
Run all that by Linden and he obviously bristles.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “Regardless of where they are (in the standings), players want to win. Coaches coach to win. I don’t know how you would as a president or a general manager do it any other way. Obviously, it (tanking) is not as easy as people think it is or make it out to be. You could make goaltending or player decisions to influence the game — I guess — but guys have integrity. “They go out to win every night.” And speaking of winning, what would constitute a lottery win? There’s no Connor McDavid or Matthews to put any rebuild on fast-forward.
“There’s no win or loss, we’re going to get a good player and keep building,” reasoned Linden. “A plug-and-play player is good, but maybe the player we pick at four or five becomes a better pro. And I do believe that.” There is some truth to that. Centre Adam Gaudette was a 2015 fifth-round pick and had 26 goals in 37 games at Northeastern University in Boston this season. Defenceman Gustav Forsling was a 2014 fifth-round pick and although traded to Chicago in the Adam Clendening swap, he appears to have an NHL future.
The only control the Canucks will have following the lottery is who they draft June 23 because they can’t drop more than three spots Saturday. Their odds for the second through fifth picks are 11.8, 11.3, 34 and 30.7 per cent, respectively.
And while selecting in the top five should ensure a legitimate NHL prospect, the top two picks are those highly coveted plug-and-play players.
Canucks’ wish list
A look at 10 players the Canucks could target in the 2017 draft:
1. Nolan Patrick (C, Brandon, WHL, 6-foot-3, 198 pounds) The stats: GP: 33, G: 20, A: 26, Pts: 46 The skinny: A can’t miss if sports-hernia problems don’t reoccur. Speed and skill are in vogue, but size also matters. Can produce and play in traffic. 2. Nico Hischier (C, Halifax, QMJHL, 6-foot, 174 pounds) The stats: GP: 57, G: 38, A: 48, Pts: 86 The skinny: Changes speed based on the situation and attacks the neutral zone and offensive zone at different angles consistently. Throws forwards and defencemen off on how to gap control him.
3. Gabriel Vilardi (C, Windsor, 6-foot-2, 193 pounds) The stats: GP: 49, G: 29, A: 32, Pts: 61 The skinny: Projected to fill out and is going to play a power game. His first two or three steps need to be quicker and better to create time and space, but he’s big and solid.
4. Cody Glass (C, Portland, WHL, 6-foot-2, 178 pounds) The stats: GP: 69, G: 32, A: 62, Pts: 94 The skinny: More than 70 per cent of his points come 5-on-5 and that’s exceptionally good. You put a big star beside that when you start to grade levels of work. And 45 per cent of his points were on the road.
5. Cale Makar (D, Brooks, AJHL, 5-foot-10, 175 pounds) The stats: GP: 54, G: 24, A: 51, Pts: 75 The skinny: Hard to project Tier 2 points, but Makar is a dynamic puck-moving blue-liner on league champions. 6. Miro Heiskanen (D, HIFK Helsinki, SM-liiga, 5-foot-11, 174 pounds) The stats: GP: 37, G: 5,A: 5, Pts: 10 The skinny: Has passed the inconsistent Timothy Liljegren with a strong second half. Lots of hype. Lots of hope.
7. Casey Mittelstadt (C, Green Bay, USHL, 6-foot-1, 201 pounds) The stats: GP: 24, G: 13, A: 17, Pts: 30 The skinny: A high school centre who also played in USHL sounds like Patrick White. He’s not White.
8. Martin Necas (C, Brno Kometa, Czech, 6-foot, 167 pounds) The stats: GP: 41, G:7, A:8, Pts: 15 The skinny: Has ability to play at speed and make plays at speed. Under-appreciated and already playing against men.
9. Elias Pettersson (C/LW, Timra, Sweden, 6-2, 161 pounds) The stats: GP: 43, G: 19, A: 22, Pts: 41 The skinny: Strong two-way centre who played on same line as Canucks prospect Jonathan Dahlen.
10. Michael Rasmussen (C, TriCity, WHL, 6-foot-5, 200 pounds) The stats: GP: 50, G: 32, A: 23, Pts: 55 The skinny: Wrist surgery shortened season, but big frame and 32 goals will attract attention.