Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

Canucks Army Prospect Profiles, Top 20


Recommended Posts

Sure, if you want me to, I'll break it down further.

Anton Rodin. 7.0C. Played great in the World Juniors and in the SEL (against men). Would have been picked in the first round had Schroeder not fallen to 22nd. Had a bit of trouble adjusting to North American hockey this year, especially with his shoulder problems.

Jordan Schroeder. 7.0C. High skill player that would have gone in the top 5 in 2009 had he been of average size. Is a playmaker that hasn't played with many great wingers in the AHL. Almost made the NHL last year.

Kellan Tochkin. 6.0C. Total bust. Is turning pro this year, will likely start in the ECHL.

Jeremy Price. 6.0C. Highly underrated on HF. Has been great in college, and I would not at all be surprised to see him make the NHL someday. Is an awesome puck mover.

Henrik Tommernes. 7.0D. I honestly don't know much about this guy, other than he was a late round overager. Low risk pick. Could be decent reward if he develops right.

Alex Friesen. 6.5D. All I hear is great things about this kid. He ran people through the boards in the OHL. Plays all heart. One of the best defensively in the entire OHL. Was voted as best faceoff man 2 years running (I believe). Has great speed. Somehow is durable despite playing an in your face style. A fan favourite in Niagra. Should be a good 4th liner or even 3rd liner within 3 years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey CDC folk,

Thomas Drance here, just want to thank you for following our series (and for posting our articles with links as opposed to just quoting the article in full).

Regarding player size, when Gillis assumed the helm as GM the top-5 prospects in the pool included three forwards: Hansen, Shannon and Raymond. Not a lot of size there. In 2009 he picked Schroeder and Rodin (two small forwards). Since then, the trend towards adding size is undeniable: NHL Draft: Mike Gillis and Player Size | CanucksArmy

At the moment, 3 of our top five are guys who I would describe as "power forward" types in Kassian, Jensen and Gaunce. With LaBate, Grenier, Mallet, Beattie, Blomstrand (edit: mistakenly wrote Bystrom originally - a Dallas prospect) etc. in the pipeline, it's clear that this is an area of need that the team has sought to address and I'd say they've done a pretty good job.

Thanks for reading!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey CDC folk,

Thomas Drance here, just want to thank you for following our series (and for posting our articles with links as opposed to just quoting the article in full).

Regarding player size, when Gillis assumed the helm as GM the top-5 prospects in the pool included three forwards: Hansen, Shannon and Raymond. Not a lot of size there. In 2009 he picked Schroeder and Rodin (two small forwards). Since then, the trend towards adding size is undeniable: NHL Draft: Mike Gillis and Player Size | CanucksArmy

At the moment, 3 of our top five are guys who I would describe as "power forward" types in Kassian, Jensen and Gaunce. With LaBate, Grenier, Mallet, Beattie, Blomstrand (edit: mistakenly wrote Bystrom originally - a Dallas prospect) etc. in the pipeline, it's clear that this is an area of need that the team has sought to address and I'd say they've done a pretty good job.

Thanks for reading!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 of those guys were over 24 my bad. We still have had a tendancey over the past few drafts to look at the smaller player versus the ogre. I will be clear again . I feel we need even more sizer than we are currently developing. Just my personal opinion. I acknowledge the fact we have some prospective size coming our way but just not enough for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey CDC folk,

Thomas Drance here, just want to thank you for following our series (and for posting our articles with links as opposed to just quoting the article in full).

Regarding player size, when Gillis assumed the helm as GM the top-5 prospects in the pool included three forwards: Hansen, Shannon and Raymond. Not a lot of size there. In 2009 he picked Schroeder and Rodin (two small forwards). Since then, the trend towards adding size is undeniable: NHL Draft: Mike Gillis and Player Size | CanucksArmy

At the moment, 3 of our top five are guys who I would describe as "power forward" types in Kassian, Jensen and Gaunce. With LaBate, Grenier, Mallet, Beattie, Blomstrand (edit: mistakenly wrote Bystrom originally - a Dallas prospect) etc. in the pipeline, it's clear that this is an area of need that the team has sought to address and I'd say they've done a pretty good job.

Thanks for reading!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

um.

Jensen: 6'3" 205lbs - per this years training camp invite list

Kassian: 6'4" 217lbs - He is listed as 6'4" on the AHL site, and per the latest article is 217lbs

Mallet: 6'1" 198lbs - also per training camp roster

Grenier 6'5" 201lbs - Playing for EC Salzburg, also just wanted to share this picture, he looks like an axe murderer now :emot-parrot:

alexandre_grenier_ecs.jpg

Gaunce 6'2" 207lbs - per training camp roster

Labate 6'4" 195 lbs

Sauve 6'3" 213lbs - Chicago Wolves site

Andersson 6'3" 194lbs - per Eliteprospects

Polasek 6'3" 207lbs - Wolves' site

Mcnally 6'2" 181lbs - per eliteprospects, he's not big, but he's building muscle well

Connauton 6'2" 198lbs - per Wolves' site

Just because the Canucks have Schroeder and Rodin - There isn't a size issue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I should add LaBate is at least 200lbs now since he tweeted a picture of himself on a scale last August. He's likely to be at least close to 210 now after another summer to work out.

But Kassian at #1, not that surprising since he's had the most NHL time of any of the prospects on the list. He has a certain level expected from him as a result, but I think he's making good strides to living up to those expectations over the next few seasons.

I kind of like the Blake Wheeler comparison as well.

I was thinking to myself one of the things Kassian did well was protecting the puck along the boards, but he was having trouble doing anything else with it from there. It was quite interesting in that respect to note he'd been training with the Sedins (and Malhotra too) in April and May. Hopefully he's picked up some of the things they're so good at as it'd really fit into his game.

Now he just needs to have trained with a gritty power forward and put it all together.

EDIT: Kept trying to fix it so the image from LaBate's tweet would stay, but the direct link has a bunch of expire code in it. Just click to twitpic link to see it as it shows his ugly toes and 203.6lbs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I know that. It seems that all the college sites think he's lost weight since then. I hope he's at 210 though, since he added about 13lbs last summer and should have done roughly the same this year.

Edit: I should also add that Blomstrand is now 6'2" 218lbs, per a recent discovery on Djurgarden's website.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...