Review: HAS our drafting/development Actually Improved Under Gillis?

[Gollumpus]

In my opinion, the new Canucks drafting/development motto should be: "Give busts a chance."

[Brick Tamland]

To the Goombas who questions AV or MG, this team was 1 win from the cup. 2 time back to back President's trophy winner, Jack Adams trophy winner, GM of the year...

So, let it go, their peers and the others that matter in the game agree that they are special. Now, getting back to their drafting. When you are the top team in the league repeatedly, not sure if you know this, but your picks are low, like 29 or 30 overall.

All you can hope for is a diamond in the rough. Drafting outside of the top 5 is a crap shoot, maybe even the top 3. These are all still kids who (if you have kids you will know) can become complacent, lazy, angry etc... and never get to that next step...

Being in Edmonton, having the number 1 year after year is easy.

I look at it this way, if you can get 1 'keeper' every year, you did something right. I think MG has done that. I believe Jensen and Corrado are keepers (but both could go belly up).

Schroeder (making me eat my words) appears to be able to stick at the NHL level.

Kassian (or Hodgson) has phenomenal skill set and power forwards take time (unless you get a Lucic).

Since 2006, there have been 3 players outside of the top 10 who were selected as all stars... That is slim pickings...

I prefer to measure a GM on their signings and trades. Luongo one will tell a big story. Getting this core locked up has been a prime example of how solid the coach and GM are.

[Ugli Fruit]

Vancouver had crappy drafts for years, did you expect to get RNH every time or something?

A good prospect pool is impossible for a consistent contender

[Lancaster]

Vancouver had crappy drafts for years, did you expect to get RNH every time or something?

A good prospect pool is impossible for a consistent contender

[BedBeats™2.0]

I'm of the belief that the biggest obstacle in terms of prospect development remains to be the head coach of the Canucks.

[Gollumpus]

The exception to the norm being Detroit and SJS to a certain extent.

[shazzam]

very unfortunate siltation with Bourdon. I really think he would be our best defenseman right now. He had all the tools.

[DollarAndADream]

The only prospect Gillis has drafted so far that has panned out is Hodgson. Hodgson is already proven NHL calibur, and he was traded for a project in Kassian. Not to bash Kassian, he has shown flashes of brilliance but he hasn't been consistent.

[oldnews]

The only sample we can really use from Gillis is the 08 and 09 drafts. Everything else is too early, and 2010 is largely a write off, because of our picks being dealt - this was also a notoriously weak draft, so I have no problem with dealing our first.

2011 and 2012 are too recent, as these guys aren't even out of junior yet.

That being said, I would have to correct you on some evaluations. The first being Andersson, who is currently on the Wolves top pairing, and has been a defense main stay down there all year. Being a Swede, and playing in the SEL gives him some upside as a puck mover. We'll see him as a call up as early as next year.

The 2011 class might be most indicative of Gillis's changes to the drafting/development department. Corrado and Jensen are steals for where they went, and Swedish defenseman Tommernes has been a key part of his SEL team's success, even while playing against partial NHL line ups.

From this past year, Gaunce has shown tremendous development this past month, demonstrating offense with 17 points in 12 games. Myron has taken the jump to pro and is currently PPG in the ECHL awaiting AHL call up. Hutton has gone from benched rookie to top pairing D on the powerhouse Maine team.

You seem to forget the epic fails by Nonis, which were blatant even at the time of the draft. I'm talking Patrick White, Daniel Rahimi, to a large degree taking Grabner 16th when he was rated in the 40s (which is where our 2nd was that year), and of course Juraj Simek, Evan Fuller and Dan Gendur.

Let's give Gillis some more time, as I think our most recent drafts might be his best.

[canucksnhl]

MG and AV are the best GM and coach we've ever had. They've been able to get everyone to buy into a very effective system which in turn has brought us the most consistent hockey we've seen in Vancouver. Thanks to the some of the signings/trades MG did and DID NOT make. To all the people complaining about these two studs... Our team has many versatile players and is stacked compared to most of the NHL when you look at the names on this team in large part to MG's ability to acquire admirable players and AV's system which keeps our players humble.

[Smashian Kassian]

This has got to be one of the worst threads in awhile. Our development has actually been great IMO. You can look and compare to past years, but consider we have never consistently been this good. And we had alot of bad draft years under Nonis/Burke.

I know people love think we suck a drafting and development because we don't have a Huberdeau or a Tarasenko, exc. But we actually have had some really good year lately. Namely 2009 and 2011.

2009:

1st - Jordan Schroeder

2nd - Anton Rodin

3rd - Kevin Connaution

4th - Jeremy Price

5th - Peter Andersson

6th - Joe Cannata

7th - Steven Anthony

Out of those 7, the only one I would count out at this point is Steven Anthony. (As I did)

The rest are all still prospects, and the bolded are really good prospects for us and look to have definently NHL upside.

2011:

1st - Nicklas Jensen

3rd - David Honzik

3rd - Alex Grenier

4th - Joseph Labate

4th - Ludwig Blomstrand

5th - Frank Corrado

6th - Pathrik Westerholm

7th - Henrik Tommernes

This one is tough to judge since it is so recent, I still consider them all to be legitimate prospects (side from maybe Westerholm) namely Labate, Grenier and Honzik.

Althought the 3 bolded are looking like steals, Jensen is a steal at 29, Corrado is a gem in the 5th round, as is Tommernes in the 7th, as he is a huge minute eating defenseman in the SEL right now.

As for the other years, in 2010 we picked up Polasek, McNally and Fresien. And we only had 5 picks. 3 out of the 5 are legit prospects 3 years later, not bad.

Then this past year looks to be really good for us, Gaunce has been lighting up the OHL for awhile, Mallet is looking like a really solid prospect, as are Beattie (who was ranked nearly 100 picks higher than his selection) Myron, and Hutton.

Then you consider our UFA signings too. (And yes they count as development)

Tanev, Lack and McEneny are all looking pretty good, Billy Sweat is a legit prospect still.

To me, judging by where we have been drafting, I think we have done quite well, I think we will look back at 2009 and 2011 in the future and see they were 2 very very successful draft years.

[Ghostsof1915]

There are two sources of problems.

1> Scouting Staff: They've shuffled the deck chairs but Delorme needs to go. We should be finding the best scouts from New Jersey/Philly/San Jose/and Detroit and getting them on our staff. There's no salary cap on scouting. We really need to scout the WHL/BCHL for late round gems that others might miss.

2> Player Development: It's hard to have player development when you don't own your own farm club. Basically Chicago and Vancouver have conflicting agendas. Vancouver wants to get lots of ice time and get it's players learning the pro game. Chicago ownership wants a team to make the playoffs and put fans in the seats. It's hard to get your prospects into getting more ice-time when the farm club wants it's free agents getting the minutes. Until we get our own AHL affiliate or one that was more cooperative like we had in Winnipeg, we won't get good player development.

Detroit is an excellent model to follow. Watching the game against Chicago on the weekend, all the players that they called up from their farm club has over 2 years experience in the minors, and most won't get called up unless they've put in 4 years. That's patient development. That's how champions stay competitive even with lousy draft picks. Good scouting, good system, good farm team. Long term development.

[MoneypuckOverlord]

MIke Gillis' draft stradegy is different every year. first 2 seasons I think he went after Players in Hockey iq.

Not sure what the 2010 stradegy was. 2011 he went after players with size. 2012 it looked like he went after players that were a little bit older, (Mallet, Myron) were both older players but were leading offensive players on their team. I think we are looking fine. 2008 is kinda right off, I do believe the Hodgson pick was a solid pick. Sauve... well.... 2008, Mike Gillis didn't have much options as the list was already complete before Gillis got hired.

2009 looks ok so far. Schroeder is in the NHL, as a role player so far. Rodin is struggling like hell right now. Connauton last 10 games might be his biggest leap in developement wit 10 points in his last 11 games. Jeremy Price, not sure what to say about this guy until he plays in the pros.

I like what we have so far.

[Salmonberries]

I would say that drafting/development has dropped off sharply under Gillis, although Jensen and Gaunce do look promising. He might be able to turn it around but I do wish he would avoid Quebec, talk about bad picks.

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

The improvement is minimal. A more exciting topic (in the next little while) would be whether Stan Bowman had drafted better than Dale Tallon.

[uber_pwnzor]

Bieksa

Kesler

Burrows

Hansen

Edler

Schneider

Hodgson

Schroeder

All above players drafted and then 'developed' under AV

[TOMapleLaughs]

There are two sources of problems.

1> Scouting Staff: They've shuffled the deck chairs but Delorme needs to go. We should be finding the best scouts from New Jersey/Philly/San Jose/and Detroit and getting them on our staff. There's no salary cap on scouting. We really need to scout the WHL/BCHL for late round gems that others might miss.

2> Player Development: It's hard to have player development when you don't own your own farm club. Basically Chicago and Vancouver have conflicting agendas. Vancouver wants to get lots of ice time and get it's players learning the pro game. Chicago ownership wants a team to make the playoffs and put fans in the seats. It's hard to get your prospects into getting more ice-time when the farm club wants it's free agents getting the minutes. Until we get our own AHL affiliate or one that was more cooperative like we had in Winnipeg, we won't get good player development.

Detroit is an excellent model to follow. Watching the game against Chicago on the weekend, all the players that they called up from their farm club has over 2 years experience in the minors, and most won't get called up unless they've put in 4 years. That's patient development. That's how champions stay competitive even with lousy draft picks. Good scouting, good system, good farm team. Long term development.

[Christophe]

Pretty hard to acquire top prospects when you keep finishing near the top of the league. Not an excuse, just makes it more difficult.

Also doesn't help that our coach pretty much despises players under 25 and hardly gives them a chance, or after 1 mistake just cuts their ice time down into minutes that I could count on 1 hand.

[Honky Cat]

Pretty hard to acquire top prospects when you keep finishing near the top of the league.  Not an excuse, just makes it more difficult.

Also doesn't help that our coach pretty much despises players under 25 and hardly gives them a chance, or after 1 mistake just cuts their ice time down into minutes that I could count on 1 hand.

[Raph]

If AV's job is to win NHL games, he's being awfully shortsighted about it. Instead of focussing on the next game, he should also be thinking about how to utilize talent coming down the pipeline. He's worrying about how to win the battle, when in fact he's got a whole war that he's squandering - primarily by not identifying what the strengths of his prospects are, and trying to mould them into the types of players that they're not. Not everyone needs to be two-way defensive drones; mix it up, let the players develop and utilize creative playmaking. That's how to prevent teams from studying and ripping apart whatever "system" AV is running, especially since AV isn't quick enough on his feet to respond to changes by opponent coaches mid-game.