Hypothetically if Canucks win the draft lottery, do we trade a centre?

[Generational.EP40]

Already have 2 top6 centres in Horvat & EP. Gaudette is a middle 6 centre himself which will limit his ceiling to a 3C for us. So on the off chance that we get 1st overall, would Jack Hughes give us too many top end (top6) centres & if so, do you trade one and who? This is also excluding/ignoring Sutter because he’ll be shipped eventually with Gaudette emerging.

 

The way I see it, 1.) either EP would have to shift to wing or 2.) someone has to be traded because simply put committing to 3 top6 centres financially leaves little to spread out to help on the wings and the remainder of the top6.

 

 

 

EP is more than capable of playing RW (does on PP and when lines get stacked) but it wouldn’t be ideal since he has such outstanding vision to be able to find those around him so it would limit his effectiveness/take away from that aspect on the ice. He’s also very reliable defensively so you lose that on top.

 

Just to reference off the top of my head, the Avs not too along ago had Duchene-Stastny-O’Reilly...and then Mackinnon. Left too much of an imbalance on the wings and as a result they didn’t really have a complete attack outside of their centres (too much $ tied down the middle). They eventually got rid of Stastny+O’Reilly leaving them with 2 of Mackinnon+Duchene (which is ideal in today’s cap NHL). But as we all know Duchene requested out leaving them with just Mackinnon but having the Sens pick they can very well be getting that other centre again if they win the lottery. 

 

The Jackets had a lot of centres at one point and were able to trade Johansen for Jones to fix their defence. They even lost Karlsson to expansion for nothing and still have quite the depth prior to having acquired Duchene at the trade deadline (Dubois, Jenner, Wennberg, Dubinsky).

 

The Pens went through something similar when they had Crosby-Malkin-Staal. They played Malkin on the wing at times but it took away from his game and ultimately they chose to trade Staal so Malkin could be utilized to his fullest. They got Sutter back who was much better suited as 3C, then to not be able to have enough ice & balance with the original big 3 they had as well as lack of quality wingers due to it.

 

 

 

...so the question becomes, hypothetically speaking would you want the Canucks to have that “problem” & inevitable roster imbalance or not? Living with it means having a Horvat-EP, Hughes-Boeser duos while limiting Pettersson in a way as Malkin was. OR, trading one for a winger/dman to help in those areas while still being left with 2 top6 centres but better overall team balance.

 

I’m unsure myself and not opposed or for either. How would you choose between trading the heart and soul future captain Horvat, or the alien EP, or another generational talent and younger Hughes brother? On the flip side, it’s like it’d be nice to be able to address the blueline or wing while not being short of quality down the middle still having 2 top centres. Then again, it certainly wouldn’t hurt having all 3 either but sucks EP would have to be funnelled to play the wing which would restrict his maximum potential & the other areas of need (wing/defence) would still remain weak.

[-AJ-]

Personally, I'd rather keep what we're certain of and just trade the pick for another high pick and a good young top 6 forward or a good top 3 defenseman.

[Fateless]

Just now, -AJ- said:

Personally, I'd rather keep what we're certain of and just trade the pick for another high pick and a good young top 6 forward or a good top 3 defenseman.

I was thinking something along these lines too, but you have to be really careful with that move considering we have Jack Hughes' brother on the team. If Quinn sees that we have the chance to take his brother and our management opts to pass him over by trading down - do you really think Quinn will feel loyal to this team or will he bounce the first chance he gets to play with is brother or another team?

 

I also don't think that trading Petey or Bo is realistic. They're both fantastic players and I truly do think that Bo will be this team's captain for a long time.

 

I wonder if the best result is simply to draft Jack Hughes and let him play wing.

[-AJ-]

1 minute ago, Fateless said:

I was thinking something along these lines too, but you have to be really careful with that move considering we have Jack Hughes' brother on the team. If Quinn sees that we have the chance to take his brother and our management opts to pass him over by trading down - do you really think Quinn will feel loyal to this team or will he bounce the first chance he gets to play with is brother or another team?

 

I also don't think that trading Petey or Bo is realistic. They're both fantastic players and I truly do think that Bo will be this team's captain for a long time.

 

I wonder if the best result is simply to draft Jack Hughes and let him play wing.

If Hughes can comfortably play wing, then I'd definitely like that choice most of all.

[Pears]

No. Keep everyone and if it happens to be Hughes we draft, put him on Horvat’s wing for his rookie season. 

[BlastPast]

Slide Hughes over to wing. He played it at the WJC iirc, and looked just fine.

[The Lock]

The way I see it, we would be in a similar situation to Tampa Bay when they had Lecavalier, Richards, and St. Louis among others. Ultimately, they traded away Richards but they managed to get a cup before that.

 

Keep them all and try for a cup before the last of them needs a big paycheck and we potentially go over the cap. Don't sacrifice a potential cup run due to paranoia of our balance sheet. We'll just be mediocre if we did that in my opinion. 

 

Trade the pick away and you lose the chance of a young core with a couple of big signings.

[Nuxfanabroad]

How 'bout this one for blabbing about?..

 

Van: 2 Hughes Bros

 

OTT:

Brady Tkachuk: imagine him with Bo or EP? Tkachuk bros could have a decade-war

Thomas Chabot: exiting his ELC, so Melnyk loves the cheaper ELC, Q Hughes

CBJ 2019 1st

 

This would give us a bigger team. I REALLY like the 2nd Tkachuk

 

edit: Sorry, Chabot is a 2020 RFA

[Generational.EP40]

3 minutes ago, Pears said:

No. Keep everyone and if it happens to be Hughes we draft, put him on Horvat’s wing for his rookie season. 

 

3 minutes ago, BlastPast said:

Slide Hughes over to wing. He played it at the WJC iirc, and looked just fine.

 

So I take it you would be happy to keep them but still have the other problems which are keeping us from taking the next step. Aka lack of a true all around top pair dman or another proper winger because as much as Hughes/EP could/can play wing, their primary position is centre so there’d be an adjustment and usually you don’t just transfer over 100%...something is a bit off or ends up being left out due to the change and limitations it puts.

 

When I think of that, I think of the current Leafs. Lots of attack but that imbalance of lack of defence which is hindering them. It’s almost like picking your poison as a result of which you end up going with haha

[Pears]

4 minutes ago, Generational.EP40 said:

 

 

So I take it you would be happy to keep them but still have the other problems which are keeping us from taking the next step. Aka lack of a true all around top pair dman or another proper winger because as much as Hughes/EP could/can play wing, their primary position is centre so there’d be an adjustment and usually you don’t just transfer over 100%...something is a bit off or ends up being left out due to the change and limitations it puts.

 

When I think of that, I think of the current Leafs. Lots of attack but that imbalance of lack of defence which is hindering them. It’s almost like picking your poison as a result of which you end up going with haha

Sign Panarin to be Pettersson and Boeser’s elite top line LW as well as a RW for Horvat, Dzingel maybe? Would still need to look for that defenseman but the forwards would be set for the forseeable future. 

[Ray_Cathode]

29 minutes ago, Generational.EP40 said:

Already have 2 top6 centres in Horvat & EP. Gaudette is a middle 6 centre himself which will limit his ceiling to a 3C for us. So on the off chance that we get 1st overall, would Jack Hughes give us too many top end (top6) centres & if so, do you trade one and who? This is also excluding/ignoring Sutter because he’ll be shipped eventually with Gaudette emerging.

 

The way I see it, 1.) either EP would have to shift to wing or 2.) someone has to be traded because simply put committing to 3 top6 centres financially leaves little to spread out to help on the wings and the remainder of the top6.

 

 

 

EP is more than capable of playing RW (does on PP and when lines get stacked) but it wouldn’t be ideal since he has such outstanding vision to be able to find those around him so it would limit his effectiveness/take away from that aspect on the ice. He’s also very reliable defensively so you lose that on top.

 

Just to reference off the top of my head, the Avs not too along ago had Duchene-Stastny-O’Reilly...and then Mackinnon. Left too much of an imbalance on the wings and as a result they didn’t really have a complete attack outside of their centres (too much $ tied down the middle). They eventually got rid of Stastny+O’Reilly leaving them with 2 of Mackinnon+Duchene (which is ideal in today’s cap NHL). But as we all know Duchene requested out leaving them with just Mackinnon but having the Sens pick they can very well be getting that other centre again if they win the lottery. 

 

The Jackets had a lot of centres at one point and were able to trade Johansen for Jones to fix their defence. They even lost Karlsson to expansion for nothing and still have quite the depth prior to having acquired Duchene at the trade deadline (Dubois, Jenner, Wennberg, Dubinsky).

 

The Pens went through something similar when they had Crosby-Malkin-Staal. They played Malkin on the wing at times but it took away from his game and ultimately they chose to trade Staal so Malkin could be utilized to his fullest. They got Sutter back who was much better suited as 3C, then to not be able to have enough ice & balance with the original big 3 they had as well as lack of quality wingers due to it.

 

 

 

...so the question becomes, hypothetically speaking would you want the Canucks to have that “problem” & inevitable roster imbalance or not? Living with it means having a Horvat-EP, Hughes-Boeser duos while limiting Pettersson in a way as Malkin was. OR, trading one for a winger/dman to help in those areas while still being left with 2 top6 centres but better overall team balance.

 

I’m unsure myself and not opposed or for either. How would you choose between trading the heart and soul future captain Horvat, or the alien EP, or another generational talent and younger Hughes brother? On the flip side, it’s like it’d be nice to be able to address the blueline or wing while not being short of quality down the middle still having 2 top centres. Then again, it certainly wouldn’t hurt having all 3 either but sucks EP would have to be funnelled to play the wing which would restrict his maximum potential & the other areas of need (wing/defence) would still remain weak.

I believe Hughes played RW for the US junior nationals, but your general idea holds - you just can’t all of your cap down the middle with three first line centres.  Though at this point I’m not certain that either of Horvat or Pettersson are number ones on a top six team - though they are still very young and one, or both, might develop into legitimate number one centres for a top tier team.

[goalie13]

Wasn't Pettersson a winger before coming to Vancouver?

[WHL rocks]

You play Huges on wing with Horvat. 

 

EP and Boeser together.

 

 

 

[DrJockitch]

Don't care who or where we draft it is time to move Sutter.

I would see Hughes on the wing next year.  Hey, these are all prospects, any number of them might not work out.  If someone is looking to give up an elite Right D prospect then maybe would consider moving a young centre but would also like build up some young talent at centre ice.

[Phil_314]

16 minutes ago, Nuxfanabroad said:

How 'bout this one for blabbing about?..

 

Van: 2 Hughes Bros

 

OTT:

Brady Tkachuk: imagine him with Bo or EP? Tkachuk bros could have a decade-war

Thomas Chabot: exiting his ELC, so Melnyk loves the cheaper ELC, Q Hughes

CBJ 2019 1st

 

This would give us a bigger team. I REALLY like the 2nd Tkachuk

 

edit: Sorry, Chabot is a 2020 RFA

Ooh this would be interesting, especially if the 1st is added from their end.  

We have enough smaller skilled guys, so if we could get Brady then that would really add a needed element. 
Chabot's probably good enough on his own to get a drafted Jack Hughes, but if we get the 1st O.A. and enough teams want the privilege to draft him, then we could have several blue chip pieces in return in a bidding war.  Is he comfortable playing on the right side though??  If so then bring him over.  

[Vanisleryan]

I hope we have this problem. 

[Ray_Cathode]

6 minutes ago, Pears said:

Sign Panarin to be Pettersson and Boeser’s elite top line LW as well as a RW for Horvat, Dzingel maybe? Would still need to look for that defenseman but the forwards would be set for the forseeable future. 

You don’t win much if your teams players don’t peak in the same approximate time frame.  Right now we have a legit number one goalie and a promising backup, that barring injury, could be around for years, we have some nice pieces for a forward group that would look much better with a good D behind them.  Our problem is the D, where we have a couple of guys (Edler and Tanev) teetering on the abyss, a not very good (at least, not very good for a contending team) intermediary group (Hutton, Biega, Stetcher, Pouliot, Schenn, Sautner, Brisebois) - though a couple of them are still young enough that they might show marked improvement.  And there is an interesting young cadre of young, still undeveloped D’s in Hughes, Woo, and Rathbone - but they may yet take a few years of development before we have a D of sufficient quality to be a contending team.  The wild card (or the joker, if you will) is Tryamkin - who depending on who’s estimation you take, might be the second coming or a lump of coal for your Christmas stocking.  If he and Hughes are both legit, it could advance team development dramatically - if not, we may yet have several years left in the building of a contending team.  After goalies, D tend to take the most time to mature as complete players - and in my book, stud D has the most profound influence on the team - considering that they key both the attack and the defence, and might play 30 minutes a game.  Until we have a strong D in Vancouver, we really won’t know how good our forwards are, forwards look much more effective when they spend the greater part of their game outside of their own end.

[Nuxfanabroad]

3 minutes ago, Phil_314 said:

Ooh this would be interesting, especially if the 1st is added from their end.  

We have enough smaller skilled guys, so if we could get Brady then that would really add a needed element. 
Chabot's probably good enough on his own to get a drafted Jack Hughes, but if we get the 1st O.A. and enough teams want the privilege to draft him, then we could have several blue chip pieces in return in a bidding war.  Is he comfortable playing on the right side though??  If so then bring him over.  

There's another aspect to this Phil, that could make such a BLOCKBUSTER(Caps required) a possibility. Think of all the heat OTT's taken for(possibly) gifting the top selection to the Avs. Be ironic if they wound up choosing #1..albeit pricey.

 

They lose the Tkachuk high pick from last yr, but got lots of youth & a slew of top-3 picks, next 3 seasons.

 

It would be a pretty fun deal to analyze(compare outcomes) as the yrs rolled on.

[Coconuts]

No, EP is untouchable and you need a C like Horvat. He's taken steps forward this season and could win a Selke someday if he continues to improve his faceoffs and defensive game.

 

You take the best player you can and go from there. If we win #1 there's an argument for moving down to #2 but that's as far down as I'd move.

[wildcam]

I think Kappoo will be the #1 pick when draft day comes along....Big talented winger putting good numbers up playing with men..

So many good players in top 10......Really  like Bowen Byram skilled D man 6'1 ...Sure hope we are picking in top 8..

We are due for some luck...