B53

Nick Henry Nikita Popugaev Matthew Strome Alexander Chmelevski DAVID FARRANCE Cale Fleury EVAN BARRATT

JB says speed and skill. Maybe we are all wrong. Aleksi Heponiemi? Kole Lind? Nick Henry?

im cool with that. As long as its not Rasanen

Nick Hague is not good. Whats with all the love here?

Connor Timmins Isaac Ratcliffe Grant Mismash Jason Robertson

I dont think Hague is very good. Timmins is solid though. Id rather go scoring forward. Lots of them left

Grant Mismashson

Still available: Tolvanen Kostin Ratcliffe Timmins Robertsson

And make sure Thomas Gradin is used this year. Take a Swedish guy that he suggests at some point in the draft. We have not used him in a while

Take Vilardi or Makar at 5. If both gone, trade down. Glass will not be close to a first line centre, and Heiskanen is not the offensive guy we need. Next year Dmen are great Take a guy like Pettersson or Foote if you trade down, depending on how far down. At 33, take Kostin or Vesalainen if they drop. If not, Ratcliffe I feel will be as good or better then Rasmussen. If none available, Timmins, Robertson, Thomas, Brannstrom, Joseph At 55, definitely Grant Mismash. I love this kid, and feel he can become a special player. In the 3rd round, Entwistle, Gadjovic, or that young american USHL dman, forget his name sorry

Unfortunately, it would take a hell of a lot more then swapping 33 for 40 something to get up to the number 3 pick. The value of having that 3rd pick to select Vilardi, is so much more valuable then having to select between Heiskanen, Liljegren, Makar, Mittlestadt, Glass, Necas, Rasmussen, Pettersson, etc. (Those are all the different names you hear at number 5) Like you mentioned though, I hope both Makar and Heiskanen go at 3 and 4. Im confident one of the two will take Heiskanen, but Vilardi to get past over twice is unlikely. **This draft kind of reminds me of a few years ago. Patrick is the Reinhart, Hischier is the Ehlers, Heiskanen is kinda the Ekblad, Glass is the Dal Cole, and Rasmussen is the local boy Virtanen. But its possible that Vilardi, the Draisaitl, becomes the best player in the draft Vilradi will be something like 6`3 220 at the NHL level. He is 11 months younger then Nolan Patrick. He has the best fancy stats on Windsor by far. Every single forward on the team had stronger numbers with Vilardi on their line. He`s the only guy outside the top two that makes you feel comfortable that you have your future 1st line centre.

I personally think he is a top 3 talent in this draft. If he was still around in the 20's, I would start calling GM's to see what they would want added to the 33rd pick. The guy was so dominant in the Russia vs CHL series. One of the best looking prospects i've seen in a while.

seems that these days its those seeing eye wrist shots from the point that tend to go in more often then the slap shot. Brent Burns for example. He's great at that

FACK! Cale Makar?

Watching Heiskanen, I think he is a stud. Wouldnt it make a lot of sense to have left handed Juolevi on one side, and right handed Heiskanen on the right? I don't think he makes it to 5 anyway though. Dallas loves their finish dmen, but they may go Vilardi because Spezza is a perfect guy for him to emulate his game after. If they do go Vilardi, Colorado is certainly going to go dman and Heiskanen is there man. I think our pick is between Makar, Mittlestadt, Glass. If JB and the scouts are confident Glass or Mittlestadt can be a 1st line centre, then do it. But if they feel they will be 2nd liners (which is their likely potential), I think you take a chance on Makar. We havy e 3 2nd line centres on our team right now. Only take a centre if you are confident they will be 1st liners

VILARDI- is more like Spezza or a young Thornton, nothing like Bo at all actually. His vision/passing is better then anyone in this draft by far, and probably better then anyone from last years stacked draft. His numbers are really good by the way. These kids are 17 years old and leading there junior teams in scoring. After guys like Patrick and Hischier... Matthews, Laine.... McDavid Eichel... etc... You then have that next group of forwards. Vilardi's numbers are similar to the forwards who play in CHL. Last year: Logan Brown, Nylander, McLeod, etc. The year before, Pavel Zacha, DeBrusk. Barzal, etc. Before that Virtanen, Ritchie, Perlini,... Then Sean Monahan, Bo Horvat... So Vilardi's numbers are just fine. MITTLESTADT-He was playing USHL before he went back to highschool, and he was ripping it up.. So if teams got to see him in the first half of the year, they would have a more accurate scouting report then someone like Jim Benning, who went to go watch him a couple weeks ago. I hope our scouts have seen him many times. He is the player I want to draft RASMUSSEN- isnt putting up dominant numbers, just as guys like Logan Brown, Tom Wilson, Lawson Crouse, etc. those guys are huge players who are not as gifted as the others. They are likely middle 6 forwards, but are still rated as high 1st rounders. Not what Canucks need. We need someone who has potential to be a solid 2nd line guy behind Horvat, but has better natural offensive talent then Bo and would play 1st PP. Someone like Nylander, Connor, Keller, etc. If there is noone like that available at our pick, then maybe he takes a big guy like Rasmussen, cuz obvously we could use some size up front to play with our pussy forwards

I think you got it a bit confused. If they would be picking from 10 to 1, it wouldnt work cuz Colorado would likely be picking 10, Arizona 9, etc. The team who gets 1st would probably end up being someone like Tampa Bay or LA Kings. The reason you saw the teams called out from 10 to 1, was all for show. They already do the draw in the back to see which 3 teams have been chosen. So this year they draw the balls 3 times and Vegas wins the lottery, Canucks get 2nd, and New Jersey wins 3rd. Then in the back, they put those teams in their appropriate envelopes, followed by Colorado put into number 4, Arizona in 5, Dallas in 6, etc. Then they come out and reveal the envelopes to the GM's and fans. **They should do the lottery balls llive on T.V. No controversy this way. Like Pittsburgh winning Crosby when they are about to go bankrupt. BS. Edmonton winning the lottery all those times was bad enough, then they get McDavid. Bettman sees the potential money in Edmonton once they start doing well again. And Toronto, well, pretty simple. They are the leagues biggest money maker. Now they will make another 20% more from results, merchandise, tickets, playoffs, etc. Mostly cuz of Matthews and other high draft choices. Im sure they know how to rig those draws. This year, i wouldnt be suprised if Vancouver won it. We probably bring in nothing to the league compared to what we used too a few years back. New York Islanders get number 2 cuz that organization needs a lot of help off the ice. hmmmm lll say LA gets number 3 cuz Bettman wants them back to playing well and making them all that money. Florida is another option cuz they need to put seats in the stadium. Oh yeah, they won a lottery as well, forgot. Buffalo getting Eichel makes sense cuz Buffalo used to have low attendance but now are doing great. Arizona could use help as well. Auston Matthews would have been to fishy though

All the guys I named were top 30 players in the draft, so 1st rounders. We have a top 10 pick this year, and potentially a 30th pick as well. Made sense to me to name those players. **It would be sweet to get Robert Thomas with the 30th pick. A young Bo Horvat. Popugaev is rated 30th right now, but in my opinion, he looked like a better player then Rasmussen. It's only one game though. A player an inch taller then those two, Isaac Ratcliffe, actually played better then both of them. I have not seen him on anyone's list so I am not sure what he is rated, but I am surprised he has not received more attention. QUESTION---- Does anybody know why Matthew Strome is rated so low. Has anyone seen him play? What is so wrong with his game, that scouts have him rated as a late 1st or early 2nd. He had 34 goals and is a point per game player. Was the top scorer on his team as a 17 year old ahead of Will Bitten and Cramarossa's brother. He's on the verge of taking a pretty $&!#ty Hamilton team into the 2nd round of the playoffs. What am I missing. I watched him when the Hamilton-Kingston game was on sportsnet last week, and there was nothing that stood out to me that was super negative. Maybe he wasn't the fastest, and his defensive play didnt stand out, but still. Has anyone got a chance to watch him a few times this year? Does anybody know what the word is on him according to scouts? His brothers seem to think that he is gonna be the best of the 3

Patrick Hischier Mittlestadt Vilardi Tippett Tolvanen Liljegren Andersson Necas Glass I think Bennings list will look something like this. Either way, we should be getting a good player this time around. ***Are there ANY free agents this season?This is by far, the worst free agent market of all time. By far. There is absolutely nobody. I took a quick look and I saw absolutely nobody. Gagner or Bonino are decent. Kris Versteeg would be nice. Scott Darling I would LOVE to see split time with Markstrom. Twin Towers. Some other veteran depth guys we could try instead of Skille and Shephard this season... Not a veteran, and dont know if LA resigns Nick Shore this off-seasoni after another low production season, but itd be cool to have him play with brother Drew. Dwight King would be a nice player to skate with Dorsett next year. That could work out better then Prust and not cost us Kassian and a 5th. Ryan White wouldnt be so bad either. Daniel WInnik would be a good signing if he was a few years younger. I'd love to have Ryan Garbutt on a two way deal and have Travis Green get him back to being a stud. Zac Rinaldo for the farm. Chris Vande Velde, I really like the way this guy plays. Derek Ryan is one of the only 30 year olds with untapped potential. Is there anyone im missing? This crop of FA's is such crap Yanni Gourde stood out at the AHL All-Star game and was by far the most gifted player in the game. At 5'9, he hasnt looked out of place in the NHL either (looks pretty damn good actually). Him, along with a few other top AHL guys, would be guys worth taking a look at. Look at Sven Andrighetto since he got to Colorado, or Agostino and Sanford for St. Louis. Washington has a bunch of guys in their early 20's there that JB should enquire about. Pittsburgh lately has been developing their AHL talent so well. Connor Sheary and Bryan Rust last season. Jake Guentzel looks to be a stud this year. Of course, theres Matt Murray as well. BTW, Zachary Aston-Reese already has 7 points in 7 games. Maybe we take a chance on Oskar Sundqvist. Who is that Wilkes-Barre coach. I want him, just to develope our players. Don't care about wins next year. He started out in the ECHL, and 11 of his players made it to Wilkes-Barre the next year. He has been the AHL head coach for 2 years now, and that seems to be when the talent started coming in. Gudbranson turned down 5 mil in Florida, and was reportedly looking for 6. In my opinion, I don't even feel he should get what he earned this season. The best case scenario with him would be to go to arbitration. If not, he may be the defenceman that JB uses to get his young top 6 fwd. If his trade value is too low, we can look at dealing Hutton. At the start of the season I was thinking we trade Hutton for Nylander, but their seasons went in opposite directions, so that deal is impossible now. Perhaps dealing him for Connor Brown would be good. He looks like he will be a 25-30 goal scorer maybe as early as next season. We can probably get a draft pick from them as well. Oliver Bjorkstrand is another guy who should be ready for everyday middle 6 action next season. I think Benning only does it for a forward with size though, so maybe Horvat's buddy Josh Anderson. If we happen to deal Chris Tanev, I think Tanner Pearson would be a good player to target. We can probably get them to add a pick/prospect as well. After Calgary makes their UFA signings this year, we should offer sheet Michael Ferland $3.75M and put them in a tough situation. Another stud stolen from them for a 2nd round pick. Don't know if JB would do it considering Brad Treveling (sp?) is one of his favorite trade partners. Maybe we take advantage of Chicago's cash problems and make the same offer to Richard Panik. Knowing Bowman, he'd probably be looking to trade him anyway. So we'd have to offer a bit more then a 2nd pick, but we could at least re-sign him to a bridge deal under 3 mil

In my opinion, I think Benning takes best player available this year. Centre is prefered of course. We all seen how excited he was to get Dubois last season. Valardi and Mittlestadt im thinking are the top 2 on the list. But if we happen to drop from 3rd/5th to 6th or 7th, and Patrick, Hischier, Vilardi, and Mittlestadt all likely gone, I would not be suprised if we took a winger with a lot of goals in him, like Tippett or Tolvanen. I wouldnt even rule out the possibility of taking Liljegren if he drops. I think it would make more sense to take a guy like Owen Tippet rather then taking one of the next centre's on the list, like Surrey boy Michael Rasmussen (who has the chance to become a legit 2nd line centre like maybe a Kevin Hayes or Artem Anisimov), or Martn Necas (it sounds like he is more of a defensive centre, but also heard few people think he has underrated potential), I wasnt talking about Kopitar before he was drafted. I meant playing for Slovenia recently, like at the olympics. Dont say you are not talking down on me, right after you say "finally a pro scout on cdc". I was talkng about Kopitar Pastrnak and Laine standing out so much that it was obvious for everyone to see. What you said about Chychrun Comtois is pretty much what I had said. I made the point that both their stocks had dropped. They were both rated as high as top 3 picks, and both drop down to the 20's. Comtois will likely be undervalued at this years draft, just like Chychrun was at last seasons draft.

I didnt say these are guys I want. The only player I said I wanted is Kostin. I said these are the only guys that I have watched play this year. What is the point of your post anyway? Just to try and be a smart ass? Honestly man, just don't reply unless its to have a productive conversation

Have you seen him play? Is he good enough for Canucks to pick him around 4-6 if he ends up having a Bo Horvat like playoff run with Portland? Or is he still not in the same league as those forwards we have all previous mentioned. Looking at his 94 points and the fact he leads Portland in scoring, makes me wonder how good is this guy. Those are some very, very impressive numbers.

Necas is not our man.. He is more of the style of a reliable two way forward who is a guarenteed 3rd line centre, but likely 2nd line centre. 99% of the people on here have not seen Necas play. They pretty much havent seen many of the guys play. They just scouting reports and stats on certain guys, and say "thats who we should pick". My favorite is people that say we shoud pick Cale Makar. How that F do you guys know anything about how he plays, other the word of mouth. For our pick this year, enough of the middle 6 Virtanen's and 2nd pair Juolevi's. Time to take a risk and take potential 1st line forwards, regardless of size. If we had just took Nylander/Ehlers/Connor, or Tkachuk/Keller, we would be good to go. I admit I havent seen THAT many forwards play outside of maybe like 12-15 or so, like Nico Hischier, Nikita Papugaev, Eeli Tolvanen, Gabe Vilardi, Robert Thomas, Michael Rasmussen, Maxime Comtois, Matthew Strome, Kole Lind, Mackenzie Entwistle, and my personal favor Klim Kostin. Half of them I have only seen once at the top prospects game, and others a few CHL games on Sportsnet. Klim Kostin I watched closely in the Russia series, and he is one of the prospects I am most excited about. Injury sucks though. Hopefully he drops to 2nd round like Tyler Benson did. He reminds me of Yegor Korshkov how he dominated everyone last year, looking like a man vs boys. Not this excited since David Pastrnak a few years ago (soooo choked when we took McCann), or to a lesser extent, Charlie McAvoy/Adam Fox last year. There are certain guys like Pastrnak that stand out so much that the eye test tells you this guy is a stud. Kinda like Kopitar versus his teammates when he plays for Slovenia. Scouts and GM's often over scout, and start knit picking things they dont like, and dont use the simple eye test which tells you: Stud. For example, a year and a half ago, watching the world juniors, you would watch Finland and say how is Pulijaarvi ahead of this Patrik Laine guy. Owen Tippett is the best goalscorer, but apparently doesnt bring much else to the table. Eeli Tolvanen I remember a year and a half ago was an absolute stud and looked like a top 5 pick. This year he looked "OK", but there is so much talent there. If we happen to drop to 7 or so, he is an option for sure. Casey Mittlestadt I have not seen play, or heard much about since he has had injury problems, but every year you have that top american player from USHL or Mens U20 team, and they always seem to turn out great. Jim Benning doesnt seem to get any playmakers, only guys who "have a good release on their shot". Putting Sutter, Boucher, and Goldobin on a line together makes no sense to me. Gabe Vilardi is a guy who in my opinion, would make more sense to take then Owen Tippett. Ovechkin is not as good without Backstrom right? *IF we were to magically get San Jose's 1st round pick, one guy who is a mid to late 1st round pick that I'd love to get is Elias Petterson. He is going to go higher in the draft then expected if he keeps putting up the numbers he has been against men playing at 150 lbs. He plays with Jonathan Dahlen and together they lead their mens team with almost equal points in the season, and now are 3rd in the league in playoff scoring with 6 points in the first 4 games I think? 5 games? I dunno. Another option is Maxime Comtois. Just like Jacob Chychrun last season, the scouts are overthinking things and making a mistake dropping him so far down the rankings. Chychrun and Comtois were supposed to be top 3 picks