Pearly Jamble

Wowza great to see all the love for Gaudette here. I think I’m just about his biggest fan and can see (dream) him into a 2c or god willing 1c in time. He is a bit of a slow progressor if you will, but he somehow manages to find a way to consistently get better at every stage of the competition. You have to love that!! Next season I can see him all over the lineup but by the end of the season being a fan favourite pest potting timely goals with bitterly annoying celebrations for opposing players and fans.

He is all over the place in those highlights. No assist is similar to another. Looking at junior/college players who score a ton of points you want to look at how creative they are and how effective they are in getting different types of goals/assists. Really like his aggressiveness on the 2nd assist.

Gaudette's taller. Moot point Heff.

Oh very much so. And re-reading my own post sounded harsh as Ashton-Reese is no slouch. I am very hopeful Benning can get him signed up this offseason. It's a long shot but that would be just incredible. As for Gaudette, yeah he's a driver. I just can't wait to see his improvements on a pro level.

In my years of watching hockey I have never seen a player whose "ceiling" is constantly upgraded so often. We were told his ceiling was hopefully hopefully 3C one day... If we're lucky. Then now it's a 2C, PP specialist, PKer, with a 200 foot game. How much higher does his 1.6 PPG sophomore season need to improve until people saying he could be a 1C. I'm not saying he will but his ceiling is constantly being redefined.

I have heard from NU fans that the order of best to worst is Sikura, Gaudette and AR. But Gaudette is the youngest and has improved the most on a week to week basis (according to Button). I think he will have a fantastic NHL career as he can do so much the right way. He's not one of those guys who can only do one thing, he does it all. Mark my words, Gaudette is the steal of the 2015 draft and in any re-draft would easily go first round, and I'm sure everyone here knows how deep that draft was. Good job Benning and scouting staff.

Very true. I should have clarified. IMO Boeser should have gone around 7th in 2015 (hindsight I know), so I am quite happy with that pick at 23! And yeah, Lockwood and Gaudette - can't ask for more from those two stellar picks. And agreed on Virtanen. I hope that management and the coaching staff corrects their mistakes with him and marinates him the proper way in the AHL where he can regain form. I would even be in favour of him being there all year and perhaps part or all of next year. He seems immature but has loads of talent that I believe will in the future justify his spot at #6. We will see, I am an optimist.

You seem to want to bash the GM for anything and not even recognize the reality of his quality attributes (which I've noticed becoming too common with Canucks fans these days). Benning did convince Stetcher to come here, and considering how awful some people say Vancouver is, he must have done a pretty swell job of convincing him considering he could have signed anywhere. Forsling was a gamble pick, that really hasn't shown a ton of talent yet; he is scratched on a very thin Chicago blueline ATM, so there is no verdict out on him yet. Neill, Brisebois and Olsen are all fantastic looking mid or late round picks so far. As for Juolevi I was so expecting Dubois there that was kind of surprised that after 4 our pick was already gone. Juolevi was controversial but I 100% agreed with the pick on draft day, and still do today. He will be by far the best dman of the draft and will be a #1 guy for us for years and years.

Have to agree with this. We do see a lot of criticism of Benning, some of it rightfully, but his awareness of drafting quality dmen seems to be top notch so far. I am really excited to see how the above mentioned guys do in a couple of years. I guess it goes without saying that someone like Neill will be signed before hitting UFA.

Ahhh gotcha, I thought it was different. Thanks for the clarification.

Totally agreed. Love his game and what he brings. If there was a re-draft I'd put money on that this guy would go in Round 2. Tough to predict the future and who actually will break out of the later rounds ala Benn but this would be a gem of a steal if he can continue his development.

Wait isn't he European can't he go to Utica? Or is the feeling that it would be better for his development to stay in the CHL? BTW Sick pick, I just love this guy, love his game and so happy we got him. I would have loved Dubois as well but I think this could be the sleeper pick of the draft. Him and Candella, well done scouting team, well done.