3rdGenCanuck

Interesting comparison.. Both big, skilled forwards that can distribute the puck extremely well. Vilardi is an absolute pit bull behind the net in the offensive zone. He's the best draft eligible player I've seen from the hashmarks down in recent memory. The way he can retrieve and possess pucks down there while the play develops in front of the net is incredible. I think Boldy is a better skater than Vilardi though. Hopefully Vilardi can get his career back on track after the terrible injury luck he's had the past few years.

Can they afford to have Karlsson, Kucherov, Stamkos, Point, and Vasilevskiy all over a 8.5mil cap hit? Not to mention Hedman at 7.875 and McDonagh at 6.75. McDonagh would make the most sense to move out, but he has a full NTC until 2025-26 and if I were him I wouldn't want to leave that team haha! If they can somehow manage to sign Karlsson, while also resigning Point and Vasilevskiy, I will be super impressed and beyond terrified lol.

Really not concerning at all at this stage. The obsessive Canuck fan in me is dying for something to happen so we have some real news to unpack. The draft and free agency can not come soon enough! T-minus 22 days

I agree with that completely! I won't believe this take until I actually hear Friedman himself. However, if these four teams are indeed the front-runners, I like the Canucks chances. I can't see him going back to San Jose and Tampa would have to do some serious restructuring to fit that contract. My money would be on the Rangers, but Canucks would be my 2nd on that list of teams.

I'm curious to know if they had Svechnikov or Tkachuk at 2. Svechnikov was definitely the consensus, but I really felt like the Canucks loved Brady. I was so confident the Canucks were taking Hughes if he was there at 7, unless Tkachuk also fell, then I thought it was a coin flip.

Absolutely heartbreaking outcome for Dipietro and the rest of team. Gotta feel for Andree coming in and going 0-4.

Broberg played 41 of his 49 games this season in the Allsvenskan - The same league that Pettersson played in during his draft year. The SHL and the Allsvenskan use a relegation system, so the top few teams in the Allsvenskan are generally on par with the bottom few teams in the SHL. Broberg could choose to play junior in Canada next year if that's something his drafting team pushes for. However, the Hamilton Bulldogs own his CHL rights so he'd be playing in the OHL, not the WHL.

DiPietro just left the ice late in the 1st period. Looked really, really ugly. Was down for a while and couldn't put any weight at all on his right leg as he was helped off the ice. Hopefully it's not as bad as it looks....

Right shot that plays right wing and lines up on his off side on the powerplay - Just like Boeser

What exactly is "a Juolevi situation"? Bob McKenzie had him at #6 and as I'm sure you know, his list is made using the opinions and rankings from 10 NHL scouts. He was never an off the board pick. https://www.tsn.ca/matthews-goes-wire-to-wire-as-tsn-s-top-prospect-1.511597 Broberg or Soderstrom clearly wouldn't be off the board in the 9-12 spot this year either. U18s will offer the opportunity to see Soderstrom and Broberg play together, likely on a pairing. That will be an excellent tool to evaluate them against each other, as well as against other potential top 15 picks in the tournament. I'm most excited to watch Broberg and Podkolzin. They were easily the 2 best 2019 draft eligible players in the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup to start off the season. Both have undoubtedly been riding the wave from that tournament when it comes to their draft rankings. I believe a poor U18 tournament from either player could really affect their draft stock and wouldn't be surprised to see them slide significantly in rankings. If they both dominate the tournament like they did the Hlinka Gretzky, it will lock then in as top picks.

It is always harder to project a player coming out of the tier 2 junior leagues. But you shouldn't be concerned at all about Newhook having similar numbers to Jost. In his Draft year Jost went 42-62-104 in 48 games on a stacked Penticton team. That team had an absurd record of 50-7-1 that year and Jost wasn't even the leading scorer on the team with Scott Conway putting up 116 points for the Vees. Having Fabbro dishing the puck on the point certainly didn't hurt his case either. Newhook went 38-64-102 in 53 regular season games this year. The 2nd leading scorer on the team had 67 points... To say Newhook carried that team is a massive understatement. Newhook has also taken his game to a new level in playoffs. He currently has 24 points in 15 playoff games. You can compare that to Jost's 14 points in 11 playoff games in his draft year. I'd also argue that they are fairly different players. While they are both very cerebral, pass first guys, Newhook's skating is on a completely different level. The guy is an absolute burner and knows how to use it. He reminds me a ton of Dylan Larkin. There's a fairly long list of players I'd be happy with the Canucks drafting in the 9-12 hole. Newhook is definitely on that list for me.

Totally agree. Both Hansen and Roussel are valuable pieces to a successful team. Both guys offer speed, peskiness, and the flexibility to move them up and down the lineup - I expect Lockwood to be the same. My guess is he caps out around 40 points a season (like Hansen and Roussel). There's absolutely nothing wrong with that level of production. Not everyone can be a ppg player haha!

I think the best NHL comparable might already be on our team in Roussel.

The Canucks have been pretty quiet about Sutter. Any update on his timeline?

Any update on the timeline for Sven's return?

Jonah Gadjovich wasn't drafted in his D+1 year. Both him and Kole Lind were just two of the oldest first year draft eligibles in 2017 due to their mid October birthdays. As for Brett Leason, if he continues this pace, his draft position will be extremely tough to predict. Teams treat these players that emerge as "late bloomers" very differently. As you've mentioned above, some teams have a history of using many of their mid to late round picks on these guys, while other teams seem to avoid them entirely. It's very rare for a second or third year draft eligible player to go in the top 2 rounds. It happened last year with Sean Durzi going in the back half of the second round after a dominant D+1 season in the OHL as a RHD with good size. I think Leason could go as high as a late third, but I don't think its out of the realm of possibilities that he goes undrafted again. Most likely outcome is probably somewhere in the middle of those scenarios, maybe 5th or 6th round.

Excellent writeup on Quinn's development path and his decision to stay at Michigan. It is quite long, but well worth the read. https://mgoblog.com/content/making-quinn-hughes

"At the Canucks’ final home game last season — the emotional goodbye to Daniel and Henrik Sedin — fans in attendance at Rogers Arena spent an average of $22.33. I’m still not sure I believe it, but someone who would know swears it is true." A quote from the most recent 31 Thoughts article. The magic continues.

Scored on the PP. Excited for this kid! A lot of people wanted Jake Wise with this pick. Gotta trust our scouts now, especially Judd Brackett and his evauation of US talent

Curious to hear what those of you in Utica think of Francesco Aquilini's comments today on his radio interview. He talked about the pros and cons of the Comets being in Utica and the pros and cons of moving them closer to Vancouver. He then said that he's not worried about it right now as the team is committed to Utica for 2 more years. Sportsnet 650 even tweeted out this quote. However, the tweet was deleted after the comment was pointed out as strange by Ryan Biech, obviously because there has been no announcement of the Canucks plans to stay in Utica past this season. What do you guys think? Utica extension on the way? For the record, I am very pro Utica. Maybe that changes when the Canucks are much more competitive and quick call ups become more important, but for now I think the pros of being in Utica far outweigh the cons.

This guy is disgusting WOW!

He was definitely used in a sheltered role and wasn't relied on much defensively. However, I remember one particular play against Canada when it looked like Horvat was on a clear breakaway. Hughes used his speed to easily catch Horvat and then bumped him, stole the puck, and immediately transitioned the puck into the offensive zone. It was that play that sold me on Hughes as the guy I wanted at 7 haha!

Here is a link to the interview the weight quote is coming from. They start talking about his weight at the 9 minute mark. He clearly says "77" when he says how much he currently weighs. http://ckstam.streamon.fm/listen-pl-9522?smc=10

I know. If you actually listen to the interview it really sounds like he says 77. I think he is being misquoted in all of the tweets. Being a swede, it would make sense that he was using the metric system. There was also a report going around maybe 2 or 3 months ago during his season that said his weight was up to 167 pounds. I don't think its reasonable to believe he has gained 10 pounds since then. Also, just Google "Elias Pettersson weight" and you'll see that the result is 77kg.