6th Pick: 2014 NHL Entry Draft

[Smashian Kassian]

I just want to settle the Kapanen size issue. He is definitely 6'0" 181lbs.

This is Finland's U18 team list, which was done 2 days ago.

http://stats.iihf.com/Hydra/368/IHM368000_33_13_0_FIN.pdf

Doesn't matter how many times its clarified.

It seems like he's always going to be grouped in with Nylander/Ehlers as small & weak with the soft Euro label when thats clearly not him.

[Bure_Pavel]

In my opinion if we go for a skilled European I would feel better with Ehlers over Nylander and Kapanen as the risk is higher with those two and there is always uncertainty of how they adapt to north American game. Plus putting up over 100 points as a rookie in the CHL is pretty impressive even playing with Drouin and being in the higher scoring QMJHL.

Really think Linden is going to go Ritchie or Virtanen though, which ever one has more heart.

[funkyfresh]

Doesn't matter how many times its clarified.

It seems like he's always going to be grouped in with Nylander/Ehlers as small & weak with the soft Euro label when thats clearly not him.

I'm sure that perception will change as the draft gets closer. Once the major sports sites like Sportsnet and TSN start discussing these prospects in-depth, we will see people considering some prospects more seriously than before.

[73 Percent]

+/- is also an incredibly deceptive stat a lot of the time.

ya. I only bring that stat up when it plays to my favor.

[PowerAids]

Man, all I know is that I'm glad I'm not the one who has to make this pick.

Assuming the top 5 are gone, it seems wide open with at least 5 good options to choose from with different playing styles... Personally I'm leaning towards the high ceiling players like Ehlers, kapanen, nylander as I think their skill sets will improve with being surrounded by better players in the NHL. Although it's hard not to like the physical tools that Virtanen and Ritchie have, but IMO their offensive game will take a step back in the NHL with much stiffer competition, especially Ritchie, all his goals seem to come from standing all alone in the high slot and beating goalies with wristers. Two things that aren't as likely to happen in the NHL.

But In full disclosure I'm only doing you tube scouting, and that hardly paints a complete picture of a player.

Anyways they are all good players, I just think we need some pure offensive talent to help balance out our prospect pool.

[thad]

Aside from Lucic who would u say was a Nick Ritchie type on that 2011 team. Aside from Lucic there offense consistented of Krejci, Marchand, Recchi, Bergeron & Ryder, then depth guys like Peverly, Seguin. exc.

None of those guys scream big mean PWF or Nick Ritchie type player to me.

They beat us cause they had great goaltending that we couldn't overcome.

Haha I know, I just couldn't resist

[TOMapleLaughs]

After watching some of the LA-Anaheim game last night, I'm pretty much convinced that our pick should be one of Dal Colle, Virtanen or Ritchie.

55 hits in the first period. Goals from either flat out speed or from scoring in the tough areas. None of this perimeter Mason Raymond type garbage.

Kapanen to Carolina is a given. Nylander and Ehlers would break in our division. Draisaitl will likely go to the Oil. Dal Colle may fall. Likely won't, but we'll see.

So Calgary could either pick Ritchie or Virtanen before it's our turn.

If we pass on these guys and say, allow Virtanen to fall to the Ducks, then we'll come to regret that decision, imho.

I certainly hope we make the right call.

[Goal:thecup]

Thank you for the link. Now that we have it actually clarified, surely we can all agree he will take Dal Colle or Draisaitl as his big strong wingers. This is who he is talking about. Not just anyone who fits the description in spite of higher end talent being avail.

This is why he says 'probably'. I have no idea why you guys want to pass up elite talent just because you are in love with 'size' .

He drafts Nyander / Ehlers before he drafts Ritchie. He wont even consider Vit.

If that is what you got out of that, I doubt we are going to agree on much of anything.

He is talking about picking 6th, after the top 3 at least have been taken.

If Draisaitl or Dal Colle fall to us, we will take them, but if they are gone, Linden is looking at drafting a big strong winger like Ritchie.

How you turn that around and assume he's going after one of the smurfs is beyond me.

Your "elite talent" is there for Bennett, for example, but more risky on later picks, and we cannot afford the risk.

Krikee! Linden is practically drooling over the prospect of a player like Ritchie and you cannot see it!

[theminister]

After watching some of the LA-Anaheim game last night, I'm pretty much convinced that our pick should be one of Dal Colle, Virtanen or Ritchie.

55 hits in the first period. Goals from either flat out speed or from scoring in the tough areas. None of this perimeter Mason Raymond type garbage.

Kapanen to Carolina is a given. Nylander and Ehlers would break in our division. Draisaitl will likely go to the Oil. Dal Colle may fall. Likely won't, but we'll see.

So Calgary could either pick Ritchie or Virtanen before it's our turn.

If we pass on these guys and say, allow Virtanen to fall to the Ducks, then we'll come to regret that decision, imho.

I certainly hope we make the right call.

Somebody will fall to the Ducks. It's inevitable.

Unless they move their pick.

[BanTSN]

Apparently Nylander has a prima donna attitude problem and he whimpers about icetime and role like Coho if he doesn't get exactly what he wants. That combined with his perimeter play and diminutive stature, means PASS!

[theminister]

Apparently Nylander has a prima donna attitude problem and he whimpers about icetime and role like Coho if he doesn't get exactly what he wants. That combined with his perimeter play and diminutive stature, means PASS!

That all stems from a single USA Today article. Hardly the last word on hockey issues.

I have seen no other evidence that he has an attitude problem. IMHO totally overblown.

Once he is drafted I anticipate there will be no carry over as the situation will be completely different. He'll also get two years of all of the ice-time he can take in the SEL.

[thad]

Thank you for the link. Now that we have it actually clarified, surely we can all agree he will take Dal Colle or Draisaitl as his big strong wingers. This is who he is talking about. Not just anyone who fits the description in spite of higher end talent being avail.

This is why he says 'probably'. I have no idea why you guys want to pass up elite talent just because you are in love with 'size' .

He drafts Nyander / Ehlers before he drafts Ritchie. He wont even consider Vit.

What? haha

how do you get nylander/ehlers out of theres some big powerful forwards available? Even if i was on the Ehlers train I'd be thinking Ritchie Virtanen after seeing that.

[Goal:thecup]

After watching some of the LA-Anaheim game last night, I'm pretty much convinced that our pick should be one of Dal Colle, Virtanen or Ritchie.

55 hits in the first period. Goals from either flat out speed or from scoring in the tough areas. None of this perimeter Mason Raymond type garbage.

So Calgary could either pick Ritchie or Virtanen before it's our turn.

If we pass on these guys and say, allow Virtanen to fall to the Ducks, then we'll come to regret that decision, imho.

I certainly hope we make the right call.

This ^^^ is right on.

This is the new NHL Playoff reality. Get used to it. Players and teams are getting bigger and bigger. And these bigger players can still skate and shoot and score and knock your block off.

The playoffs, where you see the same team up to 7 games in a row, are a battle, unlike the regular season where you can get away with little things without having to face the same beast the next night. And the damage is cumulative; there is no time for recovery. Look at the Canucks at the end of the '94 and 2011 Cup runs; they were beat up and broken down. We need to do the beating up and breaking down and we need to stop being the victim.

My position is not, as Plum suggested, a knee-jerk reaction to Boston beating us in 2011.

I have wanted the big player over the Mason Raymond player for over 50 years of watching hockey.

I like Mario over Wayne, Lindros over Gilmour, Jagr over StLouis for example.

If Gretz didn't have Semenko and other large dudes protecting him, he would have had a much less successful and a much shorter career.

Other posters on here have suggested that those of us who appreciate a big tough talented hockey player/team have had our day and now the Canucks are bigger and tougher and it has not worked post-2011. Well, for one thing, this position is indicative of a very short time-frame suggesting a young poster who has watched hockey for only 5 or 10 years and thinks the team got bigger and tougher after 2011. It has not yet. The new big tough talented Canucks are still in the pipeline and yet to be drafted or traded for. The roster this last season still had the Sedins, Burr, Hansen, Higgins, et cetera, as well as Richardson, Santo, Weber, Tanev etc. There has not been a replacement of the smaller/weaker players with a bigger/tougher roster yet. The plan has not failed; it has not been brought to fruition or even tried yet. We still have to put the players in the pipeline before they can even get on the team. That is why we cannot afford to waste the 2014 #6 overall pick hoping some little fellow is just so very under-rated that his performance will make all the reasons for drafting a big talented player irrelevant.

I also believe that this is just a step in the evolution of hockey and that 5 years from now the teams are going to be even bigger.

Look at how many players are now about six and a half feet tall and over 220 lbs; there used to only be one or two in the whole league.

Old power forwards like Iginla and Brown are dwarfed by the new power forwards like Backes and Benn.

Sure, when you put the 2013/14 Canucks up against the Sharks or the Ducks or the Kings they look small and get chased off the ice but just look into the future, the discrepancy is going to get bigger. If we do not make a multi-year commitment to skill-with-size, we are going to look like mice in an old growth forest.

There is always room on a team for a super-talented little guy and there always has been.

But that little guy has to be protected and that takes a tough team around him.

And there is only room for one or two of this type of player on the team, not a half-dozen or more.

I know, I am an old dinosaur, still like fighting, and still love a clean open-ice hit.

I still believe in the beat 'em in the alley, beat 'em on the ice thing and Ogie Oglethorpe and the Hansen brothers are my favorite players in Slapshot.

My favorite Canucks include Harold and Gino and Delorme and Fraser and Kurtenbach and Hunter and Rypien et cetera.

We don't need "offensive" little guys, we need offensive big guys like Ritchie who will score and drop the mitts and win fights.

There are no loser points for the battle that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

[theminister]

The ideal situation would be for us to trade up to acquire another top 10 pick in this draft, say by moving either Kesler to Ana or a d-man like Edler to the Canes.

Then we could take one power and one skill player in a combo, such as Ritchie/Nylander (my preference) or Virtanen/Kapanen or Perlini/Ehlers. Having acquired two top prospects in each draft of the last two years, plus our later round picks, goes a long way towards the future of this team. I believe it can even be done without a major sacrifice to the present.

Moves such as:

Kelser for Vatanen, Ott 1st 2014, Ana 1st 2014

Edler for Riley Nash/ Brock McGinn, 2015 1st/2nd

Sign Paul Stastny, 5 years $6.0 mil

Draft skill-power combo, Ritchie/Nylander - Virtanen/Kapanen - Perlini/Ehlers

Re-sign Kassian, Tanev, Santorelli, Schroeder

Buyout/trade Booth

Sedins-Jensen/Kassian

Burr-Stastny-Kassian/Jensen

Higgins-Horvat-Santorelli

Matthias-Richardson-Hansen

Schroeder, Sestitio

Hamhuis-Tanev

Garrison-Bieksa

Stanton-Vatanen

Corrado

Lack

Markstrom

Shinkaruk, Gaunce, Fox, Grenier, Archibald, Lain, Cassels, Subban, Eriksson, Hutton, Ritchie/Nylander-Virtanen/Kapanen-Perlini/Ehlers

This is a younger line-up with good call up potential and promise for the future. It also retains some significant cap space to address other issues as needed. It's not all bleak in Canuck town.

[Bobby_Lu1ngo]

The ideal situation would be for us to trade up to acquire another top 10 pick in this draft, say by moving either Kesler to Ana or a d-man like Edler to the Canes.

Then we could take one power and one skill player in a combo, such as Ritchie/Nylander (my preference) or Virtanen/Kapanen or Perlini/Ehlers. Having acquired two top prospects in each draft of the last two years, plus our later round picks, goes a long way towards the future of this team. I believe it can even be done without a major sacrifice to the present.

Moves such as:

Kelser for Vatanen, Ott 1st 2014, Ana 1st 2014

Edler for Riley Nash/ Brock McGinn, 2015 1st/2nd

Sign Paul Stastny, 5 years $6.0 mil

Draft skill-power combo, Ritchie/Nylander - Virtanen/Kapanen - Perlini/Ehlers

Re-sign Kassian, Tanev, Santorelli, Schroeder

Buyout/trade Booth

Sedins-Jensen

Burr-Kesler-Kassian

Higgins-Horvat-Santorelli

Matthias-Richardson-Hansen

Schroeder, Sestitio

Hamhuis-Tanev

Garrison-Bieksa

Stanton-Vatanen

Corrado

Lack

Markstrom

Shinkaruk, Gaunce, Fox, Grenier, Archibald, Lain, Hutton, Ritchie/Nylander-Virtanen/Kapanen-Perlini/Ehlers

This is a younger line-up with good call up potential and promise for the future. It also retains some significant cap space to address other issues as needed. It's not all bleak in Canuck town.

So sign stasny and not play him?

[theminister]

So sign stasny and not play him?

Sorry, typo.

Old habits.

[Goal:thecup]

Well, yeah, if we had more picks, we could take more players.

First off, these players have NTCs and we cannot assume that they will waive them.

We cannot assume that we are going to get all these draft picks for these players either.

If we have more picks, this is a different discussion.

If we only have the #6 pick in the first round 2014, we cannot waste it hoping some player is good enough to negate their small stature.

We need big help now and in the future.

You said yourself that these smaller players would need 2 years or more before being ready for the big club.

Ritchie may be able to crack the lineup (albeit in a limited role) as early as this year because of his size/maturity and ability to mix it up.

Even if we do not acquire extra and higher picks, our 2nd round pick is 36th and we can still get a good prospect at that level (big defenseman would be my choice).

[theminister]

Well, yeah, if we had more picks, we could take more players.

First off, these players have NTCs and we cannot assume that they will waive them.

We cannot assume that we are going to get all these draft picks for these players either.

If we have more picks, this is a different discussion.

If we only have the #6 pick in the first round 2014, we cannot waste it hoping some player is good enough to negate their small stature.

We need big help now and in the future.

You said yourself that these smaller players would need 2 years or more before being ready for the big club.

Ritchie may be able to crack the lineup (albeit in a limited role) as early as this year because of his size/maturity and ability to mix it up.

Even if we do not acquire extra and higher picks, our 2nd round pick is 36th and we can still get a good prospect at that level (big defenseman would be my choice).

I'm not assuming anything.

My point was that we have lots to work with and many potential options.

Let's see what the new management team is able to do.

As I've said time and again, I prefer Nylander longterm but I fully expect the Canucks to take Ritchie and I'm good with that.

[L. Stanley]

Nikolaj Ehlers.

you have such a hard on for this guy it is hilarious. I mean he is good and all, but all you do is post his name day after day

[S N Y P E R S 7]

After watching some of the LA-Anaheim game last night, I'm pretty much convinced that our pick should be one of Dal Colle, Virtanen or Ritchie.

55 hits in the first period. Goals from either flat out speed or from scoring in the tough areas. None of this perimeter Mason Raymond type garbage.

Kapanen to Carolina is a given. Nylander and Ehlers would break in our division. Draisaitl will likely go to the Oil. Dal Colle may fall. Likely won't, but we'll see.

So Calgary could either pick Ritchie or Virtanen before it's our turn.

If we pass on these guys and say, allow Virtanen to fall to the Ducks, then we'll come to regret that decision, imho.

I certainly hope we make the right call.

regret passing on Virtanen?

you're insane.