2017 NHL Draft - Chicago, Illinois June 23-24 2017

[silver]

10 minutes ago, cyoung said:

Woah man. Relax. Gotta just let them develop... All of them still need to actually make the nhl first. 

Hahah well it's easy to get excited about prospects especially when they're putting up numbers in other leagues (according to CDC shinkaruk was a lock for our top 6  And McCann had first line potential). Regardless, if even  ONE of gaudette, goldobin, dhalen ten out to be a legit top 6 I'd be extemely happy.

 

Granny and Baer are good guys going forward to insert up and down the lineup in the future but I'd prefer them to be the core of the third line in the future. 

[silver]

I haven't seen villardi play but have read as many posts questioning his speed and offensive production. For people who've seen him play, how does his play compare to draisaitl? He was listed as 6'2 210 coming out of junior but I remember scouti reports saying that he was extremely slow and his game wouldn't translate. 

[spook007]

4 hours ago, Sugar baby watermelon said:

come on calling people reactionaries, really, what is this high school and a sense of entitlement...  

Maybe slightly over the top, but a fair few was severely criticising JB, for his dealings in the beginning. In particular his trading of 2nd picks and prospects. It remains to be seen, but its fair to say that bar a few more players with size, the future looks a lot brighter than a lot of people thought. 

Still need far more toughness in the line up, and the deflection of 88 has set the plan back a bit, but if most of these prospects turn out to be players, I'd say he's done great with, what he had, when he took over.

Definitely not as bad as some projected us to be at this stage. A couple of years from now we could be back in the playoffs again. That would be a quick turn around, although it remains to be seen.

[ForsbergTheGreat]

54 minutes ago, silver said:

I haven't seen villardi play but have read as many posts questioning his speed and offensive production. For people who've seen him play, how does his play compare to draisaitl? He was listed as 6'2 210 coming out of junior but I remember scouti reports saying that he was extremely slow and his game wouldn't translate. 

I haven’t watched vilardi live, but will be doing a ton of it come Mem cup.  But from the shift comparisons and research I’ve done I would say, Leon is more of a playmaker/visionary.  Vilardi while does have good playmaking ability, he’s a puck control bull.  Once he has the puck he’s a force to try and knock off the puck, he uses his size extremely well, very similar to the Peter Forsberg did.  He also has the hands to dangle, his first few strides aren’t the quickest but he’s got a top end work ethic, absolutely loves hockey and has admitted himself it’s something he plans to work on.  

 

Overall his style of game is closer to a Tavares than Leon, which coincidentally, Tavares is a player he looks up to and tries to mold his game after.

[silver]

43 minutes ago, spook007 said:

Maybe slightly over the top, but a fair few was severely criticising JB, for his dealings in the beginning. In particular his trading of 2nd picks and prospects. It remains to be seen, but its fair to say that bar a few more players with size, the future looks a lot brighter than a lot of people thought. 

Still need far more toughness in the line up, and the deflection of 88 has set the plan back a bit, but if most of these prospects turn out to be players, I'd say he's done great with, what he had, when he took over.

Definitely not as bad as some projected us to be at this stage. A couple of years from now we could be back in the playoffs again. That would be a quick turn around, although it remains to be seen.

While I agree that our prospect pool has improved, we have to Keep in mind that with the natural history of where our team was heading anyways, the prospect pool would've improved regardless of whether jb or gillis was at the helm. Gillis was basically win now mode until 2012  and saw a window and went for it.  Naturally that window closed so our team fell down the standings and got much better draft positions. 

 

The trading of second rounders was huge in my opinion (especially in a deep draft)

The city practically had a parade for jb when he got dahlen in a trade, but I'd argue that a player like dhalen could've been drafted had we just kept our second rather than swapping in the gubranson trade 

 

that said, id say jb possibly hit a homers with boeser and demko. The rest, until they show they can produce in the NHL I'll hold judgement. 

[silver]

2 minutes ago, ForsbergTheGreat said:

I haven’t watched vilardi live, but will be doing a ton of it come Mem cup.  But from the shift comparisons and research I’ve done I would say, Leon is more of a playmaker/visionary.  Vilardi while does have good playmaking ability, he’s a puck control bull.  Once he has the puck he’s a force to try and knock off the puck, he uses his size extremely well, very similar to the Peter Forsberg did.  He also has the hands to dangle, his first few strides aren’t the quickest but he’s got a top end work ethic, absolutely loves hockey and has admitted himself it’s something he plans to work on.  

 

Overall his style of game is closer to a Tavares than Leon, which coincidentally, Tavares is a player he looks up to and tries to mold his game after.

Great thanks for the insight. 

[cyoung]

1 hour ago, silver said:

I haven't seen villardi play but have read as many posts questioning his speed and offensive production. For people who've seen him play, how does his play compare to draisaitl? He was listed as 6'2 210 coming out of junior but I remember scouti reports saying that he was extremely slow and his game wouldn't translate. 

Offensive production is very far from an issue, in fact it is on of his bright spots. He was constantly cycling through linemates all year and remained the most consistent player on the team, started the season slow due to an injury and exploded after Christmas. Speed is good but accel is what he needs to work on, much like Horvat when he was drafted. 

[Gaudette Celly]

My hesitation on Vilardi is that he seems to be projecting as a winger in the NHL.  If there is truly not much to choose from between the likes of him, Mittelstadt, Glass, Necas, etc. I think we'd probably go for the one more likely to play the pivot.

[PuckYa]

15 hours ago, Hutton Wink said:

Seems like nothing but positives coming out of Portland on this kid.  Primarily a playmaker with a pretty complete package of skills plus high motor, character, and size -- 6'2 is good already and he's almost certainly going to get even bigger considering his dad and brother.  Having two good solid Canadian boys anchoring our top-6 sounds great to me.  Might be the "safest" pick if we're in the 4/5 slot, and I think he sounds exactly like a Benning guy -- from mynhldraft.com:
 

 

Starting to think he's a legit top 5 guy too. I'd be happy with that at 4 or 5 for sure.

For me it would be between Vilardi, Glass at #3 & #4.  Pleased to get either.

#5 could be Liligren, Middlestadt, Pettersson, Makar, Necar, Tippett, etc. That would be a much tougher choice if you ask me. 

 

Just hoping to get one of the top 4.

Patrick

Hircshier

Vilardi

Glass

?

[Ossi Vaananen]

Already cutting our losses:

 

 

It's probably a countdown thing, though I'd like to see some optimism; however vain.

[The Great 8]

4 minutes ago, Ossi Vaananen said:

Already cutting our losses:

 

 

It's probably a countdown thing, though I'd like to see some optimism; however vain.

I like that they did that. It tempers high expectations. There is a good chance we end up falling in the draft. If it were any other year I would be upset about it but if we don't get the 1st pick we will likely get a similar potential player at 5 than we would've at 2.

[70seven]

9 minutes ago, Hutton Wink said:

My hesitation on Vilardi is that he seems to be projecting as a winger in the NHL.  If there is truly not much to choose from between the likes of him, Mittelstadt, Glass, Necas, etc. I think we'd probably go for the one more likely to play the pivot.

Everything Ive heard about Vilardi is he's still projecting as a center.  They used him to get the most of Logan Brown whom was the top center.  Im sure they couldve used him more at center but clearly liked his game with Brown on the wing.  I just think Vilardi is a versatile forward.  He honestly reminds me of Bo Horvat with a better offensive game.

 

Hes one of the few players I think could make the jump into the NHL as an 18 year old.  Not that he should, but just that its possible within the right role.

[Warhippy]

9 minutes ago, Ossi Vaananen said:

Already cutting our losses:

 

 

It's probably a countdown thing, though I'd like to see some optimism; however vain.

MMhmm...not even going to mention the #5s that didn't work out.

[Mr.53]

6 hours ago, Crabcakes said:

For sure.  While all of the reactionaries have been running around waving their arms shouting "the sky is falling, the sky is falling!" And complaining about how many picks the Canucks don't have, Benning is quietly gathering players who will develop into a team.

That's for sure. Aside from Horvat, all of those promising players are Benning acquisitions. Our defence and goaltending too.

 

Juolevi, Gudbranson, and Stecher, (and maybe Tryamkin if he makes a return?) look to be like staples on this team for years to come. Not to our future All-Star goaltender in Thatcher Demko.

 

Left Wing         Center         Right Wing

Goldobin          Hischer         Boeser

Baertschi          Horvat          Virtanen

Granlund          Dahlen          Gaudette

 

Left Defence          Right Defence

Juolevi                    Gudbranson

Hutton                     Stecher

(Tryamkin? Please?)

 

Goalie

Demko

 

I like that future core a lot. Find some role players to fill the gaps and for chemistry, and that core is solid.

[cookieeater55]

8 minutes ago, Mr.53 said:

That's for sure. Aside from Horvat, all of those promising players are Benning acquisitions. Our defence and goaltending too.

 

Juolevi, Gudbranson, and Stecher, (and maybe Tryamkin if he makes a return?) look to be like staples on this team for years to come. Not to our future All-Star goaltender in Thatcher Demko.

 

Left Wing         Center         Right Wing

Goldobin          Hischer         Boeser

Baertschi          Horvat          Virtanen

Granlund          Dahlen          Gaudette

 

Left Defence          Right Defence

Juolevi                    Gudbranson

Hutton                     Stecher

(Tryamkin? Please?)

 

Goalie

Demko

 

I like that future core a lot. Find some role players to fill the gaps and for chemistry, and that core is solid.

Love the lineup and Yeah we can always sign real good Free agents

 

but we need another top 2 defenceman  

[aGENT]

5 minutes ago, Mr.53 said:

That's for sure. Aside from Horvat, all of those promising players are Benning acquisitions. Our defence and goaltending too.

 

Juolevi, Gudbranson, and Stecher, (and maybe Tryamkin if he makes a return?) look to be like staples on this team for years to come. Not to our future All-Star goaltender in Thatcher Demko.

 

Left Wing         Center         Right Wing

Goldobin          Hischer         Boeser

Baertschi          Horvat          Virtanen

Granlund          Dahlen          Gaudette

 

Left Defence          Right Defence

Juolevi                    Gudbranson

Hutton                     Stecher

(Tryamkin? Please?)

 

Goalie

Demko

 

I like that future core a lot. Find some role players to fill the gaps and for chemistry, and that core is solid.

Pretty sure Dahlen projects as a W and Gaudette a C but that shows me that we're VERY likely to trade/package a winger or two at some point. Especially if we might seriously look in to signing Kane next summer after the twins retire....

 

Eventually:

Dahlen, 2017 Draft, Boeser

Kane?, Horvat, Goldobin

Virtanen, Gaudette, Granlund/Eriksson

[cyoung]

23 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Pretty sure Dahlen projects as a W and Gaudette a C but that shows me that we're VERY likely to trade/package a winger or two at some point. Especially if we might seriously look in to signing Kane next summer after the twins retire....

 

Eventually:

Dahlen, 2017 Draft, Boeser

Kane?, Horvat, Goldobin

Virtanen, Gaudette, Granlund/Eriksson

I would be pretty bummer if we brought in Kane. If we are building a character team then we should commit to that. 

[aGENT]

22 minutes ago, cyoung said:

I would be pretty bummer if we brought in Kane. If we are building a character team then we should commit to that. 

Teams need the odd 'Kesler' in the mix with all the 'Sedins'. We also need more size in our top 6. Doesn't have to be Kane but man he'd fit well on Horvat's wing and just happens to be UFA at 26 right as we're clearing $14m in cap space...

[Camel Toe Drag]

26 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Teams need the odd 'Kesler' in the mix with all the 'Sedins'. We also need more size in our top 6. Doesn't have to be Kane but man he'd fit well on Horvat's wing and just happens to be UFA at 26 right as we're clearing $14m in cap space...

The devil you know is better than the devil you don't. 

[HomeBrew]

50 minutes ago, Camel Toe Drag said:

The devil you know is better than the devil you don't. 

 

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

Teams need the odd 'Kesler' in the mix with all the 'Sedins'. We also need more size in our top 6. Doesn't have to be Kane but man he'd fit well on Horvat's wing and just happens to be UFA at 26 right as we're clearing $14m in cap space...

Kassian had "character" issues when he was here, but now everyone is crying over losing/giving up on him. Maybe his gotten past all the young shenanigans and ballin' he was doing when he was in Winnipeg. Kane has a strong influence from his father in Vancouver and could potentially reign him in a bit to temper the crazy parts. Doesn't Kane train here in the offseason with his father? I remember hearing that somewhere. 

 

I would definitely consider it if the price is right, but we should definitely not be paying top dollar. If its less than Eriksson's contact and closer to a Sutter contract, I can live with that.