Sunday, June 14, 2009

Vancouver Canucks Draft Preview

<->
First Round Position: 22nd

Best Picks of last 3 Years:

Cody Hodgson (C) – 1st Round 2008
Michael Grabner (RW) – 1st Round 2006
Yann Sauve (D) – 2nd Round 2007
Sergei Shirokov (RW) – 6th Round 2006
Prabh Rai (C) – 5th Round 2008

Coming Down the Pipe - The last 3 drafts have not been very kind to Vancouver from a depth persepective. Having said that, they likely grabbed the most complete player in Junior hockey this year when they snagged Cody Hodgson 10th overall in 2008. Michael Grabner had a good playoff run with the Moose. If Sergei Shirokov leaves Russia in the next couple of years he might be intriguing after a 41 point effort in 56 KHL games this year.

Draft Trends - Vancouver has selected just one player from the OHL in the last 3 entry drafts.

Millard: David Rundblad-The Canucks have taken a D-man with their second round pick in 4 of the last 5 years. This time they do it in the first round and keep the Sweden sensation going out west with Rundblad who is a smart offensive rearguard.

Flaming: Landon Ferraro – The offensive local product is a fit on several levels and would add a couple elements to Vancouver’s prospects pool that is short supply; high-end speed and scoring.

4 comments:

arsmaster said...

Love the Rundblad pick.

He is tops on my list at 22, but I think he will be gone.

de Haan would be the 2nd player on my wishlist for sure. His smarts back there on the blueline, I believe will lead him to a great PRO career (once he bulks up a little).

Landon Ferraro is a good player, but I dont think he infuses anything new to Vancouver's prospect pool...similar player to Grabner, Shirokov, and Mason Raymond (although he has more natural scoring talent than the latter 2).

If its not a mobile offensive defensman, I would like to see some size up front or a bigger goal scorer, in maybe Jeremy Morin or or Carter Ashton.

Any of the available swedish defensman would fit in just fine though.

Kevin Forbes said...

Not sure if you missed it or not, but Shirokov has signed with the Canucks.

Guy Flaming said...

Yeah we pretty much had the breaking news when Vancouver GM Mike Gillis said as much on our show last Tuesday.

The draft previews have been written for a while and both of us were tied up over the weekend so we didn't get a chance to update that particular sentence.

We should have known the perfection police would be out... thanks Forbesy.

Kevin Forbes said...

Someone has to keep you guys honest!