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Sizing up the D-men who could be available to the Vancouver Canucks at 7

June 16, 2018, 1:41 PM ET [600 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
As we move closer to draft day, I have spent the better part of the last week scouring the lists and thinkpieces put together by the experts to try to get a clearer idea of who the Canucks will choose with their first-round pick.

This pretty much sums up what I've learned:




It's still tough to pin down much of anything.

As I said earlier in the week, Bob McKenzie's draft list usually offers a good degree of clarity when it's released, but I'm not so sure that'll be the case this year, as it seems like scouts' opinions are quite divided and as a result, we may see teams drafting for need much more than simply going down the list in order, taking the best player available.

Bob's list will be released on Monday, but he offers plenty of hints of what's to come in his latest edition of The Bobcast, which came out on Thursday.




If you don't care to listen to the whole thing, this tweet nicely sums up the details that matter to Canucks fans.




There certainly seems to be lots of smoke around the idea—not just here, but also elsewhere—that Montreal is high on drafting centre Jesper Kotkaniemi, whether they pick at three or are able to move down. I heard some chatter about them maybe wanting to move to five, Arizona's pick, but I would think the fact that the Galchenyuk-for-Domi deal was consummated on Friday night would mean that probably won't happen? Or, maybe the two sides will keep talking?

Now that the Habs have finally dealt Galchenyuk and didn't get a centre back in return, I do think that points toward the idea of them trying to take a high-end centre in this draft and if that happens, Kotkaniemi is probably their guy.

From there—the fourth pick is a total wild card; we don't even know if Ottawa will keep it or deal it to Colorado. And I don't think there's much consensus about what Arizona will do at five, either. They have a pretty good crop of young forwards, so maybe they take one of the defensemen?

One thing I am expecting: I think Detroit will take Quinn Hughes at six. As others have noted, Hughes is a Michigan kid who is well known to the Red Wings scouting staff. And I saw the way coach Jeff Blashill lit up when he talked about Hughes over at the World Championship. If the Red Wings are taking a D-man and the coach has any input into the pick, I think Hughes is a slam dunk.

I also don't think Hughes is *as* one-dimensional as McKenzie makes him out to be in his podcast. I'm only going off what I saw at Worlds, but it's not like he was roving out there. Blashill did use him quite a bit on the power play, but he wasn't a liability at five-on-five.

With all that being said—in my mind, if the Canucks are committed to taking a defenseman as Jim Benning has said, it seems like it could come down to a choice between Evan Bouchard and Adam Boqvist, with an outside chance that Noah Dobson will still be on the board.

Dobson improved his stock with his strong play through the QMJHL playoffs and the Memorial Cup, where he finished with 13 points in 20 games. He was named to both the QMJHL and Memorial Cup All-Star teams. He has good size at 6'3" but still needs to fill out, is responsible defensively and has an excellent shot.

Boqvist gained some fans with a strong performance at the U18 tournament in Russia in April, where he had six points in six games and was named best defenseman. Listed at 5'11" and 165 pounds, he's definitely not physically ready for the NHL, but he draws a lot of comparisons to Erik Karlsson, who was at a similar stage of development in his draft year (and ended up being a bargain for Ottawa with the 15th pick).

Bouchard doesn't seem to have quite as much recency bias working in his favour. He was the captain of the London Knights this year and led all OHL defensemen in assists (62) and points (87), but the Knights were swept in the first round of the OHL playoffs by the Oshawa Generals. Perhaps more of an all-round defenseman, Bouchard might not be seen to have as much upside as Dobson or Boqvist (or Hughes). But he's probably the closest to having an NHL build at 6'2" and 192 pounds and as an October birthday, he's one of the older players in the draft—he'll turn 19 as the 2018-19 season is getting underway.
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