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Vancouver Canucks Blogger •
Talking about the draft and the Canucks almost makes most long time fans cringe, do a face palm, and mutter to themselves whilst shaking their heads. It's really not so bad is it? Well when you look at who they drafted it's not awful, every team has a more bad than good picks IMO but it is what the Canucks did with those draft choices that should really make you cry.
It all started in 1970 when the Canucks were to join the NHL in the second round of expansion from the original 6 teams. Could the fortunes of the Canucks been changed if they had the number one pick and drafted Gilbert Perreault instead of Dave Tallon? I'm not so sure but I doubt the team would have mired in something that made mediocrity look desirable either. Perreault put up 1326 points whilst Tallon managed 336...okay life would have been much better!
Taking the two teams again the next year, Buffalo drafted 3rd and Vancouver 5th- the Sabres took Rick Martin who had a career 701 points while Jocelyn Guvremont had a modest 307 career points. It is not until the 3rd draft in the team's history where we see a choice that had a significant career and that was Don Lever. He played 593 games for Vancouver amassing 186 goals and 221 assists.
In years that had so many great players entering the NHL it seemed the Canucks missed them all the time. Instead we seemed to have a knack for identifying young men who would become the ultimate journeyman pluggers... Dennis Ververgaert, Ron Sedlbauer, Rick Blight, Bob Manno, Bill Derlago. It got a bit better but not much. After those aforementioned picks were fan favourites in HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAROLD Snepts, Stan Smyl, Curt Fraser, and Glen Hanlon and finally Rick Vaive. Not terrible picks by any stretch but not great picks that could change a franchise.
The 80's proved to be more of the same earlier on but I'll revisit that decade in the next blog. Right now the buzz across the internet in terms of the Canucks is the apparent signing of Sergei Shirokov from the KHL to a two-way contract. There's little known about him other than that he was a draft pick from 2006, and he has put up decent numbers in the KHL and Russian Super League. We're not talking Pavel Bure, but 41 points in 56 games last year is not bad for a Canucks prospect playing pro hockey. This is the first glimmer of hope the franchise has had with Russian players since Kiril Koltsov and Artem Chubarov returned to the homeland.
There's something cooking with Gillis right now, nothing big but he has managed to convince a drafted prospect to get into the system and that is good, far better than his predecessors. I suspect we will see more of this type of action from Gillis and as you will see in the next decade review- it's not always how well you draft but how well you manage your draft choices.
Till then, enjoy the final and GO MOOSE GO!
It all started in 1970 when the Canucks were to join the NHL in the second round of expansion from the original 6 teams. Could the fortunes of the Canucks been changed if they had the number one pick and drafted Gilbert Perreault instead of Dave Tallon? I'm not so sure but I doubt the team would have mired in something that made mediocrity look desirable either. Perreault put up 1326 points whilst Tallon managed 336...okay life would have been much better!
Taking the two teams again the next year, Buffalo drafted 3rd and Vancouver 5th- the Sabres took Rick Martin who had a career 701 points while Jocelyn Guvremont had a modest 307 career points. It is not until the 3rd draft in the team's history where we see a choice that had a significant career and that was Don Lever. He played 593 games for Vancouver amassing 186 goals and 221 assists.
In years that had so many great players entering the NHL it seemed the Canucks missed them all the time. Instead we seemed to have a knack for identifying young men who would become the ultimate journeyman pluggers... Dennis Ververgaert, Ron Sedlbauer, Rick Blight, Bob Manno, Bill Derlago. It got a bit better but not much. After those aforementioned picks were fan favourites in HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAROLD Snepts, Stan Smyl, Curt Fraser, and Glen Hanlon and finally Rick Vaive. Not terrible picks by any stretch but not great picks that could change a franchise.
The 80's proved to be more of the same earlier on but I'll revisit that decade in the next blog. Right now the buzz across the internet in terms of the Canucks is the apparent signing of Sergei Shirokov from the KHL to a two-way contract. There's little known about him other than that he was a draft pick from 2006, and he has put up decent numbers in the KHL and Russian Super League. We're not talking Pavel Bure, but 41 points in 56 games last year is not bad for a Canucks prospect playing pro hockey. This is the first glimmer of hope the franchise has had with Russian players since Kiril Koltsov and Artem Chubarov returned to the homeland.
There's something cooking with Gillis right now, nothing big but he has managed to convince a drafted prospect to get into the system and that is good, far better than his predecessors. I suspect we will see more of this type of action from Gillis and as you will see in the next decade review- it's not always how well you draft but how well you manage your draft choices.
Till then, enjoy the final and GO MOOSE GO!
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