Vancouver Canucks gathering intel during interviews at NHL Scouting Combine (matt brassard)

matt brassard

Vancouver Canucks gathering intel during interviews at NHL Scouting Combine

By Carol Schram

May 29, 2019 • 2:47 pm

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I'm back on the ground in Vancouver after a whirlwind week in Bratislava, and it's time to start thinking more deeply about the draft.

The NHL Scouting Combine is now in full swing in Buffalo. Team interviews with players take place Monday through Friday, Wednesday is medical testing day, and the real fun happens on Saturday, with the fitness testing. As far as I can tell, it doesn't look like Sportsnet is providing TV coverage of testing day this year.

Sportsnet does have the full list of the 108 draft-eligible players who will be participating in the event, though. Click here to check that out.

As I'm sure you've heard by now, Kaapo Kakko will not be in attendance.

"Kaapo is not skipping the Combine, but circumstances such as a late World Championship schedule and country celebration prevent him from attending," Kakko's agent, Mike Liut, clarified to Mike Morreale of NHL.com in an email.

"The celebration will take up most of this week and Kaapo should attend every minute," he added. "The NHL clubs I spoke to fully support Kaapo's participation with his team and country."

For what it's worth, Jack Hughes is on the list and is expected to be a full participant. That's interesting, since Quinn decided to skip the fitness testing last year after his own run at Worlds.

The only player Jim Benning name-checked when he spoke with Ben Kuzma of The Province about the Canucks' combine interview process was goaltender Spencer Knight of the U.S. National Team Development Program. Should we read anything into that?

TSN's Craig Button has Knight, the top-ranked North American goalie, ranked 22nd overall in his latest Mock Draft, released May 22.

I imagine many Canucks fans won't be thrilled to see Russian sniper Vasili Podkolzin slotted in on Craig's list as Vancouver's first pick, at No. 10. After lighting it up last summer at the Hlinka/Gretzky Cup and having a strong World Juniors here in Vancouver at Christmastime, Podkolzin's star dimmed a bit through the spring, and he was widely assumed to be playing through injury at April's U18 tournament in Sweden.

Jim Benning hasn't shied away from selecting Russians, but I'd be surprised if he ends up targeting Podkolzin. Benning has just one year left on his current contract with the Canucks. I feel like his long-term job prospects will be better if he picks a player who can have a more immediate impact, or at least develop closer to home, perhaps making an impact with the Comets in Utica. Podkolzin has signed a two-year KHL contract with SKA St. Petersburg that doesn't have an out clause, so the earliest he'd be able to suit up for an NHL team would be 2021-22.

The Washington Capitals were willing to wait when they drafted Evgeny Kuznetsov 26th overall in 2010. He went on to spend four additional seasons in the KHL before finally signing with the Caps in March of 2014, and has developed into a point-a-game player for the Caps over the past two years.

With that in mind, it's interesting to hear that Washington did interview Podkolzin on Tuesday.

"Washington asked if I know how to sing," Podkolzin told Adam Kimelman of NHL.com through a translator. "I said if they draft me I'll sing to them."

In his Day 3 Update from Buffalo on Wednesday, Kimelman spotlights sixth-ranked North American skater Trevor Zegras of the NTDP, who could be available when the Canucks are ready to pick. He's headed to Boston University next season.

I'm also intrigued by big German defenseman Moritz Seider, who's ranked sixth among European skaters. Listed at 6'4" and 198 pounds on the World Championship website, Seider was a standout in Germany's early games of the tournament in Slovakia, which is no small feat for a draft-eligible blueliner.

He had two goals in three games before being knocked out of action for the rest of the round robin after a hard hit by Ladislav Nagy of Slovakia in Germany's fourth game.

He did return to action in the playoff round, but Germany was eliminated in the quarterfinal by the Czechs.

Here's a story on Seider from the tournament, before he was injured.

While speaking with Kuzma, Jim Benning did offer a glimpse into what might happen in a draft interview that would make the Canucks less likely to draft a player:

“Yeah. If we don’t get a good feel — whether it’s the personality or drive and willingness to face adversity and develop as a player in the AHL — there may not be the mental toughness and it’s too easy for them to give up.…

Interesting to hear that the farm team factors in. I wonder if that has become more of a priority as the organization looks to take the Utica Comets to the next level?

Side note—once again, how 'bout those Vegas Golden Knights? Stocking their farm team from nothing, they've gotten their Chicago Wolves all the way to the Calder Cup Final in just their second year of operating the team.

Oscar Dansk has been terrific in net for the Wolves, with a 2.16 GAA and .921 save percentage in the playoffs, and one of Chicago's key leaders has been veteran Curtis McKenzie, who played a similar role last year when he went to the Calder Cup Final with the Texas Stars. But the Wolves' run is also providing valuable development experience for AHL rookies like forward Cody Glass (6th overall in 2017, 12 points in 17 playoff games) and defensemen Nic Hague (34th overall in 2017, nine points and +4 in 17 playoff games) and Zach Whitecloud (undrafted free agent signed in 2018, now 22, 12 points in 17 playoff games).

Of course, the Comets also reached the Calder Cup Final in their second year of existence—largely off the incredible play of Jacob Markstrom, back in 2014-15. Other than that, in the team's other six years of existence, the Comets have missed the playoffs three times and been eliminated in the first round three times.

The Canucks announced on Wednesday that two of the defensemen that they selected in the 2017 draft won't be signed by the team before the June 1 deadline to retain their rights.

Gunnarson was drafted 135th overall, in the fifth round. In his two years as a Canucks prospect, he went 1-0-1 in 15 games with Frolunda of the Swedish League in 2017-18, then 0-1-1 in 26 games with Linkopings last season.

Matt Brassard was drafted 188th overall, in the seventh round. He missed quite a bit of time due to injury but had decent OHL numbers when he did play—8-19-27 in 35 games with Oshawa last season, then 3-26-29 in 30 games this year with Niagara, plus another 1-7-8 in 11 playoff games.

Accoding to CapFriendly, the Canucks currently have 31 of their maximum 50 contracts on the books for next season, plus seven RFAs and two UFAs that will presumably be signed: Edler and Schenn, plus Motte, Leivo, Goldobin, Granlund, Hutton, Teves and Rafferty—and not including Reid Boucher, who's expected not to return.

With only about 10 contract spots open once that work is done, I think Brassard got caught in a bit of a numbers game; he seemed to me like he might get a shot.

I wonder if another team will take a crack at him in this year's draft?

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