Lots going on in Canucks-land as draft day approaches on Friday!
First—my pick at No. 16 in the HockeyBuzz Mock Draft.
I went with big German right-handed defenseman Moritz Seider. You can
click here to read my rationale.
I have talked up Seider in the past, so I saw a few people suggest that he was the target I had in mind when I agreed to trade down. Certainly, I was aware that he'd be an acceptable pick in the 16 range, but I didn't make the trade with the absolute expectation that he'd be there for me.
As I've said before, there seemed to be about 14-15 players who were all considered to be worthy of top 10 selections, then a group of about five who came behind them. As well as being very happy with the outcome of the trade itself, I felt confident that whether Seider was available or not, I'd have three or four tempting options to choose from at 16.
I thought Peyton Krebs might drop far enough because of his Achilles injury; he ended up getting picked at 13. And I expected that Alex Newhook would probably be available. He was, so my decision really came down to a pick 'em between Newhook and Seider.
In the end, I figured the Canucks' centre depth is currently stronger than their right-side D—and that with Newhook off to college, he's probably not coming to the NHL for two seasons. I think Seider will be ready sooner.
Live-viewing bias, on my part, was also a factor. I saw Seider play one game at the World Championship and thought he looked just fine, even as Germany got eliminated by a strong Czech team in the quarterfinal. My strongest impression of Newhook was his good showing at U18s in Sweden in April—I caught bits of that on TV.
I've also seen Spencer Knight play live. He's terrific. And he absolutely aced the fitness testing at the Combine, which isn't something we see very often from a goalie. I think he has a very bright future, but I didn't think the Canucks needed a goalie prospect right now as much as they needed a defenseman or even a centre like Newhook.
So—Seider it was.
Of course, if the Canucks don't trade down and do pick at 10 on Friday, expect to see things unfold differently. I got to chatting a bit when I went to pick up my credential for the draft on Tuesday, and one comment that really caught my attention was somebody in the know comparing Krebs' work ethic and leadership to Ryan O'Reilly.
You might remember, last year at the World Championship I was super-impressed by O'Reilly's effort and his do-everything play for Team Canada in Denmark, including some clutch goals. At that point, he was taking heat for his comments in Buffalo about having lost the love of the game, but I saw a guy who played his heart out from start to finish, even though Canada went home without a medal in 2018. Needless to say, O'Reilly's impact in St. Louis didn't come as a surprise to me. I certainly didn't expect he'd go all the way to the Conn Smythe Trophy, but based on how things played out, he's very deserving.
If Peyton Krebs has that same mental makeup, I'd be very interested in seeing him added to the Canucks. I was also told—as has been frequently reported elsewhere—that his Achilles injury is only a partial tear and while it will keep him off the ice for a bit, it shouldn't impact his long-term development.
Now, on to the Canucks' current D. It seems that the impasse between Alex Edler and the Canucks has been resolved.
I like Edler and would like to see him back, but I won't say this is good news until I hear *how* the impasse has been resolved. As I said in the last blog, the Canucks have all the leverage in terms of Edler's desire to stay in Vancouver, so I sure hope they didn't capitulate.
But even if Edler stays, it seems Benning is still focused on his desire to renovate the defense corps:
Could Tanev get traded? At this point, I think just about anything is possible.
"He’s trying to wheel-and -deal," a source told
Ed Willes of The Province. "He’s open for business and we’re talking about lots of different players."
After the Jacob Trouba trade to the Rangers on Monday evening and the Justin Braun move to the Flyers on Tuesday morning, the tradewinds have died down for now—presumably in part because teams are in transit to our fair city. I expect the chatter will heat up again by tonight, but I'm not sure when we'll see the trigger pulled on the next batch of deals.
Hopefully, that'll give us time to focus on Wednesday'a NHL Awards, where Elias Pettersson is on track to become the first member of the Vancouver Canucks to win the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year since Pavel Bure in 1992.
Despite missing 11 games last season with his concussion and his knee issue, Pettersson easily finished atop the rookie scoring race with 28-38-66 in 71 games—six more goals and 21 more points than second-place Brady Tkachuk, who didn't even get a Calder nomination.
If NHL awards included regular-season and playoff performance, Petey's coronation might be in question now that Jordan Binnington is a Stanley Cup winner, but the Calder is for regular-season performance only—and Binnington had just 32 regular-season NHL games in his resume before he added another 26 in the playoffs.
The third Calder nominee is 2018 first-overall pick Rasmus Dahlin, who led all rookie defensemen with 44 points—but certainly didn't stand head-and-shoulders above Miro Heiskanen of Dallas the league's best rookie blueliner last year.
Here's Petey's media availability from Vegas on Tuesday:
The Calder is currently scheduled to be the first award handed out on Wednesday. Watch the NHL Awards at 5 p.m. PT on Sportsnet.
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