Pre-Game Talk: 2019 NHL Draft, Pt. V: Got your ticket? (Mod note in pinned post)

[CanaFan]

That would be a dream scenario but I don’t see Zegras, Newhook, AND Boldy falling that far. I could be wrong though and you might be right about teams really wanting to prioritize D and C so it could make for some unpredictable results.

It feels like a reasonable draft order based mainly on talent but also some draft tendencies and org need as well. Obviously low chances it all turns out that way but just wanted to post some thoughts down now so I can revisit in a week and a half and see how right or (likely) wrong I was.

 

[CanaFan]

@CanaFan - I thought you were dead! .

Welcome back good sir.

As it relates to the scenario that you played out, I would go with Boldy if those were our options.

You should be so lucky

I’d be over the moon with Boldy (even though I prefer Zegras) and do think he’s got a better chance to be there at 10 than Z, unless the size factor kicks in and GMs realize a 6’2 (still growing??) winger with elite hands and hockey sense are just as rare as speedy-skilled centres and puck moving D.

 

[ChilliBilly]

Canucks need to come out of this draft with a young right handed dman. Period.

I haven’t followed this year’s draft as closely as previous ones and so I’m not too familiar with the players outside of Hughes, Kakko, and Byram.

What I will say is this: If Viktor Soderstrom and other RD’s are deemed “not good enough” to be selected at #10, then I highly suggest that we try and make a move for Eric Bouchard from Edmonton.

Eriksson + 10thOA + ??? For Lucic + Bouchard.

I really don’t want to derail this thread with a trade proposal, but I do want to stress as to just how important it is for the Canucks to be walking away from this draft with a young RD.

If it’s not Soderstrom or whoever, push for Bouchard. Edmonton is desperate, and we should take advantage of this.

Not a chance they trade 10OA for a player. They are holding the draft, and come hell or high water they will have at least one pick in the 1st round. And we are not "desperate" for a RHD any more than we are desperate for 2 top 6 wingers.

 

[CanaFan]

Not a chance they trade 10OA for a player. They are holding the draft, and come hell or high water they will have at least one pick in the 1st round. And we are not "desperate" for a RHD any more than we are desperate for 2 top 6 wingers.

Plus it doesn’t make sense from Edmonton’s POV either. If they need to “win now” then why are they swapping a 19 y/o (almost 20 in Fall) for a 17/18 year old?

Wouldn’t they be more likely to do the opposite and trade the #8 pick for a 22-24 y/o aka the Benning special?

 

[valkynax]

I completely agree with you, but it definitely would take something of significance to pry Bouchard out of Edmonton. Edmonton might be willing to do that, because they need to be in “win mode” NOW. They need to get rid of cap mistakes NOW and make a push for the playoffs while they have McDavid and friends.

On the flip side of this, the Canucks really need to stock that right side D. Woo and Chatfield are great, but it’s not nearly enough.

As far as this draft goes, I’m not entirely sure if Soderstrom is our answer.....or if the emergent Seider will be there for the picking when it’s our turn to select. A guy like Broberg would be nice, but he’s a left sided dman.

Outside of Hughes, Kakko, and Byram however, the only two guys that really interest me are Boldy and Podkolzin. I especially like Podkolzin due to his sky high potential, but I’m not sure I’d either of these guys are going to be available for us.

So basically, all of the guys that I like will likely be out of our range (although I said the same thing about Hughes last year and was pleasantly surprised to be wrong).

In 95% of instances, I would advocate the philosophy of “BPA over positional needs,” but the Canucks REALLY need to be walking out of here with a young RD that will very likely be a top pairing guy.

Given how terrible Lucic’s contract is, I don’t think asking for Bouchard is an unacceptable proposal at all.

Not an expert of hockey operations, I'd imagine the other team will spin Lucic thusly:

- he's much younger
- he's a tough guy
- he has connection with ol Jimmy

Although I gotta admit overall I'm very biased - I am very reluctant to trade draft picks away. I feel that with the draft pick in hand, we live and die by our mistakes - if we drafted someone good, awesome; if not, we won't blame it on anything else.

But this is just my personal opinion.

 

[nucksflailtogether]

Get the 8th overall, send Eriksson to Ottawa and take on lucic. Boom two top ten picks. Suck up the pain of lucic knowing we have two young studs to bolster the core. Also, we could pick a forward and defenseman.

 

[MS]

Get the 8th overall, send Eriksson to Ottawa and take on lucic. Boom two top ten picks. Suck up the pain of lucic knowing we have two young studs to bolster the core. Also, we could pick a forward and defenseman.

Would you give up the #10 overall pick to get rid of Eriksson? If not, why would you think Edmonton would do this to get rid of Lucic?

 

[THE Green Man]

This is how I see it playing out:

NJ-Hughes
NYR-Kaako
CHI-Byram
COL-Turcotte
LA-Dach
DET-Cozens
BUF-Zegras
EDM-Krebs
ANA-Boldy

Leaving us to choose between Broberg, Caufield, Newhook or Podz.

Newhook is the easy choice for me here, followed by Caufield. Who would you guys pick?

In this scenario it would be Caufield then Newhook for me. If they went with Broberg or Podz with either on the board I wouldn't be impressed.

This is my best reading of the tea leaves, with some fingers crossing as well:

1 NJ Hughes
2 NYR Kakko
———————-
3 Chi Byram -> defense is an .org strength but feels BPA
4 Col Dach -> have heard forwards for Col even if Byram is available so I don’t think it is too dependent on what Chi does. Could be Turcotte but feel like Dach’s 6’4 frame and skill set combo will sell them on him.
5 LA Podkolzin -> LA is tough to read and they could easily go for Turcotte or Cozens here but I feel like they’ll lean towards a power forward type who fits their heavy style and Podkolzin still has a lot of fans in the scouting world. Being a winger hurts him but his intensity is something NHL scouts and GMs drool over.
6 Detroit Turcotte -> A small fall for Turcotte who could go as high as #3 but I feel a bit of size bias could tumble him to #6, which makes Detroit scuttle plans to take Zegras and opt for Larkin 2.0 instead.
7 Buffalo Cozens -> Tough to project what Buffalo will do but based on the board so far Cozens seems like a reasonably likely outcome. Size, pace, and ability to play wing with Eichel or Mittelstadt. Could also see Boldy or Caufield going here, probably not Zegras though.
8 Edmonton Broberg -> As per heavy speculation. If Broberg goes earlier I feel like Krebs could be their next choice, depending on his medical prognosis.
9 Anaheim Seider -> This one is a true guess, but I feel like Anaheim will be the wildcard of the top 10. With several tantalizing forward options like Boldy, Zegras, Krebs, Newhook, and Caufield available, they surprise and take a right-handed Hampus Lindholm clone to rebuild their no-longer-young-and-deep defense core. With the trades of Vatanen and Montour in recent years, their right side looks depleted and Seider has immense potential.

All this creates a path for Vancouver to have its choice of:

Zegras (their top target IMO)
Newhook (their possible #2)
Krebs (a possible option pending medical reports)
Boldy (unclear as to their interest but fits the recent “all things being equal we’d like to draft size” comments)
Soderstrom (if their opt for positional need over BPA)

Very interesting breakdown with some real surprises there. I'm all for this happening as I really want Boldy but having Zegras there as well I'd be ok with. Probably will semi-sulk for a day or two that we passed on Boldy though.

Canucks need to come out of this draft with a young right handed dman. Period.

I haven’t followed this year’s draft as closely as previous ones and so I’m not too familiar with the players outside of Hughes, Kakko, and Byram.

What I will say is this: If Viktor Soderstrom and other RD’s are deemed “not good enough” to be selected at #10, then I highly suggest that we try and make a move for Eric Bouchard from Edmonton.

Eriksson + 10thOA + ??? For Lucic + Bouchard.

I really don’t want to derail this thread with a trade proposal, but I do want to stress as to just how important it is for the Canucks to be walking away from this draft with a young RD.

If it’s not Soderstrom or whoever, push for Bouchard. Edmonton is desperate, and we should take advantage of this.

I'd rather take a forward like Boldy or Zegras and worry about RHD in the 2nd round. This roster has holes everywhere we are not in a position to be focusing on 1 specific position at the pick.

 

[Horse McHindu]

Good responses guys.

Just letting you guys know in advance that I can’t “like” your posts right now, but am hoping to have this ability again sometime in the year 2021 (assuming that I haven’t been booted for being a loud mouthed agitating Benning soldier ).

@CanaFan - I get your point about the Oilers (ie If they are in “win now” mode, why would they move Bouchard for a 10th), but you have to realize just how much of a hindrance that Lucic contract is. Given Edmonton’s cap space (or lack thereof), the Lucic contract is literally killing them from getting the help that they need.

The Oilers could very easily be where they were two years ago (2nd round team) if they got rid of that Lucic contract, while the Canucks still have a little ways to go (the Canucks could have all of their boat anchor contracts off the books in two years.....and Lucic could be their only “bad” contract at that point).

 

[Horse McHindu]

Would you give up the #10 overall pick to get rid of Eriksson? If not, why would you think Edmonton would do this to get rid of Lucic?

Edmonton is in a different position than Vancouver.

Not only does Edmonton have the best player in the game in Connor McDavid, but they could just as easily be a 2nd round caliber team again if they got rid of that one boat anchor contract in Lucic.

With Eriksson, the Oilers could have different options (ie send him to the minors, expose him in the expansion draft, etc.). It would be easier for Edmonton to get Eriksson off the books (although still challenging), rather than the near impossible task of getting Lucic off the books.

Once the Oilers have that 6 million freed up, they could easily be the 2nd round team that they were two years ago.

 

[CanaFan]

Good responses guys.

Just letting you guys know in advance that I can’t “like” your posts right now, but am hoping to have this ability again sometime in the year 2021 (assuming that I haven’t been booted for being a loud mouthed agitating Benning soldier ).

@CanaFan - I get your point about the Oilers (ie If they are in “win now” mode, why would they move Bouchard for a 10th), but you have to realize just how much of a hindrance that Lucic contract is. Given Edmonton’s cap space (or lack thereof), the Lucic contract is literally killing them from getting the help that they need.

The Oilers could very easily be where they were two years ago (2nd round team) if they got rid of that Lucic contract, while the Canucks still have a little ways to go (the Canucks could have all of their boat anchor contracts off the books in two years.....and Lucic could be their only “bad” contract at that point).

But the Eriksson contract is just as bad - from a cap hit perspective - for the next 3 seasons, so in the short term it doesn’t help them at all. It only helps them in the 4th year and with the Seattle expansion draft in a year (or is it in 2 years?).

If you are defining “immediate help” as this summer then I don’t see how it helps them at all and actually sets them back if Bouchard is able to fill a roster spot in the fall.

 

[ChilliBilly]

Get the 8th overall, send Eriksson to Ottawa and take on lucic. Boom two top ten picks. Suck up the pain of lucic knowing we have two young studs to bolster the core. Also, we could pick a forward and defenseman.

and why would Ott take Eriksson?

 

[Horse McHindu]

But the Eriksson contract is just as bad - from a cap hit perspective - for the next 3 seasons, so in the short term it doesn’t help them at all. It only helps them in the 4th year and with the Seattle expansion draft in a year (or is it in 2 years?).

If you are defining “immediate help” as this summer then I don’t see how it helps them at all.

I might be wrong here, but if someone has an NMC, it means that they can’t be sent down the minors right?

Eriksson, unlike Lucic, can be sent to the minors. Given that little “real dollars” will be owed to Eriksson (28 of 36 will be paid out after July 1st), I’m sure that the Oilers would be able to flip Eriksson to a team that would be looking to take on some cap (Ottawa for instance).

 

[Horse McHindu]

and why would Ott take Eriksson?

Eriksson is owed very little real dollars (relatively speaking), but his cap hit would ensure that the Senators would be good from a cap standpoint (ie hitting the cap floor). Given the train wreck that has occurred in Ottawa these past few years, UfA’s May not exactly be chomping at the bit waiting to play there.

 

[THE Green Man]

and why would Ott take Eriksson?

Only way would be if Melnyk wants to save real dollars. Eriksson for Ryan after July 1st saves him like 11 million over the course of the contracts.

 

[Timmer44]

Easy one, Jake Virtanen

Jake went 6th overall.

 

[Horse McHindu]

What if we *didn’t* give the Oilers Eriksson?

Lucic and Bouchard come to Vancouver, and Edmonton clears 6 million in cap space just like that, and uses that newly freed up 6 million to get back to where they were two short years ago (2nd round).

The responsibility to getting rid of Eriksson (to another team) falls squarely on our shoulders.

But - we get Bouchard out of it.

Would something like that be more beneficial to both the Canucks and Oilers?

 

[GetFocht]

The more I hear Ken Holland speak, it's quite clear he won't trade any of his prospects including Puljujarvi. The only sweetener I see him offering his moving up two spots in the draft, meaning it would be a Lucic + 8th for Eriksson +10 type of trade.

 

[Timmer44]

Any Eriksson trade is going to happen after July 1st. After the Canucks have to pay his bonus, so the destination team wouldn't have to pay it.

 

[BeardyCanuck03]

Any Eriksson trade is going to happen after July 1st. After the Canucks have to pay his bonus, so the destination team wouldn't have to pay it.

I think there are a few deals that are either agreed upon in principle or have been discussed that won't be made until after July 1 and the bonuses are paid.

Zaitsev and Eriksson/Lucic deals are likely not going to include any 2019 picks because of this.

 

[Addison Rae]

King Hindu is back let’s goooo

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

The more I hear Ken Holland speak, it's quite clear he won't trade any of his prospects including Puljujarvi. The only sweetener I see him offering his moving up two spots in the draft, meaning it would be a Lucic + 8th for Eriksson +10 type of trade.

Good stuff..Edmonton can keep Lucic...Moving up two spots in the lottery, or getting Puljijarvi (who is trending more like Nial Yakupov) is not enough...

Of course Ken Holland can project himself as the wily veteran GM,but the fact is..in the case of Milan Lucic...Holland is not the one with the 'leverage' here.

 

[DonnyNucker]

What if we *didn’t* give the Oilers Eriksson?

Lucic and Bouchard come to Vancouver, and Edmonton clears 6 million in cap space just like that, and uses that newly freed up 6 million to get back to where they were two short years ago (2nd round).

The responsibility to getting rid of Eriksson (to another team) falls squarely on our shoulders.

But - we get Bouchard out of it.

Would something like that be more beneficial to both the Canucks and Oilers?

What in the f***? Oilers aren’t giving us their top prospect. Turn the tables, will you trade Hughes and Loui to OTT for a 7th round pick? No f***ing way

 

[Horse McHindu]

What in the ****? Oilers aren’t giving us their top prospect. Turn the tables, will you trade Hughes and Loui to OTT for a 7th round pick? No ****ing way

It's not a 1-1 situation.

The Canucks don't have the best player in hockey on their team, and the Canucks aren't one contractual mistake away from being a 2nd round calibre playoff team (like the Oilers likely are).

The Oilers need to do something while THE BEST PLAYER IN HOCKEY is on their team.

Get rid of Lucic, use that freed up 6 million wisely, and the Oilers are right back to where they were a few years ago when they defeated San Jose and had Anaheim on the ropes.

At best, the Canucks will be a wildcard playoff team next year if all goes right. The Oilers, sans Lucic contract, could very easily be a 2nd round team. THAT is the difference. When you have the best player in all of hockey, you need to be pushing for the playoffs hard.

 

[DonnyNucker]

It's not a 1-1 situation.

The Canucks don't have the best player in hockey on their team, and the Canucks aren't one contractual mistake away from being a 2nd round calibre playoff team (like the Oilers likely are).

The Oilers need to do something while THE BEST PLAYER IN HOCKEY is on their team.

Get rid of Lucic, use that freed up 6 million wisely, and the Oilers are right back to where they were a few years ago when they defeated San Jose and had Anaheim on the ropes.

At best, the Canucks will be a wildcard playoff team next year if all goes right. The Oilers, sans Lucic contract, could very easily be a 2nd round team. THAT is the difference. When you have the best player in all of hockey, you need to be pushing for the playoffs hard.

You are viewing this through a Canucks lens. Do you think the best offer EDM will get to dump Lucic involves throwing in their best prospect? No way. Also, Canucks can’t afford to have Lucic and Loui on the books. If they do, we may as well trade Elias for futures and plan for the playoffs in 2025 as they won’t be able to resign him. Try selling your plan to the Oilers or better yet the Aquilinis