The Canucks made something of a splash on July 1st when they handed out 7.9 million dollars in average annual value (and 27.6 million dollars in total contract value) to the likes of Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, and Tim Schaller. Each of these players, in a vacuum, make fine additions. For two of them (Roussel…
Just outside the top five, we come to one of the biggest risers of the 2018 NHL Draft: Finnish centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi. I bemoaned the lack of respect Kotkaniemi was getting early on in the season (especially relative to fellow Finn Rasmus Kupari), but by the time the Five Nations and World Under-18 tournaments had…
Curtis Douglas is a gargantuan physical specimen of a player, clocking in a 6-foot-8 and over 200 pounds. While the NHL has moved past the days where they’d target players strictly for their size, Douglas has shown enough skill and finesse to indicate that he can have success without relying solely on his size, making…
Benoit-Olivier “Bo” Groulx is a real coach’s player. That makes a mountain of sense, considering he’s the son of Benoit Groulx, the current coach of the Syracuse Crunch in the American Hockey League. The younger Groulx doesn’t have many high calibre skills that jump out at you (aside from a pretty dynamite wrist shot), but…
We all know that Elias Pettersson is a pretty special player, and it certainly seems that the Canucks are intent on treating him like one. After announcing his Entry Level Contract yesterday, it was revealed by CapFriendly today that the Canucks elected to add the maximum allowable ELC performance bonuses. Maxing out on bonuses is…
One of the top scoring re-entries this year is Finnish-born OHL sniper Linus Nyman. The diminutive winger has spent the last two seasons on a powerful Kingston team, benefiting from and contributing to the strength of that group. We have Nyman ranked near the end of our Top 100 last year, and after going unclaimed…
Liam Foudy is another player who benefited from the CHL’s trade deadline, in this because it afforded him a lot more opportunity when his London Knights became sellers. As a result, he saw a huge spike in his offence in the second half of the season. Foudy is a terrific skater and can speed past…
On his third go round when it comes to NHL Entry Draft eligibility, Scott Perunovich is the second oldest player on our Top 100 list, although his mid-August birthday puts him pretty close to draft-plus-one status. What’s really been holding Perunovich back from getting selected the past couple of seasons in his size: listed anywhere…
Now that the draft lottery is over and fans know where their teams are going to pick (barring further trades that is), interest in the NHL draft is only increasing. For the lottery winners, it’s all about binging video on Dahlin, Svechnikov, and Zadina, but for everyone else, the competition is a lot more open….
It’s been nearly three months since I last dropped a consolidated draft rankings on this site, so it’s I’d say it’s high time to check on how the 2018 class is shaking out. In the time since the last list was published, there haven’t been any major events (World Juniors and CHL Top Prospects game…
It’s no secret that Henrik Sedin has always been far more of a set up man than a goal scorer. Even when the twins were being scouted prior to the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, he was the passer, while twin brother Daniel was the shooter. That’s always been status quo throughout his career. In all…
Canucks Army’s own Vanessa Jang made some waves on Monday in the wake of the announcement of the Sedins’ retirement when she drew attention to another pair of hockey playing Swedish twins: Max and Joel Wahlgren. The two young forwards are in their draft-minus-one seasons this year, playing in some of Sweden’s high level junior…
