Canucks Army Midterm Prospect Rankings: 14th & 13th

We’re doubling up the Midterm Rankings today – after Jackson gave you a review of the Canucks’ 16th and 15th ranked prospects this morning, we’re ready to jump into part four, in which we’ll review Vancouver’s 14th and 13th ranked prospects.

Once again, I’ll quickly review the criteria for consideration for the rankings:

As a result, players that are considered to be “graduated” to the NHL (Brendan Gaunce, Nikita Tryamkin, Jake Virtanen, Anton Rodin) are not eligible.

Let’s get into it.

Position: Defence – Shoots: Left – Height: – 6’2″ – Weight: 190 lbs

Tate Olson was drafted 210th overall by the Vancouver Canucks in 2015, the second-to-last pick of the entire draft. With that draft position, expectations are generally quite low. In true Canuck fashion however, circumstances have somehow arranged for Tate Olson’s current season to be largely disappointing.

That is mostly due to the fact that Olson had a spectacular season last year. After scoring 24 points in 68 games in his draft year, Olson nearly doubled his production in 2015-16 (47 points in 65 games). He was also ranked as the fourth best Canucks prospect (after Thatcher Demko, Brock Boeser and Hunter Shinkaruk) by Craig Button last February, which, despite being an impressive accomplishment, might have only done him more harm than good. Not only was the online community paying attention, but Olson received plenty of praise in the radio and television markets as well, which of course raised expectations.

Now the 19-year old is having a bit of a down year in the WHL, and has so far tallied just 16 points in 40 games, causing his points per games played to decrease from 0.72 to 0.40 in the span of one season. As production is a major component in projecting success, his expected success percentage has come crashing down this year.

It would be one thing if Olson was playing on a declining team, but instead he’s suiting up for one of the best teams in the CHL, one that’s gearing up for a long playoff run. Part of this may be due to role: Olson’s estimated 5-on-5 TOI has decreased from 18:27 (first among Cougars defencemen) to 15:19 (fourth among Cougars defencemen) from last season to this one. The acquisition of Brendan Guhle has eaten some of his ice time at even strength, while Olson continues to get plenty of special teams time, and paces the Cougars defencemen in power play points, with 9.

Regardless of what is happening with his ice time, the bottom line is that we’d expect more production out of him after such a strong draft-plus-one campaign. His current statistical profile fits him into a large group of relatively nondescript players, of which a handful have carved out NHL careers.

Additionally, the majority of those that have played 200 or more NHL games have done so as third pairing defencemen, with a sprinkling of second pair blueliners and replacement level players. Notice that Luca Sbisa is among the most productive of Olson’s matches.

Olson is a strong, sizable defenceman that fits Jim Benning’s descriptor of “hard to play against” to a tee, but like a few of the Canucks other prospects, his greatest asset is the way he reads the game. Similar things have been said about top blueline prospect Olli Juolevi, and although Olson lacks the raw talent and creativity and Juolevi, he is able to use his hockey IQ to consistently make safe, high percentage plays, which is a highly valuable trait in and of itself, particularly for someone who projects as a lower pairing defenceman if he progresses through the professional ranks.

Despite his lack of flashy numbers this season, Olson is still a decent prospect, and one that may have the necesarily tools to keep his floor relatively high. He’ll be eligible to join the Comets next season if the Canucks choose to sign him before the upcoming deadline, although returning to the WHL for an overage year is also a possibility – Jim Benning and co have shown a preference for this already with Carl Neill and Rodrigo Abols.

We should get a good long look at Olson this season as the Cougars head towards the playoffs. The deadline acquisitions of Nikita Popugayev and Radovan Bondra (formerly of the Vancouver Giants) have only made them more formidable, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to watch Olson and his teammates deep into the spring.

Position: Right Wing – Shoots: Left – Height: – 6’4″ – Weight: 190 lbs

Joseph LaBate has drifted in an out of Canucks’ fans consciousness over the past several seasons. Taken in the fourth round (101st overall) at the 2011 NHL draft, LaBate got a fair amount of attention from Canucks Army in his first year as a prospect. He debuted at #8 on the original Canucks Army Prospect Rankings back in 2012, when hopes were that he might develop into a productive NHL forward following a freshman season with the University of Wisconsin in which he scored 20 points in 37 games. In that freshman season, and at the draft the June previous, LaBate had been earning comparisons to players like Joe Thornton and David Backes. Imagine that.

Over the next few seasons, LaBate’s production in college remained relatively static, and as a result, projections of his future became significantly less optimistic. Rather than turning pro, LaBate remained in Wisconsin for all four of his college seasons, and fell into relative obscurity among Canucks prospects.

LaBate resurfaced last season as he turned pro and joined the Utica Comets. He shared his rookie professional year with highly touted prospects Cole Cassels and Jordan Subban, as well as recent signee Ashton Sautner, which meant that LaBate has few expectations placed upon him that year. Quietly, he put up 20 points that season, putting Cassels’ seven points to shame and driving himself back into the the minds of Canucks fans.

LaBate’s second season with the Comets has been largely affected by injury, and he’s managed to get into just 19 games so far, tallying 8 points (two goals, six assists), which technically represents an improvement in points per game. He also earned his first NHL call up and played in three games with the Canucks, collecting no points and seven penalty minutes.

Were LaBate to return to the NHL lineup, his cohort projections suggest that it wouldn’t be as an everyday player – more matches were considered replacement level forwards than any other style of deployment.

While he’s still a long shot at being an NHL regular, it wouldn’t shock me to see LaBate earn some more chances in the lineup (were the Canucks to get into some serious injury trouble), nor to produce a little bit more if he spent some extra time there. He scored some offensive talent during the NHL preseason, scoring a breakaway goal as well as setting up Anton Rodin with a beautiful cross-zone saucer pass. There are a few talents bubbling below the surface in a player whose main role in professional hockey thus far has been to bang and crash, combined with the occasional bout of fisticuffs.

Travis Green seems to have noticed this as well, as LaBate saw a fair bit of time on the first unit power play earlier in the season as a net front player, mainly when both the Canucks and Comets were marred by injury, and before Jake Virtanen arrived – but he’s rewarded his coach with four power play points, which ranks seventh on the Comets. At even strength, LaBate has played up and down the lineup, seeing spot duty in the top six, and lately finding himself consistently on Cole Cassels’ wing in the bottom six.

#16: Cole Candella and #15: Alex Grenier