CanucksArmy Monday Mailbag: More Draft Talk, Max Domi and More Sedins!

Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson, one-for-one. Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome. Jonathan Marchessault to the Vegas Golden Knights for Expansion Draft Considerations (taking on Reilly Smith).

Honestly, I think there’s a 90% chance that every one of those players is in North America in some capacity next season. Jonathan Dahlen is going to the Utica Comets for their playoff run, and Olli Juolevi might not be far behind with Petrus Palmu.

Questions of what is or isn’t good for someone’s development are hard for me to answer. That’s an area of expertise I haven’t been exposed to in my line of work. My intuition is that all three of them are best served to take another step towards the NHL.

Something tells me the Arizona Coyotes position on Max Domi is akin to open to the possibility of a trade, rather than actively exploring one. That’s my interpretation of the situation, but I’m obviously missing a lot of information — like first-hand accounts from the general manager, etc.

It’s hard to say what the Canucks would have to give up. Maybe Ben Hutton and a little something extra does the trick?

The Canucks should have interest in taking the final year of Jason Spezza’s contract off the Dallas Stars’ hands. When I hear comments like these from Canucks president Trevor Linden, though, I suspect they’re not too, too keen on the notion.

I think Pass it to Bulis wrote an article on that…

Teams trip all over themselves to find prototypical power forwards that can take over a hockey game in a flash. For all my concerns about Brady Tkachuk as a potential top-five pick, there’s no denying he fits that profile to an extent. The last name definitely doesn’t hurt either.

That’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer. The player I have earmarked for second overall (Quinn Hughes) could very well be there at fifth overall, so that would be a shrewd move if I had any kind of assurance or intel suggesting that might be the case.

Sorry, buddy. It’s way, way too early to answer that question in even a vaguely meaningful way.

I’m just not sure yet. Let me get back to you on that one. Maybe ask that question a little closer to the draft.

Let’s watch some awesome playoff hockey. How does that sound?

I reached out to CanucksArmy’s own Jeremy Davis on the topic, and he told me that he has an article on the way that tackles this very question.

I’d just name Bo Horvat captain at the start of the season and leave it at that.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Canucks general manager Jim Benning took a run at Erik Karlsson; I just don’t think the Canucks have the assets to pull such a trade off and have it make sense for them.

I’m not as keen on moving Markus Granlund. I just don’t see the upside in such a move. His value is so low as to not even be worth exploring at this juncture.

As for Sven Baertschi, I’m still very much on board with that plan.

They’ll be fighting for 31st overall if that’s their plan in free agency. That’s not the worst possible outcome, so long as they turn some of those players into assets at the trade deadline.

I’m far more bullish on the steps forward that Nikolay Goldobin has taken than Jake Virtanen. At the end of the day, even if Virtanen’s on-ice play shows progress, he’s still towing about a 23 point per 82 games scoring pace. That’s about fourth-line scoring. Goldobin is closer to 30 points, which isn’t a huge gap, but considering his ice-time, deployment, etc. fairly noteworthy in its own right.

Markus Granlund with the lowest points per hour at 5-on-5 among skaters with more than 400 minutes.

In terms of specific weaknesses of the Canucks lineup in the post-Sedin era, I think that forwards, defence and goaltending stick out as the most glaring ones. Put another way: every part of this roster needs work.

I suspect that they’ll try to clear some room on their blue line through trades so they can be relatively active in free agency. The Canucks will probably try to find a free agent centre and some help on the wing, too. I doubt they’ll do anything to address their goaltending — their hands are kind of tied on that front.

No, but that’s not such a bad idea, now that you mention it.

I’d make that trade in a heartbeat if I were the Canucks. Rasmus Dahlin is the kind of franchise-altering, generational talent on the blue line that can turn a franchise around in a matter of years almost by himself. Brock Boeser is a special player but he’s not that.

If I understand this correctly, you want to know what the Canucks draft board should look like from picks two through nine, right? Let’s try this out.

2nd Overall: Andrei Svechnikov

3rd Overall: Filip Zadina

4th Overall: Brady Tkachuk

5th Overall: Quinn Hughes

6th Overall: Noah Dobson

7th Overall: Oliver Wahlstrom

8th Overall: Rasmus Kupari

9th Overall: Evan Bouchard

Sure, why not?

Oliver Wahlstrom.

Ryan Merkley, perhaps?

Jack Rathbone doesn’t register on the pGPS system, a byproduct of his playing high school hockey this season. It’s a blind spot with that particular metric.

Yes.

Great.

Benning lost. Convincingly.

Evander Kane.

Funny story, this.

So, there I was at about 21-years-old, watching the Dallas Cowboys play the Carolina Panthers on a totally legal stream on my computer. Halftime struck, and I took the opportunity to scan Craigslist for jobs — just curious as to what was out there.

I had just moved out. Like most at that age, I wasn’t in the best place. I was working my ass off at a dead-end job, but still broke and generally dissatisfied with life. I’d scan Craigslist from time to time to see if there was something, anything out there for someone like me without an education or any real skills. This time, something caught my eye.

I had to do a double-check, but yes, there was a listing for “NFL Writer”. I loved football, and writing was one of my only strong suits in high school, so I figured, hell, why not? I applied, and through a series of phone interviews and trials, got the gig. Everything kind of took off from there.

Through hard work, an obscene amount of luck, and the right people believing in me, I got to this point by applying to almost any writing gig that crossed my path. I just worked my ass off.

I could see Adam Boqvist in the NHL within two-to-three years time.

Quinn Hughes will likely join whichever team drafts him at the conclusion of his NCAA season next year.

Noah Dobson is probably two-to-three years out.

Evan Bouchard is probably three-to-four years out.

I think Hughes is the safest bet to be a top four or top pair defenceman at the NHL level.

The Sedin twins are the two best athletes, and among the best people, the city of Vancouver has ever been lucky enough to host.