Five Years In: Jim Benning’s First Five Drafts For The Vancouver Canucks

The 2018 NHL Entry Draft recently wrapped up in Dallas, and as it was the fifth such event since Jim Benning joined the team, I was interested in looking into what he and his staff have done since their first draft together in 2014.

This article is not meant to praise or disparage the work done by the club in any way. It is merely an exercise to see how the draft has shaken out for the team since Jim Benning took the helm.

The Canucks, like every other team, had 35 picks available to them over those five drafts. After trades and manoeuvres, however, the team actually used a total of 34 picks over that span. Of those 34 picks, Vancouver had a total of six picks in each of the first, fifth, and seventh rounds. They had a total of five picks in each of the third and sixth rounds, and four in round two. The fourth round is where they had their fewest number of picks with just two players being selected there.

In reverse order, counting down from the seventh round, we will take a look at how each round broke down by position. The players’ draft positions are listed in brackets beside their names.

One thing that might jump out at you is that some of the names listed above are no longer Canucks property. In fact, there are ten players listed above who are no longer in the system.

Gustav Forsling and Jared McCann were both moved out in separate trades, while none of Kyle Pettit, Tate Olson, Carl Neill, Brett McKenzie, Rodrigo Abols, Cole Candella, or Jakob Stukel impressed management enough to earn a contract with the club. Mackenze Stewart earned a contract with the team (somehow), but after three lacklustre seasons, the Canucks recently opted not to qualify his contract.

If we look at the picks by position, we can see that the team has selected a total of 14 defencemen, eight centermen, seven right-wingers, three goaltenders, and two left-wingers.

The additions of Jonathan Dahlen, Nikolay Goldobin, and Brendan Leipsic via separate trades may help fill the void on the left side right now, but the Canucks may want to keep their eyes peeled for left-wingers who can help in the future.

Of the 34 players who have been drafted by the Canucks over the past five drafts, seven players have played a total of 541 NHL games. The group has combined for 77 goals and 99 assists to give them a total of 176 points in the league. The traded Jared McCann and Gustav Forsling were responsible for 245 of those games played, putting up 24 goals, and 47 assists to combine for 71 of the 176 points put up by the group.

I thought it might be interesting to see how the Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, and Toronto Maple Leafs fared over those same five drafts.

Now, before anyone says anything, we know that the Leafs and Oilers have both had some lottery luck that landed them “Generational Players” while the Habs and Canucks cannot say the same. Keep that in mind when you are looking at point totals for those two clubs. That said, that’s the way the lotto balls bounced, and nothing can change things now.

The Canadiens used a total of 35 picks over their previous five drafts. This included seven picks in each of the third and fifth rounds, five picks in each of the first, second, and seventh rounds, along with three picks each of the fourth and sixth rounds.

Montreal has selected 14 defencemen, 14 centermen, three right-wingers, two left-wingers, and two goaltenders since the 2014 draft. Like the Canucks, the Habs have moved out players who they had drafted since 2014, most notably, Mikhail Sergachev in the Jonathan Drouin deal with Tampa Bay.

Of the 35 players selected by the Habs during this span, five players have played in a combined 205 NHL games. They have posted 15 goals, 43 assists, and 58 points as a group.

The Edmonton Oilers have selected 33 players in the draft since 2014. During this time they have had six picks in the seventh round, five picks in each of rounds one, three, five, and six, along with four picks in the fourth round and three in round number two.

The Oilers have selected a total of 33 players; 13 defencemen, eight centermen, six goaltenders, four right-wingers, and two left-wingers since the 2014 draft. Five of those players have combined to play 598 NHL games, collecting 176 goals, 322 assists, and 498 points. McDavid and Draisaitl have played a combined 478 NHL games, putting up 162 goals, 301 assists, and 463 points. Thanks, Connor and Leon.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have taken a different approach than the previous three teams. They loaded up on picks to give themselves more chances to draft NHL players for their system. The Leafs have used 42 picks since 2014. That’s seven more picks than each team was allotted over that span, or, the equivalent of a whole other draft class, numbers wise.

The Leafs had seven picks in each of rounds three and four, six picks in each of rounds two, six, and seven, and five picks in each of rounds one and five.

The Leafs have picked 42 players in total; 16 defencemen, nine left-wingers, eight centermen, six right-wingers, and three goaltenders since the 2014 draft. Five of those players have combined for a total of 537 NHL games played. The Leafs picks have put up 164 goals and 246 assists to give them 410 points as a group. The trio of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander make up 488 of those NHL games, along with 397 points.

There are still plenty of players from the four teams listed above who have yet to make their mark in the NHL, so this will be an interesting group of picks to watch over the coming years.

The Canucks drafting appears to be getting better over the last couple of seasons. Here’s hoping that trend continues.