Shane Malloy: ‘Canucks had a solid draft’
7 years ago
The Vancouver Canucks came to Buffalo, New York for the 2016 NHL Entry Draft and left with six prospects they’re hoping will develop into impactful NHL players.
The reception of those picks hasn’t exactly been hugely positive, as some are suggesting, fairly, that the Canucks draft was, in a word, underwhelming. Overall, though, cautious optimism reigns supreme as most analysts agree the Canucks did alright. Especially with their fifth overall selection, Olli Juolevi. Beyond that, they made some intriguing gambles, betting on many older players with good skill sets, well-rounded games and lower ceilings than some of the available alternatives.
To try and parse fact from fiction and provide the most accurate and well-rounded assessment of the Canucks draft, I sat down with Shane Malloy, who co-hosts Hockey Prospect Radio on the NHL Network on SiriusXM and Aynsley Scott, the producer of that same show. Shane is as respected a voice in the scouting industry as you’ll find and Scott’s knowledge base is right there, too.
Malloy feels as though the totality of the Canucks draft was positive:
I think they addressed their first need, which was getting a stud defensive prospect in the system with Olli Juolevi. In all honesty, you have to build through the backend and they had the opportunity to add Juolevi, who immediately becomes their best defensive prospect by a huge margin. As we saw in the Gudbranson trade, selecting defenceman can be costly.
In regards to Juolevi specifically:
Best assets are his hockey sense and poise under pressure. Upper body strength is something that he will need to work on, but that is something to be expected with an 18 year old defenceman. I would expect him to return to the OHL and work on his power-play acumen, as he only saw about 50% of the time on the first power play unit for London. He will go there and it’s his spot to lose now.
The Canucks took Lockwood 64th overall, and while Malloy warns that his ceiling is low, he adds that there’s a lot to like about his game all the same:
The word that comes to mind for Lockwood’s game is industrious, a swiss army knife player who will likely end up as a bottom six forward. Aggressive on the puck pursuit, he forces defenceman to make decisions with the puck. The comparison to Jannik Hansen is fair, he doesn’t play the same way but does have some of the attributes as the Canucks forward in the respect that he will force the opposition to make plays quickly.
The Canucks took Cole Candella with the 140th overall pick, who rated extremely well using pGPS with 29% going onto being NHL regulars. Malloy feels that there is something there:
Promising two way defenceman that will require development that the Canucks will have to be patient with. Makes a smart first pass and has a good hockey sense. Good defensively, above average offensively. If he makes the NHL, he makes it as an NHL, he will be 5 or 6 defenceman which given where he was taken in the draft is a reasonable expectation.
The Canucks turned their attention back to the WHL, taking Calgary Hitmen forward Jakob Stuckel. Aynsley Scott jumped in to give his thoughts on the winger:
Quick skater, who has good two step quickness. He’s becoming a more a physical player as he becomes more adjusted to the WHL. He missed about 18 months with a torn ACL, which came at a crucial time of his development, which is why he was passed over last year. This also resulted in Stukel always seeming to be behind in conditioning. He would go out there and skate hard for 30 seconds, but then would be exhausted. There may be something here, but we will see next season.
The Canucks used the first of their two seventh-round selections on 2015 Young Stars Tournament invitee, Rodrigo Abols. As a 20-year-old, the Canucks are expecting that Abols will play in the AHL next season — a fact confirmed by Vancouver’s head scout, Judd Brackett. Malloy doesn’t envision an NHL career in the Latvian wingers future:
Basically what you are going to get out of him is an AHL player. If you get anything else out of him, then it’s a bonus. A player who has decent hands and can skate well for his size, but doesn’t use that size.
With their last pick of the day, Vancouver selected overage forward Brett McKenzie of the North Bay Battalion in the OHL. Scott shared his thoughts on the 19-year-old centre:
He is a good skater with good defensive awareness and is a good face-off guy. Not as physical as he could for his size but isn’t afraid of traffic. He does have even hockey sense to create offence at the OHL level. He is a long shot to carve out a professional career.
It became increasingly clearer as the conversation continued that the pick of the Canucks draft litter is Juolevi. The Canucks felt they had a positional need and addressed it with a player that some are arguing is the best defensive prospect in the entire draft. They spent their remaining picks on players with lower upside and a small chance of developing into a depth player in the NHL. That comes with the territory with so few picks as the Canucks had.
The safe assumption is that the Canucks have secured at least one long-term NHL player with their selection of Juolevi. Only time will tell if he has any company.
