Even as recently as a year ago I might’ve made fun of people for watching the U18’s. Hell, my roommate made fun of me for that exact thing this weekend – mostly because I was passing on NHL playoffs to do it. What a difference a year makes. Especially now that I’ve ingratiated myself to the world of prospects and everything draft related.

Two players that have stuck out to me so far are Dante Fabbro and Tyson Jost of the Penticton Vees in the BCHL. I’d be the first to admit that I placed a keen amount of emphasis on watching them, as I’m not overly familiar with the BCHL or the prospects therein. It just so happened that they were extremely deserving of the attention I was forcing myself to pay them.

Of the two, Jost caught my eye especially. There are the obvious accolades that stick out, like breaking Connor McDavid’s points record with 15 of his own. I wasn’t expecting to watch such a complete player, though. His two-way game is solvent and he sees the ice extremely well. That he wore the ‘C’ for Canada bodes well for his leadership qualities, too.

That’s not to take anything away from Fabbro, though, who had an excellent tournament in his own right. Great puck-moving defenceman. Can’t wait to see him playing at the NCAA level, where we’ll get a better idea of his true talent, due to the higher level of competition.

When I last checked the Canucks Army poll, the Florida Panthers were in the lead with 39% of the vote, as the team you had all moved on to cheering for in the playoffs. I can’t really blame you. So, of course, I feel for you in the wake of their loss to the New York Islanders last night.

Will be interesting to see where this franchise goes next season. Two of their key contributors, Roberto Luongo and Jaromir Jagr, are getting seriously long in the tooth. Which says nothing of their 39-year-old captain, Willie Mitchell. 

Clearly this is a team that thinks they can win now. They gave up almost every mid-round pick up at the trade deadline, which is as good a sign as any that they felt that way. Can’t help but wonder if this will impact their approach to the off-season. The Panthers have cap space to spare and owners with relatively deep pockets. But they’re still a budget team. Are they big spenders in free agency? Time will tell.

Two young and budding stars in Strome and Nichushkin were benched in favour of much less glamorous options this Sunday. More than anything, I think even the most progressive among the coaching ranks is still suspect to thinking that if young players aren’t scoring, they aren’t contributing. At least players like Steve Bernier or Travis Moen can hit and kill penalties, and so on.

I see opportunity knocking if I’m the general manager of an opposing franchise. The Stars already dangled Nichushkin in trade discussions this season and I can’t imagine that Strome is happy with how things are going in New York. 

If the Kings and Lucic want to sort out a new contract, it’s not going to be easy. As per the article linked to in that tweet, if the Kings were to sign Lucic at $5-million (which isn’t going to happen) that would leave them with just $3.5-million to address the rest of their lineup and some gaping holes on the blue line.

Which is to say that the Kings might not be able to afford Lucic. And if they can afford Lucic, it will likely be at the expense of a player like Marian Gaborik or Dustin Brown. Both those players come with pretty onerous contracts relative to their age and what they can bring to a lineup. If you can get the Kings to throw in a player like Adrian Kempe, it might be worth the trouble.

Really, though, I’m just hoping the Kings save the Canucks from themselves.