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Pronman: Canucks’ prospect pipeline ranks 15th strongest in hockey
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Thomas Drance
Aug 11, 2015, 11:35 EDTUpdated:
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Photo Credit: Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
The risk of pursuing a parallel rebuild, of the sort that the Vancouver Canucks’ new management team has explicitly embarked on, is that in attempting to have it both ways – competing for a playoff spot annually, while also stockpiling future assets – you can end up stuck in mediocrity. That’s the sad reality of a league with a salary cap and a draft lottery system. 
When it comes to being mediocre though, the Vancouver Canucks excel. So it’s oddly appropriate that in ESPN prospect guru Corey Pronman’s latest organizational rankings ($$) the Canucks check in at 15th overall among the NHL’s 30 clubs. Essentially Vancouver’s system is precisely average.
Here’s how Pronman explains Vancouver’s organizational ranking, and why the club fell six spots in his rankings and out of the top-10 over the past 12 months:
There was some up and down for the Canucks system this season. Sixth overall pick Jake Virtanen did not have a great season (though he remains a top prospect), and neither did top pick Hunter Shinkaruk. On the plus side, Cole Cassels, Thatcher Demko and Jared McCann performed well. Top prospect Bo Horvat graduating, plus no prospect taking a big step forward (while former top picks Nicklas Jensen and Brendan Gaunce stagnated) led to a notable decline in the system ranking.
(Note: I’m probably rubbing up against the limits of what I can ethically pull out from behind ESPN’s paywall, so I’ll take this time to highly recommend their ‘ESPN Insider’ service. If you’re a hockey fan it’s well worth it for Pronman’s prospect analysis and Craig Custance’s super informative blog, and I personally read a tonne of their premium baseball and basketball content too.)
Pronman has consistently been really high on Virtanen, largely because of the physical wingers dazzling physical tools and high-end skating ability, and it seems likely that Vancouver’s top pick from the 2013 NHL Entry draft will retain a marquee slot on Pronman’s top-100 (I’d guess at the fringes of the top-25). McCann and Cassels also got name-checked, so I’d think they’ll probably make the bottom half of the list also.
Meanwhile Demko was Pronman’s top goaltending prospect ahead of the 2013 NHL Draft, and will probably check in on his top-10 list of goaltending prospects later this week.
Other than those four names, I’d think the rest of Vancouver’s prospects will check in on the team’s top-10 list, but nowhere else. 
With Virtanen likely to get every opportunity to make the Canucks roster out of training camp it’s possible that Vancouver’s two most recent top-10 picks will graduate from the system in short order. And the Canucks will probably be too good to net a top-5 pick at the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, so there’s probably no incoming elite prospects set to replace Virtanen and Horvat (who has already graduated) on the immediate horizon. 
This means that unless a prospect like Hunter Shinkaruk promptly finds his way, or unless some of the club’s late-round picks hit, we might reasonably expect the Canucks to fall further down this list next year. 
This is why the ‘on the fly’-type rebuild is such a dangerous proposition. Unless you’re absolutely nails at the draft table (and even if you are) it’s nigh impossible to out-accumulate the teams that legitimately suck. 

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