It appears that Canucks will be walking away from 2016 7th round pick Brett McKenzie and Cole Candella

The organization walking away from Jakob Stukel was previously reported.

All three players will be available to be selected in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft and if unselected will become unrestricted free agents.

For Cole Candella, the choice to walk away from the defenceman isn’t suprising given that he was just never able to take that next step forward in his development. Even his trade to the Sudbury Wolves wasn’t able to get him going and now the team that traded him, the Hamilton Bulldogs, meet the Sault St Marie Greyhounds in the OHL finals. Candela ended the 2017-18 campaign with 5 goals and 28 assists in 68 games with the Wolves. Those number produced an underwhelming pGPS:

Brett McKenzie was a player that I could’ve seen being signed but still produced underwhelming numbers in the regular season. He did play extremely well in the playoffs with the Owen Sound Attack and combine that with some projected centre depth issues at the AHL level next season and there was reason to believe that the organization might’ve explored an entry-level contract. Clearly they felt that he hadn’t done enough to warrant a commitment.

With that being said, his limited regular season production suggested extremely long odds and low ceiling for McKenzie:

Given all that information, it isn’t surprising that the organization is walking away from these three prospects.

The Canucks will be getting an influx of prospects joining the professional ranks next season and some players will get left behind. At this moment, the organization has 32 contracts on the books for the 2017-18 season.

With this news today, looking back at the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, it’s not shaking out to well. Olli Juolevi is already signed to an entry-level contract and William Lockwood will be returning to the University of Michigan with hopes of getting back on track after suffering another shoulder injury. After that, the organization has nothing to show for their four other picks. Although they were a 5th, 6th and 2-7th round picks, it’s still not a great sign to have zero players from four picks receive an entry level contract.

The reported direction of this draft was to identify players who had one elite skill at their junior level and then work with them to round out the other aspects of their game. Stukel had the speed, Candella had puck moving abilities and was recovering from a knee injury, and McKenzie was very good in the defensive zone. Unfortunately, all three were unable to round out their games enough to take the step to professional hockey.

Some late round picks to have already seen some NHL action since this draft include Jesper Bratt, Maxim Mamin, and Blake Hillman.

You are always going up against long odds with late round selections but missing on all of these picks is a miss for the prospect pool.