Draft-lottery disappointment marks Canucks’ year
Hockey club left on the outside looking in as Leafs, Jets grab generational type players
It’s a year that featured a sizable trade (Erik Gudbranson for Jared McCann) and a significant free-agent signing (Loui Eriksson) for the Vancouver Canucks. It also included more downs than ups on the ice, put the coach on the hot seat and left plenty of high-priced seats unused on many nights at Rogers Arena.
However, the emergence of Bo Horvat as an offensive leader, Troy Stecher as a sparkplug on defence and the intriguing airlift of Russian giant Nikita Tryamkin stand as a few of the highlights for the hockey team as it muddles through its effort to return to respectability.
All of those were key storylines for the Canucks over the past 12 months, but there is no question the biggest story of 2016 was the team tumbling two spots in the NHL draft lottery. No one moment summed up the kind of disappointing year it has been for the Canucks — and no other noteworthy event had a greater impact on the club’s short- and long-term direction.
As the league revealed its draft order on April 30, the Canucks had such high hopes of moving up to land one of the prize prospects available in a top-heavy draft. While dropping down always loomed as a possibility, the Canucks believed they’d had their share of losses during the second half of the 201516 season and didn’t want to consider the idea that they’d suffer another setback as the ping-pong balls revealed the draft order. Holding the third-best odds in the lottery after an agonizing 75-point season, landing any one of the top three spots would have represented a victory for the hockey club and nabbing either of the top two picks would likely have been franchise altering.
Instead, the fickle hand of fate delivered a crushing blow to the Canucks, leaving the organization and its fan base reeling. Not only did they not maintain their spot in the standing, they dropped two places and, amid such lofty expectations, were left with the underwhelming fifth overall pick in June’s annual cattle call of the next wave of NHL talent.
While it’ll be years before any sort of verdict can be rendered on the selection of defenceman Olli Juolevi — who may very well turn out to be a fixture on the Canucks’ blue line for a decade — it’s damn near impossible to watch the highlights on a nightly basis and not see what might have been. The top two selections, Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine, are absolutely crushing it in the NHL already, while Juolevi may be ready to make the jump next season, but is years away from being any kind of impact player.
Lacking elite offensive talent among their prospect group, the Canucks needed to land one of the top picks in a special draft. They needed that offensive force who could step into the lineup and contribute now, while being a huge part of the team’s plan to shift the scoring burden off the 36-yearold shoulders of Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
It was there for the Canucks. So tantalizingly close they could envision Matthews or Laine wearing the orca and single-handedly bringing the masses back to the rink.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone. The dream was dead.
And nothing that happened in the previous four months or the eight months that followed came anywhere close to matching the drama and disappointment of the draft lottery.
Nothing else compared as the Canucks’ story of 2016.
Now, as the calendar changes and the new year begins, it’ll be worth watching to see if the Canucks fare any better in the 2017 draft lottery. As it stands now, it certainly appears the team will be in a similar position when the next draft order is determined. And for the sake of the franchise, the biggest story of the next 12 months can’t be a repeat of the most newsworthy happening of the year that is nearing its end.