Canucks could land top defence prospect with newly acquired draft pick

The return in the Bo Horvat trade will largely be graded over time by whatever comes from the first round draft pick the Vancouver Canucks acquired.

And that depends largely on where they pick and and when, so many variables.

Which is why Vancouver should be hoping to thread the needle and make their pick this season.

Hope the Islanders aren’t great, but hope they aren’t bad either.

13th would be the highest guaranteed pick for the Canucks this season.

But to be fair, they should be pretty darn happy with a 14, 15, or 16th draft pick too.

It’s normally only a decent spot to draft, but in a draft as deep as this one, the mid teens are far more valuable than usual.

With the Canucks possibly getting to pick twice inside the the top 15 or 20, they may get a chance to scratch a couple of organizational itches, or scratch their biggest one twice.

There are many prospect rankings out there, many a way to mock the draft up.

So it’s not entirely scientific right now, but there does seem to be a pattern when you look at the bulk of these lists. Defencemen are not at the top. That would be the key position of need for the Canucks, and if they are able to get a mid teens pick, there’s a very realistic scenario where the Canucks could be picking the top 1 or 2 defencemen in the entire draft.

TSN’s Craig Button, for instance, who does his own scouting and merely ranks his opinions of the player, has only one defenseman in the top 14.. two in the top 19… and five in the top 29.

His colleague Bob McKenzie constructs rankings based on industry consensus, talking to scouts etc.

His picture is even more stark, with his his first defenceman arriving in the 17th slot: only two in the top 23, and only five in the first round, period.

Many people have Axel Sandin Pellikka as the first chosen, a right shot blue liner splitting time in the junior and top senior level of Swedish hockey.

He’s not big at 5-11, but he’s a slick offensive player.

Consensus shifts about who goes next, but Russian Mikhail Gulyayev is generally in the mix to be the second or third, a similar kind of player to Pellikka, similar size, but a lefthander.

For more size and true defence, there’s the 6 foot 2 Austrian RHD David Reinbacher, who is playing in Switzerland right now, and acquitting himself quite well.

He’s filled out already, and could be close to withstanding the rigours of the NHL.

The top Canadian option could very well come from BC in Richmond’s own Lukas Dragicevic: a bigger, 6-2, right shot, who also piles up the points with 55 in just 44 games so far this season with the Tri-City Americans.

A local defensive saviour for the Canucks would certainly hit the right spot for this team right now.

The Islanders have cap space going forward and they have underachieved this year, so they can definitely get better next season. Expecting good fortune there or even a lottery win, is putting a too much weight on luck for 2024.

Far more probable, is the Islanders finishing around where they are right now, and the Canucks picking this season. It may not be a bumper crop, but there will be a good defenceman chosen at the ’23 draft. The Canucks need to make sure that’s them.

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