Canucks trading first-round draft pick again is a scary thought

God help us all if Patrik Allvin trades the Vancouver Canucks’ 11th overall pick in next month’s NHL Draft for a market-value third-line centre.

That’s the concern amongst Canucks fans that have watched two successive management groups trade out three first-round picks and four second-round picks over a five-draft span.

My own personal fear is they’ll step to the podium with a slavish attachment to “best player available” and take another small, left-shooting winger.

Because the needs at centre and on defence are massive (bigger still for right-shooters at those spots) and the necessity of building a prospect pipeline, not just a garden hose, challenges this Allvin-led management team as much as the one led by former GM Jim Benning.

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It’s time to get some youth and cheap labour in the system, even if the player selected at 11th overall won’t help the NHL club next year.

Alas, the Canucks’ marching orders are win-now and immediate gratification and so the possibility of a trade always exists.

If only they had lost a bunch of games down the stretch, we’d be talking about a top-10 selection, perhaps a player closer to the NHL, and even more pressure not to trade the pick.

But that’s not how the Canucks roll.

They’re in the mushy middle. For now — and unless they change philosophies — for some time yet.