Pettersson is only remaining Canucks pick left from 2016 and 2017 drafts

Good thing the Vancouver Canucks got Elias Pettersson at the 2017 NHL Draft.

Because other than him, they don’t have much to show for that draft, or the one in 2016 for that matter.

The 2016 draft was famously a poor one for the Canucks, who drafted Olli Juolevi fifth overall, passing on Matthew Tkachuk, not to mention a number of other good defencemen that were picked after him.

Despite being in the early stages of a rebuild, the Canucks didn’t have a second-round pick that year because Jim Benning traded it as part of the Erik Gudbranson trade. It may have cost them Alex DeBrincat, who the team had rumoured interest in.

The only player the Canucks drafted in 2016 currently in the NHL is Will Lockwood, who was traded away in February. Juolevi left for Europe earlier this month after failing to make the Arizona Coyotes on a PTO, while Cole Candella (5th round), Jakob Stukel (6th round), Rodrigo Abols (7th round), and Brett McKenzie (7th round) have not played an NHL game.

The 2017 draft was supposed to be different. The Canucks had five picks in the first 100, including two second rounders. And at various points, there was a lot of optimism about many of the players they selected.

Vancouver nailed their fifth overall selection, taking Pettersson, rather than Cody Glass. No hindsight needed there.

Day 2 was a different story.

Kole Lind just narrowly missed being a first-round pick, with the Canucks snapping him up with the second pick of the second round. “Why isn’t anyone taking Kole Lind?” Benning famously asked before taking the winger.

The Kole Lind era in Vancouver is all but over but we’ll always have this gem of a video.

“Why isn’t anyone taking Kole Lind?” The #SeaKraken just did. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/SCnEyPAFw9

— Grady Sas (@GradySas) July 21, 2021

The Canucks lost Lind to the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 expansion draft. Now 25 years old, Lind has played just 30 NHL games in his career, scoring two goals and eight assists. He didn’t see NHL ice at all last season, though Lind did manage to score 62 points (30-32-62) in 72 AHL games.

Gritty winger Jonah Gadjovich was Vancouver’s second pick of the second round (55th overall). The 25-year-old has appeared in 79 NHL games in his career, but has just four goals. He was lost on waivers to the San Jose Sharks two years ago, and signed a one-year contract in free agency with Florida earlier this week.

After Gadjovich came Michael DiPietro, a Memorial Cup winning goaltender, picked by the Canucks in the third round. DiPietro showed plenty of promise in junior, starring for Team Canada at the World Juniors. But he has just three NHL games under his belt, now at the age of 24. DiPietro was traded to the Boston Bruins last year, along with prospect Jonathan Myrenberg, for Jack Studnicka. The young netminder proceeded to play most of last season in the ECHL.

Jack Rathbone (4th round) was the latest member of the 2017 class to leave town, when the Canucks traded him for Mark Friedman earlier this week. He has 28 NHL games under his belt.

The last three picks by the Canucks in 2017 — Kristoffer Gunnarsson (5th round), Petrus Palmu (6th round), and Matt Brassard (7th round) — have never played an NHL game. Gunnarsson never left Sweden, while Palmu’s AHL career ended after just 12 games. Brassard is currently in the ECHL.

Some prospect experts will argue that development, not drafting, was the problem with the 2017 class. It’s impossible to prove, though DiPietro essentially lost a year of hockey during the pandemic, as he toiled on the Canucks’ taxi squad in 2021. There were also questions regarding how Lind, Gadjovich, and Palmu were brought along in Utica.

Regardless of who or what was to blame, the 2017 draft class in particular has to be viewed as a disappointment, after Pettersson. Not only are none of the picks left in the organization beyond the first round, with all due respect to Friedman and Studnicka, they have little to show for them.

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