Welcome Matt: Keep an eye on what Yzerman does with two Canucks draft picks

The Vancouver Canucks should emerge with a victory after the opening round of the NHL draft Wednesday.

Most teams with first-round picks do, and the Canucks select 11th overall.

It’ll be hard to screw this up, at least in the immediate aftermath. If we do have to account for an Olli Juolevi-type bust, it’ll be years down the road.

Some of us, though, will be watching picks 17 and 43 with interest. Those are the two selections the Canucks sent to Detroit in the Filip Hronek trade, the 17th via the New York Islanders in the Bo Horvat deal.

That was the latest attempt by Canucks management to jumpstart competitiveness, robbing the future to help the present.

The Red Wings, meanwhile, have turned into draft maestros under general manager Steve Yzerman, and seem intent on building a team the old-fashioned way, through drafting and development.

Defenceman Moritz Seider was considered by some a reach at sixth overall in 2019. He won the Calder Trophy as the league’s best rookie last season.

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2020 first-rounder Lucas Raymond already has 40 NHL goals, and defenceman Simon Edvinsson, the sixth pick in 2021, played nine games last season and scored two goals.

That Yzerman parted with Hronek was a big surprise — almost as much as the Canucks acquiring him — and marked a stark difference in team-building between the Wings and Canucks.

Observers watching that team determined that Yzerman concluded a) his team wasn’t close enough to a Cup in the tough Eastern Conference to start pledging rich contract extensions; and b) Hronek wasn’t worth what he could command, particularly in an organization with other good young defencemen.

The contrast is ominous for Canucks fans given Yzerman built that Tampa Bay Lightning team that won consecutive Cups and played in three straight finals.

So what he does with those two Canucks picks, and how they play out in the long-term alongside the fortunes of both franchises, will have us looking back on this draft for years.

For the Canucks, scoring a win with the 11th overall pick is just one half of the equation. They need Hronek to be a win, too.