At the beginning of this week, I let myself get kind of excited about the prospect of a June NHL draft — mostly because that would give us a reason to start going deep on prospect talk, even if the Canucks won't pick in the first two rounds.
When the league held its virtual meeting with the board of governors on Monday, the talk was that they'd need at least four weeks to prepare for a draft and were targeting the first week of June — which made me think an announcement would be imminent.
By Friday, there had been a distinct change in tone from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly:
As I write this on Saturday, June 5 is 27 days away — so I'm assuming that date is now off the table.
A week ago, the league released an announcement about the June draft plan, which some interpreted as an edict that teams would be expected to get on board.
Ironically, the only GM that I've seen vocally speak out against the plan is Steve Yzerman, whose last-place Detroit Red Wings would actually benefit because they'd be guaranteed one of the first two picks based on the idea of returning to the old draft lottery system, which allows for more limited movement than what we've seen in recent years.
“My thought is: Why would you do that? Why do you need to do that?” Yzerman said on
Fox Sports Detroit. “I haven’t heard a good reason why we should do it prior to the end of the season if we do conclude the season over the course of the summer.”
In his new article for the Associated Press,
hockey writer Stephen Whyno also quotes GMs like Kyle Dubas from Toronto and Rob Blake from Los Angeles choosing not to ruffle any feathers.
“We’re just going to try to prepare as though it’s going to happen,” said Dubas. “It’s not going to be normal regardless of what it is, so we’re fine with whatever is decided.”
Blake said the Kings are “quite comfortable with either scenario,” whether the draft goes in June or at a later date.
“We’ll have to work with it, obviously,” he continued. “The one thing we know for sure is nothing will be status quo, so whether it’s prior in June or later, you’re going to have to make the necessary adjustments.”
If everyone was this accommodating, I'd guess the draft plan would be going ahead full steam. I suspect agent Allan Walsh has a more realistic view in this case.
“I have not talked to one GM who likes it, and I talk to almost all of them,” Walsh told Whyno on Thursday.
I'm not surprised by this. When the idea of an early draft first came up, I dismissed it out of hand because I could see how much it would handcuff teams who build their entire roster plan around what they can normally do on draft weekend — starting with the new salary-cap number which is normally announced a few days before, then working backward to figure out how much cap space they'll need, whether contracts need to be moved out to create that cap space, or whether they can take on other teams' contracts as part of trades that can boost their lineup immediately or buy them more stock in the draft.
Given that most drafted players still need to develop before becoming impact players, I don't think GMs draw a line directly between who they're drafting and other roster moves they make — pretty sure most everyone subscribes to the "best player available" strategy these days. But everything is still interconnected, especially in a salary-cap world. I can understand why GMs would find it difficult — and frustrating — to try to put the draft in a bubble and separate it from all those other roster decisions.
The Canucks are absolutely one of the teams that could use more clarity as far as next season's cap situation goes, with key players like impending UFAs Jacob Markstrom, Tyler Toffoli and Chris Tanev and RFAs with arbitration rights like Jake Virtanen and Troy Stecher all up for new deals. But in their case, I don't think unbundling the draft would have a major impact.
As I've said before, I think there's an advantage to the Canucks giving up their first-rounder from the J.T. Miller trade this season, when the whole draft scenario is a cluster-you-know-what. If the league did change course and decide to hold the draft after the 2019-20 regular season was completed, there'd be a very real chance that the Canucks could fall out of a playoff spot, which would bump that pick back to 2021.
I think the Judd Brackett situation is also less messy if the draft is held before June 30, while he's still under contract.
The story got a bit more clarity late in the week, when Satiar Shah from Sportsnet 650 reported that the contract offer that the Canucks made to Brackett earlier this year was for two years, with no raise. Shah says in this clip that Brackett was prepared to accept that, if the sides could reach an agreement on the role he played going forward. That's where the impasse still appears to lie.
Matt Sekeres from TSN1040 outlines where and why that division occurred:
Given Benning's scouting background, it's not surprising to me that he still wants to be hands on. I can also see how that would be wildly frustrating to someone in Brackett's position.
Put yourself in his shoes. If what Sekeres is reporting is true, it sounds like Brackett had a list set up for Day 2 of the draft — and Benning/Weisbrod essentially ignored it, going off their own rankings.
Of course, it takes years to properly assess a draft. But so far, the team's picks from Day 2 are looking reasonably promising. Nils Hoglander was thought to be a steal at No. 40 and Benning's hyping him as being close to NHL-ready at just 19 years old.
Further down the rankings, I've been intrigued by overager Carson Focht out of the WHL and Latvian goaltender Arturs Silovs — and seventh-rounder Aiden Mcdonough had a very solid freshman year at Northeastern after being drafted out of the USHL.
If this really was a Benning/Weisbrod draft, initial impressions are reasonably promising.
Now — it certainly sounds like Brackett is ready to move on, and more power to him. Benning had to make moves himself in order to climb the corporate ladder. He started out as a scout with Buffalo for four years before being promoted to Director of Amateur Scouting with the Sabres. Then, after eight years, he moved on to Boston in 2006 and spent one year as Director of Player Personnel before moving up to Assistant General Manager for seven seasons, then becoming Canucks' GM in 2014.
If the draft is held before June 30, Brackett will still clearly be a member of the Canucks organization, whether he's at the (virtual) draft table or not. Any later, and it gets complicated. I don't know how the legal ramifications would work but even if Brackett has a new gig lined up with another team, I'd expect the league would do everything in its power to keep team staffs structured in their 2019-20 incarnations. That certainly seems to be the plan with rosters if play resumes sometime after July 1, but as Elliotte Friedman mentioned earlier this week, scouts are in a bit of a different boat because they aren't represented by any kind of union or association.
The Brackett story has dominated Canucks chatter over the past few days. My guess is that there's plenty more to come.
As far as actual hockey goes, don't forget that Game 7 of the Canucks/Blackhawks' 2011 series airs Saturday night at 6 p.m. PT on Sportsnet.
In an effort to entice you to watch live, the network is also hosting a
watch party on its YouTube and Facebook pages, where Caroline Cameron, David Amber and Steve Dangle will be joined by guests Michael Buble, Jim Hughson, Dan Murphy, Kevin Bieksa and Chris Higgins. Could be worth checking out.
I'm also going to spend some of this spectacularly sunny Saturday watching the 1987 Canada Cup series that's airing on TSN this weekend — both Games 1 and 2 are on the schedule on Saturday, with Game 3 set to roll on Sunday.
And finally, if you want a peek behind the scenes of how a now-massive media brand like Barstool Sports is tweaking its game plan to keep trying to connect with its audience during Coronatimes, please check out my interview with Paul Bissonnette from Spittin' Chiclets and Barstool CEO Erika Nardini about their new NHL 20 venture, the Barstool Chiclets Cup, plus women's hockey and much more:
Enjoy your weekend, but please keep in mind: the B.C. government is not starting to lift restrictions because it means coronavirus is cured; they're doing it because they're now confident that they have space for you at the hospital if you get sick — and because they're doing their best to try to mitigate the economic damage that's being caused by the pandemic.
Please continue to exercise caution, stay close to home and stay safe!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»