After Friday's fireworks, the Vancouver Canucks had a comparably peaceful day at the draft on Saturday. Just one trade and five new players acquired through the draft.
To me, the most interesting move was Jim Benning's pickup of Linden Vey in exchange for the 50th pick—the one that was acquired from Tampa Bay on Friday in the Jason Garrison deal. In essence, Garrison has been flipped for a young center who can play right away.
Vey's a 22-year-old who—you guessed it—played for the Medicine Hat Tigers. He's listed as a right wing, but has been playing center in the Los Angeles Kings organization. In fact, he was the pivot between young guns Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli on the line that made so much noise for the Manchester Monarchs, so that bodes well.
Vey played his first 18 NHL games for the Kings this season, but was caught in a logjam behind the team's established centers. From the Kings' point of view, something had to be done because Vey would have been exposed to waivers next fall if he was sent back down to the farm. Lisa Dillman of the
Los Angeles Times explains
in this article.
For the Canucks, that means that Vey will need to find a place with the big club at training camp. That also means that, barring further moves, the team is set at center with Henrik Sedin, Nick Bonino, Vey and Brad Richardson. If I'm Brendan Gaunce or Bo Horvat, my chances of making the team just got a whole lot tougher. It looks like both these first-year pros will start their seasons in Utica.
Vey didn't play in any of the Kings' playoff games but was with the team for the Stanley Cup run and participated in the parade and rally. That's a nice bit of intangible winning spirit that he'll bring along with him.
For the record, Dillman is touting Vey as a character guy:
As for the Canucks' drafted players on Saturday:
36. Thatcher Demko (G) - The top-ranked goalie in the draft is drawing comparisons to Cory Schneider. He's a headed to Boston College, but is a California kid who says he's "beyond excited" to come to the Canucks.
Demko will most likely need surgery on both his hips, but Jason Botchford
is reporting that this isn't too big of a deal, and that the operations will likely be at least a year away.
66. Nikita Tryamkin (D) - OK, Jim Benning will draft Europeans. In fact, he's drafted the Canucks' first Russian player since Ilya Kablukov in 2007. Tryamkin is a giant 19-year-old—currently listed at 6'7" and 228 pounds. One could assume that the goal with this pick is to unearth a player who has a chance to become the next Zdeno Chara. We also need to remember how long it took Chara to evolve into the top-notch player that he is today.
I tend to forget that Chara spent four seasons with the Islanders before arriving in Ottawa, when he started to build his reputation. By age 25, he was starting to get some consideration as a Norris Trophy candidate and he became a finalist for the first time the following season, in 2003-04. Even with that, Chara became available for Boston to sign as a free agent in the summer of 2006 because Ottawa elected to open the wallet and re-sign Wade Redden instead.
Tryamkin has two more years on his current KHL contract with Yekaterinburg. He's the kind of player who might not be able to properly earn his "boom" or "bust" stamp for the better part of a decade.
Info gets a little more sparse for the last three selections:
126. Gustav Forsling (D) - Skilled Swedish defenseman with upside.
156. Kyle Pettit (C) - A big body at 6'4" who's playing with Canucks' free agent signing Dane Fox and 2015 wunderkind Connor MacDavid on the Erie Otters. Pettit missed 15 games last season with a shoulder injury and sounds like he has some developing to do. As a sixth-round pick, he'll be considered a steal if he pans out.
186. Mackenze Stewart (D) - Benning finished out his day with one last WHL selection, Mackenze Stewart of the Prince Albert Raiders. He's listed at 6'5" and 237 on the Raiders' website: by this point, we're definitely seeing a pattern.
So tough to know with these big young players how their skill levels will develop over the next few years but once again, Jim Benning appears to be sticking pretty close to his stated vision for the team, which needs to get "heavier" in the tough Pacific Division.
On balance, I like the fact that Benning has managed to take a two-pronged approach to the Canucks' rebuild. As expected, he's finding ways to bring in NHL players that can help the team right away, while also re-stocking the cupboard with prospects.
The question remains: will the Canucks have enough skill in their lineup in 2014-15 to score some goals? For the moment, it looks like that responsibility will fall on Nick Bonino and the guys who couldn't get it done last year: the twins, Burrows, Higgins, Hansen, maybe Jensen and the defense.
I'd say we're still a few steps away from the ideal lineup to take us back to respectability in October.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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