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Hoglander gets some NHL Awards votes and more Van/TB/Mtl draft analysis |
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News-wise, things continue to be pretty quiet on the Canucks front.
The team has now officially announced its partnership agreement with the City of Abbotsford for its AHL franchise, and confirmed that Ryan Johnson is back for a fifth season as the team's general manager.
Also, the big five NHL Awards were handed out in a half-hour telecast on Tuesday. And while i'm not *surprised* that Adam Fox won the Norris, it is mind-blowing that he did it in just his second NHL season. And after finishing fourth in Calder voting last year, behind Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes and Dominik Kubalik.
But don't forget — Fox spent his senior year at Harvard as Jack Rathbone's defense partner. Fox's desire to play out his four years of NCAA eligibility so that he could sign as a free agent with the Rangers led to what I'm sure was a tremendous learning experience for Rathbone, the young Vancouver blueliner who showed well in his brief NHL audition at the end of last season.
Over at the Calder Trophy voting, it was also no surprise that Kirill Kaprisov dominated the category. A solid showing for Nils Hoglander, who finished eighth.
Hoglander also slotted in as first runner-up on the 2021 All-Rookie Team.
On the ice, I'm hoping the Montreal Canadiens can channel the same tenacity on Wednesday that allowed them to overcome a tough first game against Vegas in the semifinal, and bring some intrigue to this Stanley Cup Final.
The Tampa Bay Lightning opened the series with a dominant and nasty game on Monday. I couldn't help but be impressed. And how ruthless was Jon Cooper when his team got a 5-on-3 late in the third period? With the Lightning already up 4-1, he put five forwards on the ice! They didn't score until it was 5-on-4, and after Victor Hedman had come on, but that late goal snapped Montreal's perfect 13-game penalty-killing streak — something they'd been very proud of.
Key Montreal penalty killer Joel Armia is expected to be back in the lineup for Game 2 after a brief stint on the Covid protocol list caused his arrival in Tampa to be delayed. And the Lightning's Alex Killorn, who is fourth in playoff scoring and has been a beast through this entire postseason, is out for Game 2 after blocking a shot off his ankle late in Monday's game.
But after appearing to suffer an injury late in the semifinal against the New York Islanders, Nikita Kucherov was on fire in Game 1, with a three-point night and 18:54 of ice time.
He's now up to 30 points in 19 playoff games this year, or 1.58 points per game. Last season, with the benefit of the extra games from the round robin, he finished first in playoff scoring with 34 points in 25 games (1.38 points per game).
When he won the regular-season scoring title in 2018-19, his 128 points worked out to 1.56 points per game, so he's right back in that territory.
On that note, back to this week's thought exercise — comparing the Canucks' drafts from 2016 and 2017 to those of the Lightning and the Canadiens.
2016
This, of course, was the dark draft for the Canucks.
Jim Benning gave up Vancouver's second and fourth-round picks in this draft in the Erik Gudbranson trade, receiving a fifth back in return. The Canucks' own fifth had also been dealt away to Montreal, as part of the trade that sent Zack Kassian to Montreal in exchange for Brandon Prust.
Benning also had an extra seventh-rounder as the final piece of the trade that sent Eddie Lack to Carolina in 2015.
So far, the Canucks have gotten 25 NHL games out of Benning's six picks from 2016. Olli Juolevi, at fifth overall, has played 23 of those games. William Lockwood, selected at No. 64, has played two.
I liked what little we saw of Lockwood this season, and I think he could be a useful bottom-six player going forward. And I'm not as low on Juolevi was a lot of people. After everything he has been through with his injuries, he has just turned 23. There's still time for him to evolve into an everyday NHLer.
Of the other picks: Cole Candella spent last season in the ECHL, Jakob Stukel was in the AHL with the Bakersfield Condors, Rodrigo Abols played in Sweden and Brett McKenzie did not play.
Montreal: The Canadiens also had six picks in the 2016 draft.
At No. 9, four picks after Juolevi, they selected Mikhail Sergachev. He's a month younger than Juolevi — just turned 23 earlier this week, on June 25. But he already has 154 points in 284 regular-season games, plus 65 games (and counting) of playoff experience.
Sergachev played just four games for the Habs before he was traded to Montreal in exchange for Jonathan Drouin during the 2017 offseason. Drouin has been away from the Canadiens since late April, on a personal leave of absence.
One other player from Montreal's 2016 draft class has played NHL games. Drafted in the fourth round at No. 11, undersized defenseman Victor Mete logged 185 games for the Canadiens but spent a good chunk of last season as a healthy scratch before he was finally put on waivers and claimed by Ottawa in late April.
Tampa Bay: The Lightning were rich with picks in 2016, but ended up using their top ones as currency. With 10 selections in total, they took center Brett Howden at No. 27 and defenseman Libor Hajek at No. 37. At the 2018 trade deadline, they flipped both players, along with Vladislav Namestnikov and another first-round pick, to the New York Rangers, acquiring Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller in return.
Of course, Miller ended up turning back into a first and a third when he was dealt to the Canucks in 2019. And that first turned into Blake Coleman. He and McDonagh have both played big roles in the Lightning's current playoff successes.
Just one other player from the Lightning's 2016 draft class has played NHL games: Ross Colton. He seemingly showed up out of the blue in the playoffs, so I've been wondering where he came from. Now I have my answer.
Drafted 100th overall in the fourth round, Colton's a New Jersey native who was selected out of the USHL, then played at the University of Vermont for two years. After that, he spent two years in AHL Syracuse before getting his shot this season as an inexpensive fourth-liner.
Averaging just over 10 minutes a game, Colton has been playing on the wing with Tyler Johnson and Pat Maroon. Listed as a center, he's chipping in on draws and doing a good job, with a 52.2% success rate, and has five points in 19 playoff games to go along with his nine goals in 30 regular-season games with Tampa Bay this season.
Colton turns 25 in September; the definition of a late bloomer!
2017
From the outhouse to the penthouse. The Canucks had eight picks in the 2017 draft, and kicked things off with a gamble that hit big when they took Elias Pettersson at No. 5.
Pettersson's currently the highest-scoring player from the 2017 draft, with 153 points in 165 NHL games, and won the 2019 Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
The Canucks' top five picks from the 2017 draft have now all played NHL games. It's single-digits only for the four who aren't Petey, though: eight games for Jack Rathbone (three points), seven for Kole Lind and one for Jonah Gadjovich (no points, but Gajovich did get 17 minutes in penalties), and two for Mikey DiPietro, who has a bright future as Vancouver's goalie-in-waiting and should be a lot of fun to watch in Abbotsford next season.
Montreal: The Canadiens had seven picks in the 2017 draft. Three have played NHL games so far.
There were high hopes for first-rounder Ryan Poehling, who got Habs' fans hearts racing when he scored a hat trick in his first career NHL game near the end of the 2018-19 season. Poehling played 27 games the following season, but put up just two points. This year, he spent most of the season with the Laval Rocket, with a couple of brief call-ups to Montreal's taxi squad.
It's a similar story for defenseman Cale Fleury, who played 41 games in the 2019-20 season but was also back in Laval and on the taxi squad this season. He was selected in the third round, 87th overall.
The Canadiens also picked up a nice goalie-in-waiting in this draft. Cayden Primeau was drafted in the seventh round, but had two very good seasons at Northeastern before turning pro ahead of the 2019-20 season. Primeau has played six NHL games so far, with a 2-3-1 record.
Tampa Bay: Ravaged by injuries, the Tampa Bay Lightning missed the playoffs in 2017, landing them the 14th pick in the draft. They selected defenseman Cal Foote, before drafting his brother Nolan, a forward, two years later.
Foote is being brought along slowly. After two full seasons in the AHL he played his first 21 NHL games this season, picking up three points. He has not appeared in any playoff games.
Of the Lightning's six picks in 2017, just one other has logged any NHL games. Forward Alexander Volkov was selected at No. 48 and made his Lightning debut last season, even getting into one playoff game in the bubble. But after five points in 19 regular-seaon games this year, Julien BriseBois dealt Volkov to the Anaheim Ducks at the 2021 trade deadline in exchange for Antoine Morand and a 2023 seventh-rounder.
Volkov's production picked up in Anaheim, where he had eight points in 18 games. Morand, a center, is a QMJHL graduate and was also a second-rounder in 2017. He has now completed his second NHL season.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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