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The draft is complete, but questions hound the Canucks ahead of free agency |
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It took awhile, but the 2020 NHL draft is now in the books!
All told, there wasn't a whole lot going on, trade-wise. In the first round, the Flames moved down twice, a total of five spots, and grabbed a couple of extra third-round picks for their efforts. Nice work if you can get it.
The Canucks weren't able to acquire any additional picks. And while there had been lots of talk about Ottawa or New Jersey, with three first-rounders each, possibly trading one of those picks, that didn't happen either.
No one was able to trade into the first round, but the Sens did part with a second-rounder, as well as 20-year-old prospect Jonathan Gruden, when they acquired goaltender Matt Murray from Pittsburgh. There is no contract extension in place yet for Murray, who is an RFA with arbitration rights who made $3.75 million per season on his last contract with the Penguins.
Pittsburgh extended a qualifying offer to Murray on Monday; I assume that travels with him to Ottawa.
Two other deals involving players also went down on Wednesday morning: the Minnesota Wild addressed their lack of depth at centre by acquiring Nick Bonino from the Nashville Predators. Winger Luke Kunin went the other way, with some picks also changing hands.
And the New York Rangers cut ties with Elias Pettersson's old World Juniors linemate, Lias Andersson, who was taken two picks after Petey in 2017. After leaving the Rangers and spending the second half of last season back in Sweden, Andersson will get a fresh start with the Los Angeles Kings after being picked up in exchange for today's 60th pick.
Nothing new to report on Oliver Ekman-Larsson, although general manager Bill Armstrong indicated after the draft that the conversation continues.
The Coyotes were not able to recoup any draft picks, either, and finished up on Wednesday with just four selections — the highest of which was No. 111 Mitchell Miller.
That's a good place to jump to the Canucks' draft picks, right?
As scheduled, they made their five picks on Wednesday.
If you've been around this blog for awhile, you know that I like to save the in-depth looks at the new prospects until the hoopla has died down and I can dedicate some solid time and energy to each. And there are still several other key items I need to touch on tonight, so for now I'll just give you the Coles Notes version:
Round 3 - Pick 82 - defenseman Joni Jurmo from Finland
• a big boy at 6'4" and 190 pounds, Jurmo jumped from No. 43 on NHL Central Scouting's mid-term ranking of European skaters all the way up to No. 20
• he's playing with JYP in Finland's Liiga this season
Round 4 - Pick 113 - winger Jackson Kunz from Shattuck St. Mary's / USHL
• another big boy, he's listed at 6'3" and 209 pounds; he also climbed during the year on the NHL Central Scouting rankings, from No. 113 at mid-term among North American skaters to No. 94 on the final list
• Kunz is a native of Grand Forks, North Dakota, and is committed to his hometown college, the University of North Dakota, for the 2021-22 season
Round 5 - Pick 144 - defenseman Jacob Truscott from the U.S. National Team Development Program
• Truscott is listed at 6'1" and 172 pounds, and was ranked higher than Kunz by Central Scouting. He also rose over the course of last season, from No. 78 at mid-term to 68 in the final rankings
• A native of Port Huron, Michigan, he's committed to the University of Michigan for the 2020-21 season. Says he lives near Tyler Motte and is aware of Michigan associate coach Bill Muckalt's history as a Canucks alumnus
Round 6 - Pick 175 - center Dmitry Zlodeyev from the Dynamo Moscow organization
• Listed at 5'11" and 183 pounds, Zlodeyev's position in the Central Scouting rankings remained steady through the year — No. 33 among European Skaters at mid-term and rising one spot to No. 32 in the final rankings
• A native of Voronezh, Russia, Zlodeyev has been with the Dynamo Moscow program for the last few years. He is getting lots of game action early on this season, with five games played for Dynamo Krasnogorsk in the second-tier men's league, the VHL, and seven additional games in the junior league, the MHL
Round 7 - Pick 191 - defenseman Viktor Persson from Sweden
• Listed at 6'2" and 192 pounds, Persson has come up through the Brynas organization in Sweden. He was unranked by Central Scouting at mid-term, but jumped all the way to No. 44 among European skaters in the final rankings
• Persson is currently playing in Sweden's top U20 league, where he has three goals in his first six games this season. He's set to join the Kamloops Blazers if and when the WHL season gets rolling.
And that's the draft. We'll need to check back on this list in four years or so and see how these kids have made out compared to the group that Judd Brackett collected in his first draft for his new team, the Minnesota Wild.
The Wild had just six picks themselves, but four of them came by No. 65, long before the Canucks got their first word in on Wednesday. I'm hearing great things about Marco Rossi, the Austrian who excelled with the Ottawa 67s last season, who the Wild selected ninth overall.
Other details:
• The Canucks did announce one signing this week, inking Zack MacEwen to a new two-year deal with an average annual value of $825,000 per season. That's less than what his qualifying offer would have been — he was making $925,000 at the NHL level last season — but it's a one-way deal. Also, his salary will be $950,000 in year two — hopefully, when things are closer to normal and the clawbacks for lost revenue won't be quite as onerous, and also setting him up for a better qualifying offer going into his next deal.
• Of course, these days, a big qualifying offer requirement can work against a player who's looking for job security. Once all the lists were submitted by the Wednesday afternoon deadline, a significant list of players around the league hadn't been qualified.
For the Canucks — that meant Troy Stecher, who made $2.325 million last season and had arbitration rights. No qualifying offer doesn't completely slam the door on a possible return, but does give Stecher the opportunity to explore the market and see if he can find a fit somewhere else.
When Stecher's name was swirling before the trade deadline in February, he made it clear that he wanted to stay in Vancouver. I'm glad, at least, that happened for him, and that he was able to play an important role for the Canucks during their time in the bubble this summer.
The other player whose future was in limbo was Jake Virtanen. He did get a qualifying offer, as did six other members of the organization:
Finally — with free agency set to open on Friday, there have been reports that the Canucks have not been able to come to terms with either Tyler Toffoli or Jacob Markstrom — and there hasn't been a peep about Chris Tanev.
The club has made no bones that Markstrom is priority No. 1. And until they know if they can reach a last-minute agreement — and what that'll cost — it's virtually impossible to do any other business that's bigger than a Zack MacEwen deal.
The league-wide buzz around Markstrom is louder than I was expecting it would be at this point. The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers continue to be linked — and have seen a lot of Markstrom's best work first-hand over the last three years. But it's ultimately the player's decision on where he'd like to sign — the same way an RFA has to agree to an offer sheet from a rival club before his current team is forced to decide whether or not to match.
The other wrinkle is that this year, under the new CBA terms, that five-day discussion window before free agency opens has been eliminated. Until Friday morning at 9 a.m. PT, clubs can't hold any kind of direct discussion with players or their representatives. So even though tidbits tend to surface from the insiders, details of offers and plans could be a lot more shadowy this year. Don't necessarily expect to hear announcements of a dozen big long-term deals rolled out at 9:01 on Friday. If Markstrom decides he wants to take more time to weigh the offers that are presented to him or see if he can leverage something to get more out of the Canucks, that could hold up the entire goalie carousel.
And Markstrom's fate probably also impacts Tyler Toffoli, who's now expected to hit the market because the Canucks simply don't have the space to squeeze him in. That's probably good news for everyone who was sick of the Brock Boeser trade rumours — and the Canucks should have more help coming on the wings from within when the new season gets rolling. But again, if Markstrom walks and they make a less expensive choice in goal, perhaps that ends up creating the cap space to keep Toffoli around?
We'll start to get more clarity soon, but don't expect this to all be tied up in a bow by the time you check out early on Friday ahead of Thanksgiving weekend. I suspect, even during the holiday, that we'll need to pay attention.
I think Friday will only mark the beginning of the new world order for flat-cap National Hockey League.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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