On Monday, five of the top prospects of the 2016 draft class made the rounds at the Stanley Cup Final, chatting with various media outlets.
I found Don Cherry curiously detached in his Coach's Corner segment. On a day when Rogers announced that Cherry has signed on to continue his partnership for another two years, Cherry seemed more excited about the segment that introduced the San Jose Sharks' Black Aces. The interviews with the prospects were rushed, and were handled primarily by Ron MacLean.
This year's group of five was comprised of Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Matthew Tkachuk and Alex Nylander. Maybe Cherry was reluctant to call them "a bunch of beauties" like usual because there was only one Canadian, Dubois, in the bunch?
Click here for what I think is a more informative and entertaining conversation with the kids, as James Duthie puts them through "The Quiz" for TSN.
I'm liking Dubois more and more with each interview and media appearance. I was reticent about him at first because we've often seen players who put up big numbers in the QMJHL have a tougher time jumping to the big leagues than their counterparts from Ontario and even from the Western League. Right now, 2013 first-rounder Anthony Mantha is still struggling to find his footing with the Detroit Red Wings despite scoring 57 goals and 120 points for Val d'Or the year after he was drafted. He turns 22 in September, so he needs to make the jump soon.
Jonathan Drouin was another player from the Q who has been through some growing pains. Drafted third overall in 2013, Drouin finally seems to have broken through to become a valuable NHL regular after a solid playoff run with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Of course, these generalizations certainly don't apply to all players. Drouin's junior teammate Nathan MacKinnon stepped straight into the NHL as an 18-year-old, while Jonathan Huberdeau and Sean Couturier were excellent players that made a quick jump from the class of 2011 and Nikolaj Ehlers looks like a gem from the 2014 draft year.
I'm kicking myself all over again for not having attended the CHL Top Prospects Game here in Vancouver back in January, where Dubois and his teammate Pascal Laberge had three points each in Team Orr's 3-2 win over Team Cherry. Dubois chipped in a goal and two assists.
If you
click here to watch the highlights from that game, you'll see that Dubois figures quite prominently, not just for his scoring plays.
Damien Cox of Sportnet spoke with Dubois on Monday in San Jose. Cox calls the 6'3", 205-pound Dubois "probably the most physically developed of the top players, with a barrel chest and thick legs."
“I was a late bloomer,” said Dubois. “I always had hockey sense. The speed and the strength got there a little later.”
I like the way Dubois carries himself, and I like the amazing growth he has shown in the second half of the 2015-16 season. As you can see on
this chart from TSN, Dubois a big jump in the Central Scouting rankings, from No. 7 at mid-term to No. 1 among North American skaters after making the move to centre. The only other play to trend so positively? Fellow centre Logan Brown, who moved from 14 to 7.
Another player who shows some upward movement on this chart—and who got name-checked a few times by the prospects during yesterday's interviews—is American defenceman Charlie McAvoy of Boston University. Central Scouting has him ranked just below Jakob Chychrun and Olli Juolevi as the draft's top defence prospects, but he seemed to turn some heads last week at the combine. I wonder if we should pay some attention to his name over the next couple of weeks?
NHL Expansion Decision Looms
Today's the day that the NHL's executive committee meets to decide on its formal recommendation regarding upcoming expansion:
The meeting is taking place in New York City, with nine teams represented. Boston's Jeremy Jacobs chairs the committee, with also includes owners from Toronto, Chicago, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Anaheim, Calgary, Washington and Carolina.
Here's what happens now, from Sportsnet's Chris Johnston:
That league has publicly stated that the committee will recommend one of three options:
1.) No expansion
2.) Deferred expansion
3.) Expansion for 2017-18 (one team or two)
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said the NHL’s 30-member Board of Governors will then take that recommendation and vote on it during their next meeting on June 22 in Las Vegas. The board's vote will be league's final ruling.
Twenty-four votes are needed to approve the recommendation.
On Monday, this Tweet created a minor tempest:
While the Hurricanes are hardly a model franchise these days, there seems to be a pretty strong consensus that the league's owners aren't going to turn their backs on the potential $500-million windfall that comes from admitting a new expansion team in Vegas.
That's my guess. I think we'll hear that the recommendation is one-team expansion, in Las Vegas, with the door remaining open for Quebec City to come on board a year or two down the road.
I'm disappointed that there's still no sign that the forces will align for an expansion team in Seattle anytime soon.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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