And they went up to the T and muffed it with a violent swing to the metal holder.
A clang heard around the hockey world, reverberating with laughter.
The Canucks passed over Cody Glass.
Cody Glass impressed everyone at the NHL pre-season level this year.
But the Las Vegas Knights chose to keep him in the WHL instead of playing him at the NHL level which he showed he was clearly ready for.
Glass is showing he's too good for the WHL and may in fact be an emergency injury call up for the Knights as soon as they can manage it.
Glass has a disgusting 17 points in 9 games.
His team is running away with the WHL, save for the Victoria Royals who are managing to stick with Glass's Portland Winterhawks for now.
Glass is a star, to put it mildly.
The Canucks took...
sigh...
A 150 pound winger from Sweden, Elias Pettersson.
sigh...
Pettersson was put on the wing by his national junior team.
Pettersson is playing wing in Sweden on the second line, averaging 17 minutes a night.
Pettersson is coming off injury...
You know how this goes.
All the signs of a blown draft pick are there for anyone who isn't wearing Canucks Coloured glasses, and there are many who do.
Of course Pettersson defenders will come out of the woodwork and say - "But he's playing with men!"
And they'll gloss over the fact those men aren't very good.
And he's playing on a large ice surface with no hitting.
If the Swedish Elite League was really good then people would send their prospects to Sweden and not the American Hockey League. They would own teams in the Swedish Elite League.
They don't.
Could Pettersson turn into a prospect?
Sure.
Could he turn into a NHL player?
Sure.
After he gains weight, strength, speed.
After he plays in the AHL for a season or two.
After he "earns it" on the 4th line on the Canucks.
By the time Pettersson turns into a player - Glass will be in his 4th season on the top line on a Knights team that is better than the Canucks, already, so it would seem.
In other words Pettersson doesn't have to adjust to a NHL ice surface, he's on one.
He doesn't have to adjust to an NHL game - he's playing it.
Pettersson has miles to go.
First off he has to prove he can dominate at the Swedish Elite League - which he can't and isn't.
So he's probably got another year of Swedish Elite League play.
And then he's got to go to the AHL and learn the NHL game.
And will he survive down there? Playing 82 games ?
Maybe, maybe not.
The point is -
YOU CAN'T BE TAKING RISKS AT THE NUMBER 5 OVERALL DRAFT POSITION.
The fact is Jim Benning has had a hell of a lot of draft success in the late first and early second rounds and Nikita Tryamkin.
Benning is very good at later picks.
Virtanen I love, I'll be frank.
They needed Virtanen, I give that a clear cut win.
But Juolevi and Pettersson were bizarre picks.
There's no other way to say it.
1/3 picks in the Top 6 have turned out.
You can't have 66% of your Top 6 draft picks busting.
You just can't.
Especially when Glass was just sitting there.
He's used to the rain.
He lives on the West Coast.
Sigh...
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