Prospects update !!

It's important to keep things in perspective and not get the panties in a bunch as stat nerds and goofs try to inflate their importance through "prospects" information and fluff pieces showing goals in beer leagues as progress.

Keep in mind - the Swedish Elite League or Finnish League is played on a large ice surface - there's no fighting, no physical contact whatsoever, with a low-level of overall talent. It is not comparable to the AHL. It's possibly a step between the ECHL and AHL.

First and foremost - these are prospects.

Secondly - these aren't trained reporters. These are Canuck fans with zero idea of how hockey works or how it's played. So you can't take any of their reports as anything other than hopes and wishes.

First up

Cole Lind - Kelowna Rockets
Lind has a great supporting cast and has put up 9 goals 15 assists and is plus 9 in 15 games.
He's playing with a Philly prospect who is 25 pounds heavier and is tied in goals in 3 less games.
Lind is a petite Right Winger who showed in a pre-season game that the NHL game is going to be tough for him, especially in Vancouver where there is no need for right wingers in the foreseeable future. His ability to process the game at the NHL level is going to be a challenge.

Elias Pettersson - Vaxjo, Swedish League.
Pettersson has goals in 3 of 13 games. He has 5 including 1 penalty shot goal and the rest on the Power Play.
He is a slight person at 6'2" and 150 pounds and is 19 years old. His skating is suspect for the NHL level. His size is going to be a constant issue.
And he's a left winger. Which is a problem because the Canucks were hoping he was a center.
He will have massive problems adapting to the NHL size ice surface and physical contact and speed.
Many of the pretty moves he makes in Sweden will get him killed in the NHL.
He plays in a league where there is no physical contact. Asking a young man to put on 50 pounds and play centre ice at the NHL level is wishful thinking at best.
Canucks have the Swedish MVP on their roster in Rodin. Yeah. That was the Swedish Elite League MVP.
Some have compared Pettersson to Henrik Zetterberg - without Niklas Lidstrom, which means at the very best you can hope for a guy who needs Niklas Lidstrom.

Adam Gaudette - NCAA, Northeastern University

Gaudette, while small, is 20 pounds heavier than Pettersson and is an actual centre.
He has 13 points in 7 games.
However, there is a problem.
With Sutter, Gaunce, Horvat, Granlund and Sam Gagner signed for next year and Burmistrov showing he could actually be their Number One center (there's no one else) - why would Gaudette bother showing up to Vancouver's camp in September.
Gaudette will not sign with Vancouver, and will instead likely choose to play one more year at Northeastern and take his pick of teams in 2019 and avoid a year of Utica, AHL, or maybe 2 years of Utica, AHL.
And the Canucks could come out of left-field and ask the Sedins to play one more year. It is their MO.
The New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins will come out HARD for this genuine prospect.
My guess is he's Ranger bound.

Jonah Gadjovich - selected 55th overall in 2017
The potential of Gadjovich was tantalizing, no question.
However...
He has injury problems already - shoulders.
And for a "rugged" forward to already be in the medical bay with bad shoulders... it doesn't bode well for his future.
It is possible he could develop in the AHL for a couple of years and overcome the injuries.
Unfortunately, that's not usually how it goes. By then his hockey development will be stagnated.
He's a longshot at this point and due to his skating problems, he was a longshot to begin with.

Michael Dipietro - goalie - 64th overall in 2017
A petite goalie in an era of big goalies.
Baffling draft pick since they have Thatcher Demko.
AHL bound ?

Olli Juolevi - Canucks 5th overall pick 2016.
Was embarrassingly bad at Canucks training camp, in a year where there are literally no defensemen on the NHL roster and a spot was delivered to him. He declined it.
He's small. Slow. Offensively challenged.
It appears to be a blown draft pick at this point. Shit happens.
He may figure it out playing in the Finnish Liiga League - Unfortunately Anton Rodin also figured it out in the Swedish Elite League - and that is staying in Finland might be a good career move for Juolevi. Maybe 2-3 years in the AHL might salvage his career... Or he could find a wife in Finland, have kids, play there, it's a good job, move on in life. Maybe try the NHL at 28.
Probably best for Canuck fans to let it go.

Nikita Tryamkin - KHL
-- sigh --
56 pims in 26 games. Player of the Month in October for the KHL.
Without question the best Canucks prospect either on the current NHL roster, including Horvat and Boeser, and anything in the draft system.
-- sigh --
It's possible he could return in 2019 but they're going to have to
SHOW HIM THE MONEY !!!!
Getting into a financial spat with a player you desperately need is so ridiculously stupid it's hard to comprehend. They just needed to open the cheque book and say "thank you".
That was not the time to play management.

And that's it.

2014 and 2015 draft picks were tremendous.
2016 was a disaster.
2017 see 2016.

Whoever was drafting in 2014 and 2015 - they may wish to get him back (Ron Delorme).

The 2016 and 2017 drafts are so bad at this point it's hard to comprehend.

But, you'd better sit down, it's quite conceivable that they have NO NHL players from the 2016 and 2017 drafts.

And that's quite an accomplishment.

Now, Pettersson may overcome his size, speed, ice surface, physicality difference, move to centre...
Oh boy.
Good God.
He'll get a shot at some point in the NHL.

But at this point the decision to draft Pettersson over Cody Glass, who has 23 points in 14 games and is NHL ready (size and grit included)...

Oh good grief.

I feel badly for the Vancouver Canucks fans. It's hard not to feel bad for a franchise that has drafted so badly for so long. They are the Cleveland Browns of the NHL.

And I feel bad for Jim Benning because I think he and Trevor Linden are well-meaning individuals. But without Delorme in their fold they're clearly in over their heads.

I think it will cost them their jobs.