Bad drafting lands Canucks in whirlpool of losing

There's only one way to end up where the Vancouver Canucks are and that is in the middle of 8 straight losses and staring 10 straight losses in the face. Maybe it hits 20 losses in a row, who knows? One thing is for sure - they're a really bad hockey team. They are 6 wins, 13 losses and 6 ties. That's less than a .250 hockey team. That's NBA historically bad hockey team from a team that signed UFAs to try to make a playoff run. That is the Edmonton Oilers of the NHL bad/stupid.

You only end up in Coiler hell by bad drafting, essentially.

There's no other way to sugar coat how the Canucks have ended up here.

It's amazing to me how much of the analytic fanbase supports Canucks GM Jim Benning and head scout Brackett when they've delivered up very little to support them.

Let's look at the facts here for a second.

Take a step back - take an objective point of view - which I understand that if you're a fan of the Canucks you won't want to do.

But recently former HNIC broadcaster and NHL goalie Glenn Healy really cast a light on the Vancouver situation when he said that Vancouver was in the most dire need of getting into the first overall draft pick sweepstakes for Jack Hughes (a talented center projected to go first overall in the NHL entry draft in 2019 held in Vancouver).

Healy said if you look at Vancouver - what do they have?

And so I took a step back and thought about it and realized with a shock that Healy was actually right.

What has Benning/Brackett delivered here? Forget the horrific free agent signings such as Loui Erickson at $6 million/year and Tim Schaller (who???) and the broken down Jay Beagle or the penalty leader and biter Antoine Rousel or the "franchise" trade for the chronically injured / glass Brandon Sutter - just look at the horrific drafting by the Jim Benning crew.

What have they done with their drafting? Keep in mind Boston selected NHL goal leader David Pastrnak ONE SPOT AFTER BENNING SELECTED JARED MCCANN!! And that the NHL's best player Mikko Rantanen was SELECTED 10TH OVERALL by the Colorado Avalanche making Elias Pettersson, taken 5th OVERAL, look like a used jacket from Value Village that smells like pee.

If Boston and Colorado can take players out of the Top 9 that are the NHL's best - WHY CAN'T JIM BENNING? THE DRAFT GURU ???

Let's examine what he's done here, shall we?

1st round picks - Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser. That's what he's got. And Jake Virtanen.
Ok.
Pettersson looks to be a lock for a 25 goal scoring center with 20 assists per year. 45 points maybe up to 60 points. Okay. He's certainly not a generational player. He's certainly NOT going to win the Calder Trophy and as I've said repeatedly he would be better off in Utica learning how to play the NHL game. He looks like he's gassed at the 17 game mark of his career. Which is unfortunate as there's another 58 games to go for him. He'll be lucky to get to 20 goals this year the way he's died.

Then there's Brock Boeser. He might crest 30 goals if he can ever stay healthy - but that's a huge problem for him. And Boeser was the selection of head scout Eric Crawford and Ron Delorme.

Jake Virtanen is showing he's the best player of the Benning draft picks however, again, he's not a Brackett selection HE'S A CRAWFORD SELECTION - WHOM THEY FIRED !!!

So in 5 years of drafting what do the Canucks have to show for Benning and Brackett and the 5 top 7 picks in the NHL entry draft?

They have Virtanen and an injured Boeser and a gassed (embarrassingly so) Pettersson.

And Pettersson has already had a concussion.

Okay, so then what?

2nd round picks on the roster or showing promise? Adam Gaudette? 20 games 1 point? Not exactly lighting it up at the NHL (on emergency recall because of injury) or in the AHL. And that's it.

Utica Comets are dead last.

There's no one there doing anything.

3rd picks ? 0
4th rd picks ? 0
5th rd picks ? 0
6th rd picks ? 0
7th rd picks ? 0

While Benning and Brackett and head coach Travis Green and Utica head coach Trent Cull appear to be the nicest people you'd ever meet and really good hard working people

the reality is

they haven't delivered a damned thing through the draft.

And I know this without question because I look at the standings of Utica and see a really bad team.
And I see the NHL Canucks and I see a really bad team that gave up 25 shots in 1 period - the most in a hockey game for the franchise since 1970 season.

That's really bad.

That's expansion level bad.

And the only reason you get here is because you haven't back-filled the roster with anyone that can play.

By now there should have been 2nd and 3rd and 1st round picks making a difference on the roster.

There just isn't.

You should have at least 1 Pettersson after 5 years of being the worst team in the NHL. You don't get credit for that. That's the MINIMUM this team should have. That's the bare minimum. They're in Oiler territory here with nothing from beyond the 1st round and even then the 1st round is sketchy.

Even Pettersson 5 on 5 is okay at best. He's not exactly great 5 on 5.

There's no goalies in the system.

If there were goalies in the system they'd be in the NHL playing for Vancouver.

There's no D men in the system because if there were they'd be playing instead of Michael Del Zotto.

They're an awful team.

Oh, I know, they have Quinton Hughes coming. Uh huh. At 5'6" and 146 pounds and a whopping 3 goals, 10 assists in 11 points at U of Michigan and is -5.

You're going to hang the hat on that are you?

Look, folks, I hate to tell you this - but Mike Gillis drafted the best player on the team in Bo Horvat.

Even Dave Nonis had more players in the NHL drafted by this time than Benning/Brackett.

Goalie Cory Schnieder, for example, was a Nonis pick, which was turned into Bo Horvat.

What's the answer in Vancouver?

Obviously you have to fix the drafting and development problem.

They're in Oiler hell now. Can't draft outside the 1st round - and even in the 1st round - it's sketchy.

They've got to move on from Benning/Brackett.

You can't keep blanking picks like that.

You have to have players at the AHL level making an impact. There's nothing.

And there's nothing at the NHL level they've drafted, besides 1 player, making an impact, after 5 years.

If they don't make changes - it's going to keep getting worse, if that's possible.

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