I winged it together, but yes, he is the player that should be sent down.

I did this just for fun and was putting a bit of a positive spin on it, or at least trying to be neutral.
- Reubenkincade

I thought you did a great job, nice blog! Thank you Reuby.

What are you talking about...
- LordHumungous

Trading top assets for rebuild.

I take all your posts seriously.
- Marwood

Thanks Carol!
- VanHockeyGuy

I thought you said you wouldn't be thanking the next person who posted a blog

I thought you did a great job, nice blog! Thank you Reuby.
- 1970vintage

I thought you said you wouldn't be thanking the next person who posted a blog
- Reubenkincade

Did I fucking say thanks Reuben?

Did I fucking say thanks Reuben?
- VanHockeyGuy

You are welcome.

Thanks Carol!
- VanHockeyGuy

Haha well played!

Do you think she is reading these ... this 400 page legacy in her honour?

Saw the coilers signed Justin Bailey. Was he ever in the mix this year or was that last year? The apathy may be combining years now.

Big 5 game road trip, starting tomorrow against the Jets, followed by Pittsburgh, Tampa, Florida and closing out against Carolina, on a back to back.
Going 4-1 will keep them in the playoff hunt, while going 1-4, will make the race to the bottom more realistic
Anything in-between will just be maintaining the level of mediocrity.
With Demko and Pearson traveling on this road trip, according to reports, expect to see a couple players being demoted, to Abbotsford.
An obvious choice for 1 is Delia, who doesn't have to clear waiver yet, as he hasn't reached the status to have to be waived again, as that has a certain amount of games played, or a certain amount of calendar days, while on recall.
The other demotion could be a bit more controversial as Will Lockwood, who was recently recalled, has provided some nice spark to the lineup, with his high-energy and his physicality.
A couple other options could include, sending Pearson to Abbotsford, for a conditioning stint, sending Dries down, which ends up leaving the club a bit shorthanded, at the centre ice position, or the club could take a drastic measure and demote a high-priced player, such as Brock Boeser.
I would like to see more of Lockwood, so hopefully that isn't the option they choose, but this is the Canucks, so I expect it will be Lockwood getting sent down.
On another note, Boudreau did something that I haven't seen him do, in his coaching career, when he had his grind line of, Lazar, in between Joshua and Lockwood, and Studnicka at times, match up against the McKinnon line, on several occasions.
The trio did a decent job of containing that potent line, when called upon, for that match up.
Hope to see more of this type of coaching from Bruce.

Anyways, hope you enjoy the 5 game road trip.
- Reubenkincade

It’s fair comments. Doubt anyone believes they can win all those games. However, this Boeser waiver suggestion to make room for Pearson, seriously? Oh wait, no, you’re joking. Okay. Thanks for the laugh.

By Daniel Wagner…


After beating the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, the Vancouver Canucks are six points out of a playoff spot. They are also six points ahead of the Arizona Coyotes and San Jose Sharks for a bottom-four spot in the NHL.

In other words, they are right in the mushy middle. It’s the perfect spot if you simultaneously want to miss the playoffs and also pick in the middle of the first round of the NHL Entry Draft. It’s where no team wants to be.

It’s frustrating because Canucks fans just caught a glimpse of what they could be missing at the 2023 World Junior Championship, where Connor Bedard gave every indication that he’s a generational talent.

Bedard's record-breaking World Juniors

It took just four games in the preliminary round for Bedard to break a longstanding record held by Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros for the most points by a 17-year-old Canadian at the World Juniors. Bedard’s 18 points in those four games not only passed Gretzky and Lindros, but also tied Jaromir Jagr for the most ever by any 17-year-old at the tournament.

He still had the playoff round ahead of him.

Bedard added five more points in the playoffs to lead Canada to the gold medal, leading the tournament in scoring with a whopping nine goals and 23 points in seven games.

That’s the fourth most points ever in a single World Junior tournament. The three players ahead of him — Sweden’s Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund and Finnish legend Raimo Helminen — were all 19 years old when they had their dominant tournaments. Bedard is still just 17.

Bedard is also the highest-scoring Canadian in career points at the World Juniors. Or, rather, he’s tied with Lindros for the most career points with 31.

It took Lindros 21 games to score those 31 points. Bedard did it in 14 games.

A generational talent at first overall

If Bedard wasn’t already a lock to go first overall in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft with the way he’s racking up points in the WHL for the Regina Pats, this World Junior tournament has surely cemented his spot at the top of an extremely talented draft class.

He’s exactly the type of franchise player that a struggling team could build around. Just look at the names he’s being mentioned with in World Junior history: Gretzky, Lindros, and Jagr. If his potential pays off, he’ll soon be named in the same breath as Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid. He’s that good.

He’s exactly the type of player the Canucks desperately need.

Not only that, but Bedard was born in North Vancouver and has been a diehard Canucks fan his entire life. The possibility of the best player ever produced by Vancouver hockey playing his professional hockey in Vancouver is extremely enticing.

There’s just one problem: the Canucks are very unlikely to be able to draft Bedard.

The Canucks have never picked first overall in their history, starting from their very first draft in 1970 when a spin of the wheel gave the Buffalo Sabres first overall and Hall-of-Famer Gilbert Perreault, while the Canucks got second overall and Dale Tallon.

In order to even have a chance of getting the first-overall pick in the 2023 draft, the Canucks would need to not only finish out of the playoffs but in the bottom 11 positions in the NHL, as teams can only move up a maximum of ten spots in the draft lottery.

Then the Canucks would need to win the draft lottery, with only a tiny chance of doing so unless they finish right at the bottom of the standings. As it is, if the season were to end now, the Canucks would have the eighth-best odds of winning the draft lottery, giving them a 6.0% chance of getting the first-overall pick and Bedard.

The Canucks have been thoroughly mediocre this season, with a 17-18-3 record while playing a brand of hockey that has not inspired much faith in their ability to turn the season around. The trouble is, mediocre isn’t enough to get you the first-overall pick.

You have to be terrible — intentionally terrible.

Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, and Ducks: masters of tanking

Three teams, in particular, have gotten out to an astonishing head start in being terrible this season: the Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Anaheim Ducks.

The Ducks and Blue Jackets both have 11 wins and 24 regulation losses this season, though the Ducks have two extra losses in overtime for a slight boost in points to land them in 30th in the NHL and the Blue Jackets in 31st.

The Blackhawks are in last place with a putrid 8-25-4 record on the season. They have been utterly atrocious this season, outscored by 61 goals, though somehow the Ducks have an even worse goal differential at minus-68.

The Canucks, with their modest minus-16 goal differential, can’t compete. At this point, there’s no catching the Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, and Ducks for the bottom of the NHL standings.

Those three teams are not in the basement by accident.

The Ducks sold off players like Josh Manson, Hampus Lindholm, and Rickard Rakell at last season’s trade deadline for a wealth of draft picks and will likely do the same with John Klingberg this season. Along with making two first-round picks last year, they have six picks in the first three rounds of the 2023 draft and have a strong chance their first pick will be first overall.

The Blue Jackets signed Johnny Gaudreau in the offseason, which would seem to preclude a tank/rebuild, but Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen has been making all sorts of rebuilding moves over the last two years, such as trading away Seth Jones, David Savard, and Nick Foligno.

The Blue Jackets made three first-round picks in 2021, two first-round picks in 2022, and could get the first-overall pick in 2023.

Finally, the Blackhawks were very obvious with their intentions to tank heading into the season. They acquired a bunch of picks by trading away the likes of Marc-Andre Fleury, Alex DeBrincat, and Kirby Dach, as well as by taking on a couple of cap headaches for other teams, like Petr Mrazek and Jason Richardinson.

The Blackhawks made three first-round picks in 2022 and have two first-round picks in 2023 and 2024. They could add to those picks and make themselves worse to ensure a bottom-of-the-league finish if Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are willing to waive their no-movement clauses.

The cratering of the lineups and the wealth of draft picks acquired by those three teams were intentional rebuilding moves that not only give them a chance at drafting Bedard first overall but also gave them a deep and wide prospect pool that should theoretically allow them to build a strong roster around him in the near future.

A late tank is better than no tank at all

The Canucks are in a bad place — not good enough to truly compete for the Stanley Cup but too good to compete for the first-overall pick with the teams that have been serious about rebuilding.

The truth is, it’s very easy to miss the playoffs by accident while trying to be a playoff team — Canucks fans have seen their team do exactly that six times in the last seven seasons and could be on their way to a seventh. Do it enough times and a fanbase starts to lose hope, particularly with an evaporating prospect pool from too many ill-considered trades.

If you miss the playoffs intentionally while building up draft capital, stocking the prospect pool, and tanking for a potential generational talent, however, then at least there’s hope.

So, even though the Canucks can’t catch the three worst teams in the league, they still have an opportunity to do what they should have done years ago: start the rebuilding process.

The Canucks have players that they could trade for draft picks and prospects. They have ways of making the team bad enough to sink in the standings and give them a chance of getting a higher draft pick. They can start to put together the pieces that they'll need to build a team around Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes in the next few years.

It might not be pretty but the Canucks haven’t been pretty all season, so what would really be the difference?

Even if the Ducks, Blue Jackets, and Blackhawks can’t be caught, the Canucks could still catch the likes of the San Jose Sharks and Arizona Coyotes. They could still get into the bottom five in the league.

The 2023 draft class has multiple first-overall talents available

Finishing fourth-last in the NHL would give the Canucks a 9.5% chance of picking first overall but, more importantly, it would ensure they would get a top-five pick. And, in the stacked 2023 draft, that’s nearly as good as first overall.

There are multiple prospects available at the top of the 2023 draft that would be in consideration for first overall in any other year. Bedard is a potential generational player, but Leo Carlsson, Adam Fantilli, and Matvei Michkov are all first-overall-caliber talents. In a lesser year, even Andrew Cristall, Zach Benson, and Will Smith might have been in consideration for the first-overall pick, and there are other prospects who could put themselves in the mix in the coming months, such as right-handed defenceman David Reinbacher, who caught the attention of scouts with a strong World Juniors for an overmatched Austrian squad.

Michkov would be an obvious target for the Canucks. Some have called him the best Russian prospect since Alex Ovechkin and he was once neck-and-neck with Bedard for first overall, but his contract with SKA combined with so many other strong prospects at the top of the draft might see him slide to fourth or fifth in the draft.

If the Canucks can tank their way to a top-five pick, they might be the ideal landing spot for Michkov. They have a European general manager, a strong relationship with Michkov’s agency after signing Andrey Kuzmenko, and several other Russian players already in the fold.

Getting a top-five pick in this draft would be a game-changer with respect to the Canucks’ ability to put together a competitive team in the next few years. Bedard is the lure. He's the selling point for tanking, the prospect that everyone can get excited for, but there's so much talent at the top of the draft that it's the proverbial shoot-for-the-moon situation: even if the Canucks miss Bedard, they'll still land among the stars.

Didn’t realize how many picks the Ducks (stupid name) have had in the top two rounds the past four drafts, 2019-2022. Four additional draft picks and another four picks in the first two rounds of the 2023 NHL draft. One first and three second rounders.

1st round - seven picks!
2nd round - five picks.

Didn’t realize how many picks the Ducks (stupid name) have had in the top two rounds the past four drafts, 2019-2022. Four additional draft picks and another four picks in the first two rounds of the 2023 NHL draft. One first and three second rounders.

1st round - seven picks!
2nd round - five picks.
- LeftCoaster

Have the Canucks even had 7 first round picks in the past 8 years?

From the 2019-2022 drafts the Blackhawks have had six first round picks and five second round picks, although they hit the reset button last year and got rid of one of those high drafted guys. (Dach)

Chicago has two first, second & third round picks in the upcoming 2023 NHL draft, be interesting to see how the Canucks fair against these two in the coming years if they decide not to tank, even mildly sell off players. The Blackhawks also have Toews and Kane as trade chips to add to that total for the 2023 NHL draft.

https://www.prosportstran...des/Future/Blackhawks.htm

Have the Canucks even had 7 first round picks in the past 8 years?
- 1970vintage

No, they’ve had six. But a few times in their history they have had multiple first round picks in the same year. Gotta go way back though, I think?

No, they’ve had six. But a few times in their history they have had multiple first round picks in the same year. Gotta go way back though, I think?
- LeftCoaster

This years may be in play as well.

By Daniel Wagner…


After beating the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, the Vancouver Canucks are six points out of a playoff spot. They are also six points ahead of the Arizona Coyotes and San Jose Sharks for a bottom-four spot in the NHL.

In other words, they are right in the mushy middle. It’s the perfect spot if you simultaneously want to miss the playoffs and also pick in the middle of the first round of the NHL Entry Draft. It’s where no team wants to be.

It’s frustrating because Canucks fans just caught a glimpse of what they could be missing at the 2023 World Junior Championship, where Connor Bedard gave every indication that he’s a generational talent.

Bedard's record-breaking World Juniors

It took just four games in the preliminary round for Bedard to break a longstanding record held by Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros for the most points by a 17-year-old Canadian at the World Juniors. Bedard’s 18 points in those four games not only passed Gretzky and Lindros, but also tied Jaromir Jagr for the most ever by any 17-year-old at the tournament.

He still had the playoff round ahead of him.

Bedard added five more points in the playoffs to lead Canada to the gold medal, leading the tournament in scoring with a whopping nine goals and 23 points in seven games.

That’s the fourth most points ever in a single World Junior tournament. The three players ahead of him — Sweden’s Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund and Finnish legend Raimo Helminen — were all 19 years old when they had their dominant tournaments. Bedard is still just 17.

Bedard is also the highest-scoring Canadian in career points at the World Juniors. Or, rather, he’s tied with Lindros for the most career points with 31.

It took Lindros 21 games to score those 31 points. Bedard did it in 14 games.

A generational talent at first overall

If Bedard wasn’t already a lock to go first overall in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft with the way he’s racking up points in the WHL for the Regina Pats, this World Junior tournament has surely cemented his spot at the top of an extremely talented draft class.

He’s exactly the type of franchise player that a struggling team could build around. Just look at the names he’s being mentioned with in World Junior history: Gretzky, Lindros, and Jagr. If his potential pays off, he’ll soon be named in the same breath as Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid. He’s that good.

He’s exactly the type of player the Canucks desperately need.

Not only that, but Bedard was born in North Vancouver and has been a diehard Canucks fan his entire life. The possibility of the best player ever produced by Vancouver hockey playing his professional hockey in Vancouver is extremely enticing.

There’s just one problem: the Canucks are very unlikely to be able to draft Bedard.

The Canucks have never picked first overall in their history, starting from their very first draft in 1970 when a spin of the wheel gave the Buffalo Sabres first overall and Hall-of-Famer Gilbert Perreault, while the Canucks got second overall and Dale Tallon.

In order to even have a chance of getting the first-overall pick in the 2023 draft, the Canucks would need to not only finish out of the playoffs but in the bottom 11 positions in the NHL, as teams can only move up a maximum of ten spots in the draft lottery.

Then the Canucks would need to win the draft lottery, with only a tiny chance of doing so unless they finish right at the bottom of the standings. As it is, if the season were to end now, the Canucks would have the eighth-best odds of winning the draft lottery, giving them a 6.0% chance of getting the first-overall pick and Bedard.

The Canucks have been thoroughly mediocre this season, with a 17-18-3 record while playing a brand of hockey that has not inspired much faith in their ability to turn the season around. The trouble is, mediocre isn’t enough to get you the first-overall pick.

You have to be terrible — intentionally terrible.

Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, and Ducks: masters of tanking

Three teams, in particular, have gotten out to an astonishing head start in being terrible this season: the Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Anaheim Ducks.

The Ducks and Blue Jackets both have 11 wins and 24 regulation losses this season, though the Ducks have two extra losses in overtime for a slight boost in points to land them in 30th in the NHL and the Blue Jackets in 31st.

The Blackhawks are in last place with a putrid 8-25-4 record on the season. They have been utterly atrocious this season, outscored by 61 goals, though somehow the Ducks have an even worse goal differential at minus-68.

The Canucks, with their modest minus-16 goal differential, can’t compete. At this point, there’s no catching the Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, and Ducks for the bottom of the NHL standings.

Those three teams are not in the basement by accident.

The Ducks sold off players like Josh Manson, Hampus Lindholm, and Rickard Rakell at last season’s trade deadline for a wealth of draft picks and will likely do the same with John Klingberg this season. Along with making two first-round picks last year, they have six picks in the first three rounds of the 2023 draft and have a strong chance their first pick will be first overall.

The Blue Jackets signed Johnny Gaudreau in the offseason, which would seem to preclude a tank/rebuild, but Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen has been making all sorts of rebuilding moves over the last two years, such as trading away Seth Jones, David Savard, and Nick Foligno.

The Blue Jackets made three first-round picks in 2021, two first-round picks in 2022, and could get the first-overall pick in 2023.

Finally, the Blackhawks were very obvious with their intentions to tank heading into the season. They acquired a bunch of picks by trading away the likes of Marc-Andre Fleury, Alex DeBrincat, and Kirby Dach, as well as by taking on a couple of cap headaches for other teams, like Petr Mrazek and Jason Richardinson.

The Blackhawks made three first-round picks in 2022 and have two first-round picks in 2023 and 2024. They could add to those picks and make themselves worse to ensure a bottom-of-the-league finish if Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are willing to waive their no-movement clauses.

The cratering of the lineups and the wealth of draft picks acquired by those three teams were intentional rebuilding moves that not only give them a chance at drafting Bedard first overall but also gave them a deep and wide prospect pool that should theoretically allow them to build a strong roster around him in the near future.

A late tank is better than no tank at all

The Canucks are in a bad place — not good enough to truly compete for the Stanley Cup but too good to compete for the first-overall pick with the teams that have been serious about rebuilding.

The truth is, it’s very easy to miss the playoffs by accident while trying to be a playoff team — Canucks fans have seen their team do exactly that six times in the last seven seasons and could be on their way to a seventh. Do it enough times and a fanbase starts to lose hope, particularly with an evaporating prospect pool from too many ill-considered trades.

If you miss the playoffs intentionally while building up draft capital, stocking the prospect pool, and tanking for a potential generational talent, however, then at least there’s hope.

So, even though the Canucks can’t catch the three worst teams in the league, they still have an opportunity to do what they should have done years ago: start the rebuilding process.

The Canucks have players that they could trade for draft picks and prospects. They have ways of making the team bad enough to sink in the standings and give them a chance of getting a higher draft pick. They can start to put together the pieces that they'll need to build a team around Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes in the next few years.

It might not be pretty but the Canucks haven’t been pretty all season, so what would really be the difference?

Even if the Ducks, Blue Jackets, and Blackhawks can’t be caught, the Canucks could still catch the likes of the San Jose Sharks and Arizona Coyotes. They could still get into the bottom five in the league.

The 2023 draft class has multiple first-overall talents available

Finishing fourth-last in the NHL would give the Canucks a 9.5% chance of picking first overall but, more importantly, it would ensure they would get a top-five pick. And, in the stacked 2023 draft, that’s nearly as good as first overall.

There are multiple prospects available at the top of the 2023 draft that would be in consideration for first overall in any other year. Bedard is a potential generational player, but Leo Carlsson, Adam Fantilli, and Matvei Michkov are all first-overall-caliber talents. In a lesser year, even Andrew Cristall, Zach Benson, and Will Smith might have been in consideration for the first-overall pick, and there are other prospects who could put themselves in the mix in the coming months, such as right-handed defenceman David Reinbacher, who caught the attention of scouts with a strong World Juniors for an overmatched Austrian squad.

Michkov would be an obvious target for the Canucks. Some have called him the best Russian prospect since Alex Ovechkin and he was once neck-and-neck with Bedard for first overall, but his contract with SKA combined with so many other strong prospects at the top of the draft might see him slide to fourth or fifth in the draft.

If the Canucks can tank their way to a top-five pick, they might be the ideal landing spot for Michkov. They have a European general manager, a strong relationship with Michkov’s agency after signing Andrey Kuzmenko, and several other Russian players already in the fold.

Getting a top-five pick in this draft would be a game-changer with respect to the Canucks’ ability to put together a competitive team in the next few years. Bedard is the lure. He's the selling point for tanking, the prospect that everyone can get excited for, but there's so much talent at the top of the draft that it's the proverbial shoot-for-the-moon situation: even if the Canucks miss Bedard, they'll still land among the stars.
- LeftCoaster

I like bedard but he feasted on a couple of bad teams, he’s not very big but still young yet. I wouldn’t call him generational, I thought he had a tough gold medal game he was well checked by a good defensive team but again he’s 2 years younger than most at that tourney he’s got some growing to do IMO.

No, they’ve had six. But a few times in their history they have had multiple first round picks in the same year. Gotta go way back though, I think?
- LeftCoaster

All the way back to 2014.

All the way back to 2014.
- Load Management

That was a high draft pick 6OA Jake Virtanen.

Trading top assets for rebuild.
- Quinn's Quest

only 7 points out of WC spot not much will happen. If anything they will add at TDL lol

By Daniel Wagner…


After beating the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, the Vancouver Canucks are six points out of a playoff spot. They are also six points ahead of the Arizona Coyotes and San Jose Sharks for a bottom-four spot in the NHL.

In other words, they are right in the mushy middle. It’s the perfect spot if you simultaneously want to miss the playoffs and also pick in the middle of the first round of the NHL Entry Draft. It’s where no team wants to be.

It’s frustrating because Canucks fans just caught a glimpse of what they could be missing at the 2023 World Junior Championship, where Connor Bedard gave every indication that he’s a generational talent.

Bedard's record-breaking World Juniors

It took just four games in the preliminary round for Bedard to break a longstanding record held by Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros for the most points by a 17-year-old Canadian at the World Juniors. Bedard’s 18 points in those four games not only passed Gretzky and Lindros, but also tied Jaromir Jagr for the most ever by any 17-year-old at the tournament.

He still had the playoff round ahead of him.

Bedard added five more points in the playoffs to lead Canada to the gold medal, leading the tournament in scoring with a whopping nine goals and 23 points in seven games.

That’s the fourth most points ever in a single World Junior tournament. The three players ahead of him — Sweden’s Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund and Finnish legend Raimo Helminen — were all 19 years old when they had their dominant tournaments. Bedard is still just 17.

Bedard is also the highest-scoring Canadian in career points at the World Juniors. Or, rather, he’s tied with Lindros for the most career points with 31.

It took Lindros 21 games to score those 31 points. Bedard did it in 14 games.

A generational talent at first overall

If Bedard wasn’t already a lock to go first overall in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft with the way he’s racking up points in the WHL for the Regina Pats, this World Junior tournament has surely cemented his spot at the top of an extremely talented draft class.

He’s exactly the type of franchise player that a struggling team could build around. Just look at the names he’s being mentioned with in World Junior history: Gretzky, Lindros, and Jagr. If his potential pays off, he’ll soon be named in the same breath as Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid. He’s that good.

He’s exactly the type of player the Canucks desperately need.

Not only that, but Bedard was born in North Vancouver and has been a diehard Canucks fan his entire life. The possibility of the best player ever produced by Vancouver hockey playing his professional hockey in Vancouver is extremely enticing.

There’s just one problem: the Canucks are very unlikely to be able to draft Bedard.

The Canucks have never picked first overall in their history, starting from their very first draft in 1970 when a spin of the wheel gave the Buffalo Sabres first overall and Hall-of-Famer Gilbert Perreault, while the Canucks got second overall and Dale Tallon.

In order to even have a chance of getting the first-overall pick in the 2023 draft, the Canucks would need to not only finish out of the playoffs but in the bottom 11 positions in the NHL, as teams can only move up a maximum of ten spots in the draft lottery.

Then the Canucks would need to win the draft lottery, with only a tiny chance of doing so unless they finish right at the bottom of the standings. As it is, if the season were to end now, the Canucks would have the eighth-best odds of winning the draft lottery, giving them a 6.0% chance of getting the first-overall pick and Bedard.

The Canucks have been thoroughly mediocre this season, with a 17-18-3 record while playing a brand of hockey that has not inspired much faith in their ability to turn the season around. The trouble is, mediocre isn’t enough to get you the first-overall pick.

You have to be terrible — intentionally terrible.

Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, and Ducks: masters of tanking

Three teams, in particular, have gotten out to an astonishing head start in being terrible this season: the Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Anaheim Ducks.

The Ducks and Blue Jackets both have 11 wins and 24 regulation losses this season, though the Ducks have two extra losses in overtime for a slight boost in points to land them in 30th in the NHL and the Blue Jackets in 31st.

The Blackhawks are in last place with a putrid 8-25-4 record on the season. They have been utterly atrocious this season, outscored by 61 goals, though somehow the Ducks have an even worse goal differential at minus-68.

The Canucks, with their modest minus-16 goal differential, can’t compete. At this point, there’s no catching the Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, and Ducks for the bottom of the NHL standings.

Those three teams are not in the basement by accident.

The Ducks sold off players like Josh Manson, Hampus Lindholm, and Rickard Rakell at last season’s trade deadline for a wealth of draft picks and will likely do the same with John Klingberg this season. Along with making two first-round picks last year, they have six picks in the first three rounds of the 2023 draft and have a strong chance their first pick will be first overall.

The Blue Jackets signed Johnny Gaudreau in the offseason, which would seem to preclude a tank/rebuild, but Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen has been making all sorts of rebuilding moves over the last two years, such as trading away Seth Jones, David Savard, and Nick Foligno.

The Blue Jackets made three first-round picks in 2021, two first-round picks in 2022, and could get the first-overall pick in 2023.

Finally, the Blackhawks were very obvious with their intentions to tank heading into the season. They acquired a bunch of picks by trading away the likes of Marc-Andre Fleury, Alex DeBrincat, and Kirby Dach, as well as by taking on a couple of cap headaches for other teams, like Petr Mrazek and Jason Richardinson.

The Blackhawks made three first-round picks in 2022 and have two first-round picks in 2023 and 2024. They could add to those picks and make themselves worse to ensure a bottom-of-the-league finish if Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are willing to waive their no-movement clauses.

The cratering of the lineups and the wealth of draft picks acquired by those three teams were intentional rebuilding moves that not only give them a chance at drafting Bedard first overall but also gave them a deep and wide prospect pool that should theoretically allow them to build a strong roster around him in the near future.

A late tank is better than no tank at all

The Canucks are in a bad place — not good enough to truly compete for the Stanley Cup but too good to compete for the first-overall pick with the teams that have been serious about rebuilding.

The truth is, it’s very easy to miss the playoffs by accident while trying to be a playoff team — Canucks fans have seen their team do exactly that six times in the last seven seasons and could be on their way to a seventh. Do it enough times and a fanbase starts to lose hope, particularly with an evaporating prospect pool from too many ill-considered trades.

If you miss the playoffs intentionally while building up draft capital, stocking the prospect pool, and tanking for a potential generational talent, however, then at least there’s hope.

So, even though the Canucks can’t catch the three worst teams in the league, they still have an opportunity to do what they should have done years ago: start the rebuilding process.

The Canucks have players that they could trade for draft picks and prospects. They have ways of making the team bad enough to sink in the standings and give them a chance of getting a higher draft pick. They can start to put together the pieces that they'll need to build a team around Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes in the next few years.

It might not be pretty but the Canucks haven’t been pretty all season, so what would really be the difference?

Even if the Ducks, Blue Jackets, and Blackhawks can’t be caught, the Canucks could still catch the likes of the San Jose Sharks and Arizona Coyotes. They could still get into the bottom five in the league.

The 2023 draft class has multiple first-overall talents available

Finishing fourth-last in the NHL would give the Canucks a 9.5% chance of picking first overall but, more importantly, it would ensure they would get a top-five pick. And, in the stacked 2023 draft, that’s nearly as good as first overall.

There are multiple prospects available at the top of the 2023 draft that would be in consideration for first overall in any other year. Bedard is a potential generational player, but Leo Carlsson, Adam Fantilli, and Matvei Michkov are all first-overall-caliber talents. In a lesser year, even Andrew Cristall, Zach Benson, and Will Smith might have been in consideration for the first-overall pick, and there are other prospects who could put themselves in the mix in the coming months, such as right-handed defenceman David Reinbacher, who caught the attention of scouts with a strong World Juniors for an overmatched Austrian squad.

Michkov would be an obvious target for the Canucks. Some have called him the best Russian prospect since Alex Ovechkin and he was once neck-and-neck with Bedard for first overall, but his contract with SKA combined with so many other strong prospects at the top of the draft might see him slide to fourth or fifth in the draft.

If the Canucks can tank their way to a top-five pick, they might be the ideal landing spot for Michkov. They have a European general manager, a strong relationship with Michkov’s agency after signing Andrey Kuzmenko, and several other Russian players already in the fold.

Getting a top-five pick in this draft would be a game-changer with respect to the Canucks’ ability to put together a competitive team in the next few years. Bedard is the lure. He's the selling point for tanking, the prospect that everyone can get excited for, but there's so much talent at the top of the draft that it's the proverbial shoot-for-the-moon situation: even if the Canucks miss Bedard, they'll still land among the stars.
- LeftCoaster

Trash article by a trash writer

Went to a spruce kings vees game last night, awesome well played game by both teams, lots of hitting, scrums etc, both teams played the game with some intensity and feeling, kings stayed right with them until late, the vees are a good team and I can see them winning it all this year.

And of course Jared McCann 24th overall, brilliant work!

I like bedard but he feasted on a couple of bad teams, he’s not very big but still young yet. I wouldn’t call him generational, I thought he had a tough gold medal game he was well checked by a good defensive team but again he’s 2 years younger than most at that tourney he’s got some growing to do IMO.
- Bettmanhatesus

It's close but not McDavid style generational just yet. Kid will be a stud though. How about Peter Forsberg however he had the record with 31 points for the WJHC wow. Bedard had 23 points fore the tourney to put it in perspective.

That was a high draft pick 6OA Jake Virtanen.
- VanHockeyGuy

Big Country!!