We are all Canucks — except Nolan Patrick, who will likely be a Devil.
The Vancouver Canucks won the fifth overall draft pick in the 2017 NHL Draft Lottery on Saturday, for the second year in a row.
This is the 48th year in a row the team failed to win first overall pick.
The Canucks hosted a lottery party at the SportsBar at Rogers Arena Saturday afternoon, hoping this was finally the time they could celebrate winning the first overall draft pick.
No such luck.
Canucks General Manager Jim Bennings said early Saturday the team probably won’t be trading their pick.
“We’ll listen to offers, because you know if something blows us out of the water, but we’re not looking to move the pick,” Benning said. “We feel like in the top five we’re going to get a real good building piece to our group moving forward, so it would have to take a lot to move the pick.”
The Canucks were given a 12.1 per cent chance of winning first pick and a 65 per cent chance of falling to fourth or fifth, after finishing with the league’s second worst regular season record.
The Colorado Avalanche, who finished worst in the league this season, had the highest chance of winning first pick. Since 1995, the worst performing team has only won first draft pick about 30 per cent of the time — meaning coming in last doesn’t always pay off.
The league’s highest ranked players heading into the draft, according to NHL Central Scouting, include forward Nolan Patrick from the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, followed by forward Nico Hischier who plays for the Halifax Mooseheads in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Casey Mittelstadt, a centre for Eden Prairie High School in Minnesota, is ranked third. Gabriel Vilardi, a centre for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires is at fourth place and Surrey’s Michael Rasmussen, skating for the Tri-City Americans, is ranked fifth.
Canucks fans were quick to express their disappointment with the lottery results, charging to Twitter to vent:
Trevor Linden, president of Canucks hockey operations, said in response to the results: “I think we’ve got great options at five. We need to step back and look at the big picture and how they can help us long term.”
“I’ve said all along that teams can move in the lottery — just look at last year — and it’s no different today.”
The NHL Draft will take place on June 23 and 24 in Chicago.
The 2017 NHL Draft picks:
- New Jersey Devils
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Dallas Stars
- Colorado Avalanche
- Vancouver Canucks
- Vegas Golden Knights
- Arizona Coyotes
- Buffalo Sabres
- Detroit Red Wings
- Florida Panthers
- LA Kings
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Winnipeg Jets
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- New York Islanders
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