Canucks: The fast rebuild can be done, but watch out

Article content

Jim Rutherford’s notion that you can nail a couple years of drafts and all of a sudden you’ve got the army of guys you need to build out a proper Stanley Cup contending team isn’t all that far-fetched.

Article content

Obviously, the Vancouver Canucks’ president of hockey operations will want to get at least one high-end pick in there, but you can still build out a roster full of handy players if you really do hit your marks. Rutherford has been in the game a long time, so he knows how teams can be built. There’s a real chance for him and his staff to reset the Vancouver Canucks, and quickly.

Article content

Article content

Just take a look at the Boston Bruins’ drafts from 2014 to 2016. Across those three draft years, the Bruins picked 16 players who ended up playing NHL games, totalling 4,818 games.

Of those 16 players, six have played more than 500 games — Charlie McAvoy, Jake DeBrusk, Brandon Carlo, David Pastrnak, Ryan Donato and Danton Heinen — and three others who fall below that mark are still pretty useful NHLers nonetheless: Jeremy Lauzon, Trent Frederic and Ryan Lindgren.

Article content

Article content

There are a couple legit stars in that haul, plus a handful of truly useful players.

This is what Jim Rutherford means when he says the Canucks have to nail their upcoming drafts, especially in 2026 when they want to be picking high in the first round, will have another pick late in the first round, and you have to think are dreaming of adding at least one more first-round pick.

Three first rounders in one draft has the chance to truly redefine the future of this team.

But those Bruins, even in the midst of all their draft success, tell another tale there — at the 2015 draft, when Boston had made some astute trades to land three first-round picks in a row, at 13, 14 and 15.

As that draft unfolded, there was some real buzz that the Bruins were set to land a remarkable trio of mid-tier prospects, guys who could follow on from Pastrnak as late-blooming exciting prospects.

Article content

As Rhys Jessop, then of Canucks Army and now an amateur scout for the Carolina Hurricanes, said as the draft was unfolding, Boston had a chance to land Mat Barzal, Kyle Connor and Oliver Kylington. All three were highly regarded, even though they were outside the top-10 of the draft.

And the Bruins stunned everyone by not picking any of those three, instead choosing Jakub Zboril, DeBrusk and Zach Senyshyn.

Zboril and Senyshyn quite clearly were busts. DeBrusk has proven to be a solid NHLer — and now plays for Rutherford and could prove to be a key veteran leader in this fast rebuild. He has played in a Stanley Cup final, after all (in 2019, when the Bruins lost to the St. Louis Blues).

Imagine if the Bruins had drafted even one of Barzal or Connor. Stanley Cup in 2019 or 2020 maybe? They would be a perennial Cup contender for sure. That said, even without those two electric wingers, they are still among the league’s best.

Article content

The other point to remember here is how the Bruins ended up with these picks. In both 2015 and 2016, they missed the playoffs, although only by a hair or two. They were still trying to win.

Imagine if they had made a few more calculated trades, moves which strategically weakened their roster in such a way that they had ended up drafting in the top-10, or even the top-five?

That’s where the Canucks find themselves at the moment. They do need to find a way to not win too much here. The 2026 draft is a good one, with some truly prodigious talents at the top. If they can find themselves into the top-three, where they could select a Gavin McKenna or an Ivar Stenberg, that would certainly juice their chances of pulling off a quick rebuild and avoiding a four-to-five year slog, which Rutherford is desperate to avoid.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

Article content