Rayxor wrote:Didn't Nedved make the team as an 18 year old? He only played one year of Junior in the WHL and that was the year he was drafted.
That is true, I thought I was forgetting someone!
the Dogsalmon wrote:Island Nucklehead wrote:the Dogsalmon wrote:
Absolute piss poor drafting to be able to ice only one 18 years old in the last 26 years...
Considering the Canucks have the 13th (Linden) and 44th (Neely) highest scoring 18 year olds to ever play in the NHL, I'd say we're doing alright.
There's only been 263 18 year olds to ever play an NHL game, and only 129 have played more than 10, it hasn't been a common occurrence until recently.
I raised the point about 18-year-olds cracking the roster not as an indictment of the team's drafting, but rather as an example of the Canucks' development process.
I think everyone would agree that the Canucks have been extremely cautious with their prospects, and there's been a preference to keep players down either in Junior, the AHL, or NCAA for as long as possible, eventually earning a call-up position before cracking the club.
Many would call this the "Detroit Model" of development. I personally don't think the Detroit Model is something to strive towards, as Detroit's drafting/development record is heavily skewed by outlying fluke picks that have contributed to the team's success for 3 decades - Lidstrom in the 3rd round, Zetterberg in the 7th round, and Datsyuk in the 6th round. Excluding those 3 players, Detroit's drafting/developing has been about on par with the Canucks' for the past 10 years, which is to say - not good.
The danger of trial by fire for prospects is the "Gilbert Brule syndrome", where somehow a young star-in-the-making is ruined by being pushed along too quickly. The other danger is wasting ELC years (we'll call this the Coilers Syndrome).
Sure, it is a bit of a gamble to put young kids in an NHL lineup. But the upside has been huge for several Championship teams in the past decade - really every Cup winner except Detroit and Boston was anchored by young stars who broke into the league as teenagers.
I'm not saying that BoHo will become Jonathan Toews if he makes the Club this year, but I think the potential benefits outweigh the risks, and what the Canucks have been doing for the last 20 years hasn't really worked out all that well anyways.