Canucks Young Guns

[rats19]

Yah…. Dang

[Megaterio Llamas]

Here is Cory Pronman's league wide ranking of all under 23 players, including Celebrini, Bedard etc.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/746645 ... -u23-2026/


Malhotra - 23

Willander - 72

Rogowski - 108

Novotny - 130

No Buium or Ohgren?

Geez, you're right RG. Zeev not being there in particular doesn't make sense.

[BoS]

Nor Cootes.

[Todd Bersnoozi]

It's mind blowing that those imbeciles actually signed Thatcher Demko of all people to a three year contract.

Yah, when we gave Tankinen that 5 yr contract, I thought Demmer35 was gonzo for sure by either free agency or trade. I was really surprised Demmer was resigned last off season. I think part of their reasoning was using it as a ploy to hopefully get Huggy to resign.

If there's any silver lining, we won't be competitive any time soon, so having Demmer and his contract around won't really hurt things. I also noticed that Demmer gets a big signing bonus in the last 2 yrs of that contract. Once we paid that off and if he's relatively healthy then, we might actually get a taker for him and maybe get a mid-tier asset.

[Lancer]

Here is Cory Pronman's league wide ranking of all under 23 players, including Celebrini, Bedard etc.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/746645 ... -u23-2026/


Malhotra - 23

Willander - 72

Rogowski - 108

Novotny - 130

No Buium or Ohgren?

Geez, you're right RG. Zeev not being there in particular doesn't make sense.

According to Pronman, the best of that bunch is doubtful to even turn out as a top-6 option down the road. The rest? Depth pieces.

Much as the fan in me would love to see the likes of Malhotra make Pronman eat his words, the realist in me has to account for the likelihood that he’s right. The future roster that is supposed to excite fans is, in all likelihood, a bunch of depth piece-plumbers who may push this team out of the top-team of the draft, but that’s about it. More likely to cause the rebuild to stall midway vice push it any further.

So much to be excited about….

[Megaterio Llamas]

Here is Cory Pronman's league wide ranking of all under 23 players, including Celebrini, Bedard etc.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/746645 ... -u23-2026/


Malhotra - 23

Willander - 72

Rogowski - 108

Novotny - 130

No Buium or Ohgren?

Geez, you're right RG. Zeev not being there in particular doesn't make sense.

According to Pronman, the best of that bunch is doubtful to even turn out as a top-6 option down the road. The rest? Depth pieces.

Much as the fan in me would love to see the likes of Malhotra make Pronman eat his words, the realist in me has to account for the likelihood that he’s right. The future roster that is supposed to excite fans is, in all likelihood, a bunch of depth piece-plumbers who may push this team out of the top-team of the draft, but that’s about it. More likely to cause the rebuild to stall midway vice push it any further.

So much to be excited about….

I don't disagree, Lancer. It's going to be a process and we'll need to win the lottery eventually, somehow, to get all the way there. I'm just a little surprised that he doesn't have Zeeb Buium among his top 156 prospects.

Top 156!

[Lancer]

I checked the list again and found Buium at 27 - ahead of Carson Carels and below Ilya Protas. Intriguing considering how much hype Carels had going into the draft. Hell, I would have been happy with Carels at #3.

Still, a bubble support piece at best. No stars in Vancouver's future, according to Pronman.

Who can say he's wrong???

[Megaterio Llamas]

I checked the list again and found Buium at 27 - ahead of Carson Carels and below Ilya Protas. Intriguing considering how much hype Carels had going into the draft. Hell, I would have been happy with Carels at #3.

Still, a bubble support piece at best. No stars in Vancouver's future, according to Pronman.

Who can say he's wrong???

Ah, I don't know how I missed it Lancer, lol. But 27th checks out when you consider he's including all NHLers 22 and under. That's pretty damned respectable, actually. But yeah, no world beaters yet. We're just getting started, it's a big improvement from a year ago under the previous regime.

Pronman posted another list of his top 100 prospects picked outside the first round today, Rogowski, Pettersson, and Alriksson are on that one.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/752150 ... raft-2026/

Pronman was lower on Carels than most heading into the draft - and higher on Verhoeff.

[UWSaint]

I checked the list again and found Buium at 27 - ahead of Carson Carels and below Ilya Protas. Intriguing considering how much hype Carels had going into the draft. Hell, I would have been happy with Carels at #3.

Still, a bubble support piece at best. No stars in Vancouver's future, according to Pronman.

Who can say he's wrong???

Who can say he’s right? It’s all prediction, and while he’s an authority inasmuch as it’s his job, there’s reasons there are disagreements on the Athletic staff, as well as within and between every scouting department.

And we know Pronman’s biases — he loves size combined with speed or other tools over evidence of success. Case in point, he’s got Zach Benson in the 40s, when he’s already playing at about a level you’d expect a guy rated in the 40s to get to when he matures. He’s still marking Benson down for size (and maybe speed) when those things are not the end game, but merely tools that you use to predict how good a guy can be in the NHL. But if the guy has demonstrably shown success while not improving on proxies to success, you probably should take into account that a predictive mechanism isn’t as good as an actual experiment…. Lane Hutson outside the top 10 — a 4th tier under 23 player?

I don’t know whether Buium is going to break out as a star. But heading into last year, he was a consensus 2-5 best outside the NHL D prospect (Schaeffer #1), no one in that category clearly jumped him last year, and it’s no sure thing that any of the D in this D heavy 2026 draft is a better prospect than Buium. Again, I am not predicting success, but I do think he’s got as good of a chance as any under 23 defenseman who is not currently a star (Schaeffer, L. Hutson) to become one.

[Picker of Cherries]

I think only full NMCs can’t be exposed in an expansion draft.
So after this season Lankinen and DeBrusk can be exposed.
After two seasons Hronek can be exposed
After three season Boeser and Demko can be exposed (Demko’s contract ends).
The only other player with a NMC is Pettersson, and his goes for five more seasons until his contract ends.
RJ will be working to trade some of these players along the way, so NMCs shouldn’t be a huge problem if expansion happens.

Looks like expansion will happen in Texas (Huston or Austin) in 2029/2030. Based on current contracts only Pettersson won’t be exposure eligible then.

https://canucksarmy.com/news/nhl-notebo ... -2029-2030

[BoS]

Kevin Woodley has a decent report on the Canucks top 5 prospects over at NHL.com.

I followed Cootes fairly close last year, and in the Dub, I thought he had a very strong season, right through to the playoffs. Where he may have fallen short was at the WJC, when eastern eyes were critiquing. As a result, it seems many “pundits” fall short of praising Cootes’ progression, likely because they didn’t follow his play all year.

Regardless of where he plays this year, he should have a top 6 role for Team Canada this Christmas. His style of play and work ethic are what coaches look for in big games and final minutes.

[donlever]

Yeah...2 of the top 3/4 centre's on that team could be Canuck prospects.

When did that ever occur previously?