HKSR Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 (edited) A hypothetical walk down memory lane... what if the Canucks picked Tkachuk instead of Juolevi? Disclaimer: All for fun here. It's my rendition of what I think could have happened. Don't like it? Make your own post lol 2016 NHL Draft: "Canucks are proud to select, from the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League... Matthew Tkachuk". 2016-17 Season: Tkachuk comes in and plays as well as he did with Calgary. Canucks were still terrible though, and so instead of finishing last in the division, they only move up 1 spot in the division ahead of Arizona. 2017 NHL Draft: Canucks now select 7th instead of 5th. Rangers still have Arizona's pick and selected Elias Pettersson 5th OA. VGK still selects Glass, which leaves Mittlestadt as the selection for the Vancouver Canucks. 2017-18 Season: Tkachuk helps the Canucks move up another spot in the division with his 2nd season in the NHL. Canucks finish ahead of the Oilers and land in 6th place in the Pacific. 2018 NHL Draft: Chicago, Rangers, and Oilers all move up a spot in the draft as the Canucks pick 10th instead. Chicago lands Quinn Hughes, Rangers still select Kravtsov, and the Oilers select Boqvist. As many media outlets reported, the Canucks really liked Dobson, so they select Noah Dobson 10th OA. 2018-19 Season: With a 3rd year Tkachuk leading the charge next to Horvat and Boeser, the Canucks finish 5th in the division. 2019 NHL Draft: With a big, strong powerforward already in Tkachuk, rather than selecting Podkolzin, the Canucks select the highly skilled Matt Boldy from the USHL. 2019-20 Season: Tkachuk has another strong season playing on a line with newcomer fellow countryman JT Miller. Together they put up strong offensive numbers and push the Canucks into 2nd in the Pacific. 2020 NHL Draft: Canucks don't have a selection as they traded for JT Miller. 2020-21 Season: A covid impacted year, the Canucks struggle from illness and are also lacking a bonafide top pair defenceman to push them deeper into the playoffs. They finish last in the division and don't make it through the play-in round. 2021 NHL Draft: Canucks end up with the 6th OA selection due to their poor 2020-21 season. Knowing they need a LHD badly, they select Simon Edvinsson from Frolunda of the SHL. 2021-22 Season: Big season for Vancouver. Miller explodes for a 100pt season along with Tkachuk's 100pt+ season as well as Dobson and Boldy coming into their own. Canucks finish 1st in the division. 2022 NHL Draft: Canucks select Jiri Kulich 27th OA. 2022-23 Season: Another big year. With the emergence of Boldy, and Boeser's struggles, Boeser is traded away for the cap space. Canucks also attract KHL star Andrei Kuzmenko. Tkachuk, Miller, and Kuzmenko become one of the top lines in hockey. Secondary scoring comes from Horvat, Boldy, and Mittlestadt. Dobson continues to anchor the blueline, and the Canucks finish 3rd in the division. 2023 NHL Draft: Canucks select Oliver Bonk 22nd OA. Your new core of the Vancouver Canucks: Tkachuk, Miller, Horvat, Boldy, Dobson, Demko, Mittlestadt. Top prospects in the system: Kulich, Edvinsson, Bonk There you have it folks. Thoughts? Edited February 9 by HKSR 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Korea Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 Today is the anti-Benning thread I see 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKSR Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 Just now, Miss Korea said: Today is the anti-Benning thread I see Nah, it's the "I'm bored and done on a Friday afternoon at work" thread... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NHLer Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 (edited) I don't know what it is, but it felt weirdly scintillating reading about a counterfactual situation. Edited February 9 by NHLer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6of1_halfdozenofother Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 What if, what if, what if... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Korea Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 7 minutes ago, 6of1_halfdozenofother said: What if, what if, what if... I snap my spaghetti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift-4 Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 @HKSR you have overcomplicated it for my brain Can I just say it would be great to have Weegar in the lineup? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Long Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 Tkachuk with the Sedins might have been magic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKSR Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 7 minutes ago, Shift-4 said: @HKSR you have overcomplicated it for my brain Can I just say it would be great to have Weegar in the lineup? Nope... Tkachuk likes the Vancouver climate, so re-signs here. No tradesies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Arrogant Worms Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 What if the Canucks won the lottery and didn't draft Dale Talon. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKSR Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 6 minutes ago, The Arrogant Worms said: What if the Canucks won the lottery and didn't draft Dale Talon. I'll leave that post upto you lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket-68 Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 (edited) 36 minutes ago, 6of1_halfdozenofother said: What if, what if, what if... What if the Canucks won the Gilbert Perreault sweepstakes ... how far do we want to go with hypotheticals? Edited February 9 by Rocket-68 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJCF96 Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 Here is the timeline if we chose Matthew Tkachuk instead: 2016-2017: Tkachuk will make the Canucks line-up, playing on the first line with Baertchi and Horvat. We will still be a really bad team with lack of depth and many plugs down the line up. He won't make a huge difference, but should be able to get us another 2-4 wins. We will finish with another 4-8 points more, but I am going to say we finish with 6 more points than we did. We would finish 4th last in the draft lottery. Interestingly, that's where New Jersey finishes, and we would win the #1 pick. At the time, we probably would've picked one of Hishchier/Patrick (although internally, there is a rumour that the Canucks had Makar at #1 and Petey at #2 on their list). I am not sure, but imagine if we pick Makar/Pettersson ahead of Hischier/Patrick, there would be an uproar in this fanbase. But for the sake of argument, I will say we win the #1 pick and still went ahead and draft Pettersson #1 overall. Also keep in mind that the Flames made the palyoffs in 2017 with Tkachuk and Brian Burke said they have Tkachuk and Juolevi 5 and 6 on their list, which would mean the Flames would be the team that picks Juolevi. Without Tkachuk, the Flames won't make the playoffs (because they finish in a WC spot that year). 2017-2018: Tkachuk continues to thrive playing on a top line with Horvat and Boeser (that would actually be very good line). Tkachuk imo is the ideal player to play with someone like Horvat. A pass-first winger who creates a lot of space. Him dishing the puck to Horvat and Boeser would mean we get a lot of goals on that top line alone. Because the circumstances are different, Boeser might not have the devastating injuries happen to him late in the season and with Tkachuk playing on the opposite wing, he may even win the Calder. I am guessing Boeser would end the season with 35 goals if he gets Tkachuk feeding him the puck and didn't miss the games with injuries. But for arguments sake, we will still have Boeser finish 2nd in Calder votes. 2018 Draft: This is where the butterfly really takes into effect. We would definitely finish the 2017-18 season with more wins, although not a lot, because our OA team is still ass due to Jim Benning. I would say we pick up another 6-10 points more than we did (about an additional 3-5 wins), but that would mean we might draft outside of the top 12. Either way, we will definitely not be in a position to draft Quinn Hughes, no way he falls any further than 7. We finished the 2017-18 season with 73 points, another 6 points will put us at 79 and 8 points will put us at 81. The Flames also misses the playoff that year with 84 points and they traded their first round pick (ended up being the 12th OA pick) to the Islanders for Travis Hamonic. Fun fact, that pick they traded away end up being Noah Dobson. Without Tkachuk, there is a good chance their points total will drop even lower, to around 78 points or so. I am not sure if they would still make that trade with the Islanders. But we could be looking at a dark time line if Quinn Hughes wearing a Blackhawks, Oilers or Flames jesey. Another note si the Canucks might finish where Carolina ended up, and we won the #2 pick and we draft Svechnikov as well. Best case scenario for the Canucks in the 2018 draft would be for us to finish at a spot where we are able to draft Noah Dobson, but we might end up with Ty Smith instead as I still believe we would target a D man. 2018-2019: The Canucks was sniffing around the WC spot at around the all-star break. Lack of additional top 6 forward and depth scoring pretty much did the team in. With Tkachuk, I believe the team would be in the playoff race for much furhter, but still fell short. But we will probably draft somewhere between 12-14 in the 2019 draft. There is a good chance we would still end up picking Podkolzin with this pick, but we might end up with someone else. At the time of the draft, rumour has it that the Canucks really wanted to acquire a puck-moving defenseman, and the names involve were Tyson Barrie and PK Subban. There is a good chance we trade this pick for Tyson Barrie (JB's #1 target). With Tkachuk, we won't make the JT Miller trade, so it is more likely we use draft capital to acquire a PP defenseman. In summary, here are some possibilities of the new core: Possibility 1: Pettersson, Horvat, Tkachuk, Boeser and Dobson (imo, best case scenario if we draft Tkachuk) Possibility 2: Pettersson, Horvat, Tkachuk, Boeser and Ty Smith (this would suck as Smith is pretty much a bust) Possibility 3: Pettersson, Horvat, Tkachuk, Boeser and Svechnikov (if we win the #2 pick in 2019) There is also a possibility that we didn't pick Petey at #1 in 2017: Possibility 4: Makar, Horvat, Tkachuk, Boeser, Quinn Hughes (because without Pettersson in 2018-19 line up, we replace him with Tkachuk, we would finish close to where we actually finish in 2019). This would be an intriguing roster, and I wonder if we would still make a trade for Miller if that's the case as we needed another centre. Possiblity 5: Hischier, Horvat, Tkachuk, Boeser, Bouchard/Dobson/Smith (because we would have Hischier in the line up for the 2017-18 season, that would boost us a few more points so we won't be able to pick Quinn Hughes.) Possibility 6: Patrick, Horvat, Tkachuk, Boeser, Bouchard/Dobson/Smith (this would be one of the worst possibilities imo). There are endless possibilities what could and could not have happened. Even then, I am speculating base on the standings as if they would be in the years of 2017-2019. In reality, other teams, especially the Flames, who didn't end up with Tkachuk will make different moves to improve their roster. There would be trades and player movement that would happen that we would never know. The league would also be completely different. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alflives Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 How about we don’t hire the Moran who screwed up the draft in the first place? Then we take Pasta and Larkin. Then MT. We still get Petey and Hughes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baratheon Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 Lol idk why some are looking down their nose at this thread. It’s just for fun no? Don’t participate if you don’t find it fun. As for the OP itself. I’m not convinced that we draft Mittelstadt in this scenario. I think there’s a good chance that it would have been one of Vilardi or Necas. So my alternate history probably plays out a little bit differently. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LillStrimma Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 1 hour ago, HKSR said: A hypothetical walk down memory lane... what if the Canucks picked Tkachuk instead of Juolevi? Disclaimer: All for fun here. It's my rendition of what I think could have happened. Don't like it? Make your own post lol 2016 NHL Draft: "Canucks are proud to select, from the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League... Matthew Tkachuk". 2016-17 Season: Tkachuk comes in and plays as well as he did with Calgary. Canucks were still terrible though, and so instead of finishing last in the division, they only move up 1 spot in the division ahead of Arizona. 2017 NHL Draft: Canucks now select 7th instead of 5th. Rangers still have Arizona's pick and selected Elias Pettersson 5th OA. VGK still selects Glass, which leaves Mittlestadt as the selection for the Vancouver Canucks. 2017-18 Season: Tkachuk helps the Canucks move up another spot in the division with his 2nd season in the NHL. Canucks finish ahead of the Oilers and land in 6th place in the Pacific. 2018 NHL Draft: Chicago, Rangers, and Oilers all move up a spot in the draft as the Canucks pick 10th instead. Chicago lands Quinn Hughes, Rangers still select Kravtsov, and the Oilers select Boqvist. As many media outlets reported, the Canucks really liked Dobson, so they select Noah Dobson 10th OA. 2018-19 Season: With a 3rd year Tkachuk leading the charge next to Horvat and Boeser, the Canucks finish 5th in the division. 2019 NHL Draft: With a big, strong powerforward already in Tkachuk, rather than selecting Podkolzin, the Canucks select the highly skilled Matt Boldy from the USHL. 2019-20 Season: Tkachuk has another strong season playing on a line with newcomer fellow countryman JT Miller. Together they put up strong offensive numbers and push the Canucks into 2nd in the Pacific. 2020 NHL Draft: Canucks don't have a selection as they traded for JT Miller. 2020-21 Season: A covid impacted year, the Canucks struggle from illness and are also lacking a bonafide top pair defenceman to push them deeper into the playoffs. They finish last in the division and don't make it through the play-in round. 2021 NHL Draft: Canucks end up with the 6th OA selection due to their poor 2020-21 season. Knowing they need a LHD badly, they select Simon Edvinsson from Frolunda of the SHL. 2021-22 Season: Big season for Vancouver. Miller explodes for a 100pt season along with Tkachuk's 100pt+ season as well as Dobson and Boldy coming into their own. Canucks finish 1st in the division. 2022 NHL Draft: Canucks select Jiri Kulich 27th OA. 2022-23 Season: Another big year. With the emergence of Boldy, and Boeser's struggles, Boeser is traded away for the cap space. Canucks also attract KHL star Andrei Kuzmenko. Tkachuk, Miller, and Kuzmenko become one of the top lines in hockey. Secondary scoring comes from Horvat, Boldy, and Mittlestadt. Dobson continues to anchor the blueline, and the Canucks finish 3rd in the division. 2023 NHL Draft: Canucks select Oliver Bonk 22nd OA. Your new core of the Vancouver Canucks: Tkachuk, Miller, Horvat, Boldy, Dobson, Demko, Mittlestadt. Top prospects in the system: Kulich, Edvinsson, Bonk There you have it folks. Thoughts? Why don’t you try a thread where Benning goes for a few tanking years where we are bottom three for say 3 years. Wich players were around at those spots? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baratheon Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 5 minutes ago, LillStrimma said: Why don’t you try a thread where Benning goes for a few tanking years where we are bottom three for say 3 years. Wich players were around at those spots? He probably would have traded the pick for Jamie Benn or something like that…. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tas Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 there would have been at least one fewer meal that I was able to keep down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKSR Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 28 minutes ago, LillStrimma said: Why don’t you try a thread where Benning goes for a few tanking years where we are bottom three for say 3 years. Wich players were around at those spots? That's next week's post... stay tuned lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKSR Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 31 minutes ago, Baratheon said: Lol idk why some are looking down their nose at this thread. It’s just for fun no? Don’t participate if you don’t find it fun. As for the OP itself. I’m not convinced that we draft Mittelstadt in this scenario. I think there’s a good chance that it would have been one of Vilardi or Necas. So my alternate history probably plays out a little bit differently. I think some people didn't read the disclaimer in my original post lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Heffy Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 People here are really underestimating the problems having a gutless turtle with massive character issues would cause in the room. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwarrior Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 1 hour ago, HKSR said: Nope... Tkachuk likes the Vancouver climate, so re-signs here. No tradesies. Ok, I was going to say we end up dealing him to Florida and get saddled with that anchor that is Huberdeau's contract. But you have him signing here long term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil_314 Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 Tkachuk would be great and that forward group looks potent, but it depends how the rest of the defense around Dobson looks. We still don't know how Edvinsson will look so it's a big question mark on the back end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alflives Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 4 hours ago, King Heffy said: People here are really underestimating the problems having a gutless turtle with massive character issues would cause in the room. But Benning didn’t really go into the room. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuckin_futz Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 6 hours ago, HKSR said: Nah, it's the "I'm bored and done on a Friday afternoon at work" thread... Wait, you get paid to do this? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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