It’s the final day of the ultimate, all-time Canucks fantasy draft and we’ve got two rounds to go.
Quick recap: I recruited a crew of Canucks writers to each draft a team from throughout the history of the Vancouver Canucks. Each team must have three forwards, two defencemen, a goaltender, a coach, and a wild card.
Those Canucks writers are myself, Rob “The Hockey Guy” Williams and Omarcanuck of The Daily Hive, Ryan Biech and Jeremy Davis of Canucks Army, Wyatt “The Stanchion” Arndt of various publications, and Patrick Johnston of The Province/Vancouver Sun, who missed the draft and selected his team from the leftovers.
In these final two rounds, things get a bit tougher as our draftists have to fill out their last remaining requirements.
Rob: Time for a goaltender: Gary “Suitcase” Smith. The best-ever Canucks nickname and the most underrated Canucks goalie of all-time. Also had a badass moustache/sideburns combo. On top of that, he was even fifth in Hart Trophy voting in 1975.
Ryan: The rules didn't stipulate that I had to pick a head coach, so I figured I would snag Newell Brown, the PP architect, to continue my 2011 theme. He worked wonders with the Canucks powerplay that was a huge part of their attack and got them within one game of winning the Stanley Cup.
Interested to see how he handles the Canucks current crop.
Jeremy: Kevin Bieksa. The anguish and drama of Bieksa's final season as a Canuck and the player he has become with the Ducks makes it easy to forget that he was in fact a very productive defenceman, topping 40 points in all three seasons in which he played at least 70 games. But it's his off-ice antics that will be remembered most fondly, from one-punching Fedor Fedorov in training camp, to messing with Dan Murphy in intermissions, to his work with mental health initiatives. Also, the stanchion goal was pretty good.
Daniel: I still can’t believe they dropped confetti on the ice while the referees were still conferring to see if it was a good goal.
For my final defenceman, I’m going with Dennis Kearns, the team’s best defenceman in the 70’s. While he suffered from playing for some pretty lousy teams that decade, Kearns was a smooth-skating, puck-moving defenceman who is still tied for second among defencemen in scoring for the Canucks and still holds the franchise record for assists from a defenceman.
Wyatt: I can’t believe you guys left him until the seventh round. Hockey Hall of Famer. Canucks Legend. Toronto Maple Leafs Killer. When you want to build a Canucks super unit, it starts and ends with this man: Mats Sundin. Best part? He only needs half a season to kick ass. Guy is efficient as it gets.
Omar: I’m taking Tony Tanti. He's 8th all time in Canucks scoring. He scored 0.471 goals per game as a Canuck, more than Mogilny and behind only Bure. And don't give me that different era stuff — it doesn't play here. I just want offence. Tanti gives me offence.
Wyatt: Amazing late round pick. But Sundin is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Is Tanti in the Hockey Hall of Fame? No.
Omar: All I have left is my wild card, so I’m taking Eddie Lack. Not only is my team going to win on the ice, it'll dominate Twitter too. You need guys like Lack to bring a room together. You'll see.
Ryan: NOOOOOOO! Lack was my last chance to get a decent goaltender for my 2011 theme!
Daniel: Hahahaha! Should have saved your weird Newell Brown pick for the eighth round.
Wyatt: My last pick is Dana Murzyn. Every team needs a scapegoat, right? Murzyn has years of experience of dealing with angry crowds screaming obscenities at him. You think Mogilny is ready for the fans wrath? Or Ronning? They'll break in two seconds. Not Murzyn though. He's a pylon of strength out there. A pylon of durability. A pylon.
Daniel: My wild card is none other than the Algonquin Assassin: Gino Odjick. A legendary enforcer and Pavel Bure’s best friend, he’s the franchise leader in penalty minutes with 2127, 459 more than Garth Butcher, who is second on the list. He’s mostly remembered for his fights, like when shirtlessly challenged the entire St. Louis Blues roster during the playoffs, but he had 16 goals during the 1993-94 season! Like Harrison Ford's percentage of Jewishness, that’s not too shabby!
Jeremy: The fact that Stan “The Steamer” Smyl is still available in the final round is obviously some sort of egregious mistake by all involved, especially with Thomas Gradin going in the fourth round. Smyl and Gradin were quite a dynamic duo back in the day, with each of them breaking single-season and all-time team point records in alternating seasons for a few years.
Gradin ended up with a considerably better points per game rate, due in large part to Smyl sticking with the Canucks late into his career, but if Smyl left the Canucks after playing the same number of games as Gradin did, their point rates would be nearly identical. This is an absolute steal in the eighth round, and I should probably get bonus points for that.
Daniel: There are no bonus points. You take the points you get and you accept it. But really, getting one of the four retired Canucks in the final round, not to mention the franchise’s fifth leading scorer, is pretty ridiculous.
Ryan: Oh boy. I wanted to get one of the 2011 goalies, Roberto Luongo or Cory Schneider, but they both went early. The number three goalie that year was Eddie Lack, who Omar just took. So I have to go with the fourth stringer: Tyler Weiman.
I honestly had thought it was Drew MacIntyre, as he was a staple in Manitoba with Cory Schneider and in Chicago the years before 2011. After that season, Weiman played in the DEL for a couple of seasons. Then moved to Italy, and is now playing in the Asia League.
Hopefully, my high powered offence and memories of 2011 can make the poor goaltending forgettable.
Daniel: You could have picked Ryan Miller or Richard Brodeur or even Arturs Irbe. Instead, you picked Tyler Weiman, who literally never played a game for the Canucks. I think you’ve taken your 2011 obsession too far.
Rob: For the final pick of the draft and my wild card, it’s time for a deep cut: Robin Bawa. Played two games, and in one of them smashed right through the glass at the Pacific Coliseum. Also, he was the first player of Indian descent to play in the NHL.
Daniel: A respectable, if unexpected, choice.
That’s it for the picks! The teams are locked in, except for Patrick Johnston’s leftovers team. He has quite the collection of players to choose from, as some of our draftists’ commitment to their theme left better players on the board.
Come back Friday to see Patrick’s selections, as well as to vote on your favourite All-Time Canucks Fantasy Team.
