If you could go back in time and change a Canucks draft pick, who would it be?

Like most NHL teams, the Vancouver Canucks have had their fair share of misses at the draft. But which one is the greatest miss of all? That’s the question we’re going to try to answer today.

We want to dive further into this exercise. Don’t just give us a name and say, “this player drafted after them put had a better career, so this is my pick.” This is about giving the Canucks the best chance to win it all, with hindsight at our disposal.

Would Matthew Tkachuk really have been enough for those Jim Benning-led Canucks teams to be a playoff contender, let alone win a Stanley Cup? It’s doubtful, and that’s ignoring the possibility that Tkachuk would have wanted out of Vancouver the same way he wanted out of Calgary. These aren’t the kind of picks we’re looking for, because this isn’t a list of “who are the biggest draft busts in Canucks history?”. You’re correct that Olli Juolevi would find his name on that list, but that’s not what we’re doing today.

Rather, we want to go deep into the Canucks’ history books, and we want to hear your wild takes about what a different selection could have meant for the Canucks in the end. For example: What if the Canucks had selected Nelson, BC-born Pat Price with the 10th overall pick in 1975 instead of Rick Blight? Price — who went just one pick later to the New York Islanders — had the best statistical year of his career in 1981-82, while Blight was already out of the NHL at that point. Could Price have been the missing piece to help the Canucks capture their first Stanley Cup in 1982? Likely not, considering just how dominant that Islanders dynasty was, but hopefully now you get the exercise at hand.

If you could go back in time and change any Canucks draft pick, who would it be and why? Let’s examine some quality options.

Cody Hodgson – 10th overall in 2008 NHL Entry Draft

Cody Hodgson’s NHL career came to an unfortunate end after health issues forced him to retire at age 26. Hodgson struggled to find his footing as a young player, playing just 71 games with the Canucks before being dealt to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Zack Kassian. But what if the Canucks had used that draft pick and drafted Erik Karlsson (15th overall to Ottawa) or Tyler Myers (12th overall to Buffalo)? Karlsson specifically was on the cusp of emerging as one of the game’s elite defenceman during the 2010-11 season… could he have helped the 2011 Canucks get the job done? Even if your answer is no, adding a young defenceman of Karlsson’s calibre almost certainly would have extended the Canucks’ competitive window through the 2010s and the twilight of Henrik and Daniel Sedin’s careers.

Jake Virtanen – 6th overall in 2014 NHL Entry Draft

Jake Virtanen was a common response when we recently asked Canucks fans who the biggest bust in Canucks history was. On top of having his conditioning called out at multiple training camps throughout his Canucks career (something that shouldn’t really be a talking point for a pro athlete, let alone one as young as Virtanen was), Virtanen never put up the point totals to warrant getting any leash with his lack of defensive ability and overall hockey IQ. After signing a PTO with the Edmonton Oilers in 2021, Virtanen didn’t make the team and hasn’t played an NHL game since. Most recently, he finished 10th in team scoring on the Iserlohn Roosters of the DEL.

William Nylander was taken just two picks after Virtanen at 8th overall, but the same logic we brought up earlier regarding Juolevi could apply here. Would William Nylander have been enough to get those mid-2010s Canucks teams over the hump? Maybe not, but an argument could be made given that Nylander has stuck around in a Canadian market his entire career and is one of few Toronto Maple Leafs players who truly seems to give a you know what come playoff time.

Jared McCann – 24th overall in 2014 NHL Entry Draft

Now, the title of this article isn’t “If you could change any two Canucks draft picks, who would it be?”, but if it were, there’s a case to be made for McCann as well. Even though McCann is a fine NHL player and the Canucks used him as a surplus value asset to land them Erik Gudbranson — a player they thought very highly of — if the Canucks had walked away from the 2014 NHL Draft with both David Pastrnak — taken one pick after McCann — and Nylander, well, then we’re talking about that potentially being enough to win it all. Hindsight is 20/20 though, and the Canucks weren’t the only team to pass on Pastrnak. They were the last team to pass on him, however, and that is at least worth mentioning.

Patrick White – 25th overall in 2007 NHL Entry Draft

Another popular pick when we asked fans for the biggest draft bust in Canucks history was Patrick White. White never played an NHL game and retired after a six-year pro career spent entirely overseas in Europe. White is certainly an interesting name for this exercise, given that players taken in this draft class would have been reinforcements for the 2011 core and would have grown alongside the Sedins during the early-mid 2010s. Some of those names: Jamie Benn (129th overall to Dallas), Wayne Simmonds (61st overall to Los Angeles), David Perron (26th overall to St. Louis), and PK Subban (43rd overall to Montreal).

Our final answer: Michael Grabner – 14th overall in 2006 NHL Entry Draft

Michael Grabner was a fine player and was somebody the Canucks traded for additional help for the 2011 team. But in this perfect scenario, if we could change any draft pick in Canucks history, we’d likely advise the Canucks to take Milan Lucic at 14th overall. Of course, this would have prevented the Boston Bruins from later selecting Lucic 50th overall in the second round, and likely means the 2011 Bruins aren’t nearly as good and nasty of a team as they ended up being. This is ultimately this author’s pick to rewrite the Canucks’ history books.

With the benefit of hindsight, which Canucks draft pick would you go back and change?