Who do Canucks fans want at third overall?

By now, you’ve heard the news.

The Vancouver Canucks did not win the first overall pick at the NHL Draft Lottery and the first chance to draft Gavin McKenna. To make matters worse, it was the Toronto Maple Leafs who jumped up four spots to get that opportunity at June’s draft instead.

Truly, it was a nightmare scenario of sorts for Canucks fans on Tuesday night.

The San Jose Sharks jumped up seven spots to second overall as well, bumping the 32nd-ranked Canucks down to third overall.

Who do Canucks fans want to see drafted at third overall?

Overwhelmingly, people responded with genuine sadness and bitterness that the historically unlucky — dare we say cursed — Canucks once again fell down the draft rankings.

A good number of people also brought up the idea that, because the forward-prospect-heavy San Jose Sharks won the second overall pick, there’s a world where they pass on winger Ivar Stenberg and instead choose to add a defenceman like Chase Reid, Keaton Verhoeff, or Carson Carels to their fairly weak defence prospect pipeline. We’ll explore that idea more in depth later today, but it brings up a good point, so let’s just get that out of the way now. If Ivar Stenberg is available when the Canucks select at third overall, that’s who the Canucks should select. 

But since that’s not exactly a likely outcome, we’re going to explore the other names, most of whom are almost guaranteed to be available at third overall.

Caleb Malhotra

By far, Caleb Malhotra is one of the more popular names among Canucks fans right now. The son of Abbotsford Canucks head coach and ex-Canuck player Manny Malhotra, Caleb Malhotra added an exclamation point to a strong first season in the OHL when he put up 13 goals and 13 assists through 15 playoff games with the Brantford Bulldogs.