Vancouver Canucks Appeared to Complete Biggest Draft Steal According to New Reports
Photo credit: Sergei Belski - USA TODAY Sports
The Vancouver Canucks appeared to complete biggest steal on Day 2 of the National Hockey League's Entry Draft back in 2019, some new analysis suggests.
Vancouver's amateur scouting department has done a pretty good job at identifying talent for the club to select in the NHL Entry Draft for a number of years now, most recently Braeden Cootes, who was selected 15th overall nearly a month ago.
Among some other notable successful selections made by the club in the last decade or so include goaltender Thatcher Demko, forwards Brock Boeser & Elias Pettersson, along with the club's current captain, Quinn Hughes.
While he might not get as much recognition as he should, forward Nils Hoglander deserves to be mentioned as a success story for the Vancouver Canucks' scouting staff and despite a down year during the 2024-25 campaign, he's poised to bounce back, with the Swede already hard at work preparing for training camp.
Vancouver Canucks' Nils Hoglander may be steal of 2019 NHL Entry Draft
While he may have been a second round pick in 2019, going 40th overall to the Canucks, Nils Hoglander currently ranks seventh in that class in games played (293) and 12th in points (115) and no disrespect to the 24-year-old, but that's year's draft is shaping up to be one of the worst in last 10-15 years.
Hoglander certainly had the talent required to be a first round pick in the NHL Entry Draft during the 2018-19 season, however his small stature likely played a role in him dropping to 40th overall, which the Vancouver Canucks were quite happy about then and certainly still are to this day.
In an article on Canucks Army recently, David Quadrelli took a look at how Nils Hoglander has performed at the National Hockey League level compared to others from the 2019 draft class.
Understandably given what Hoglander has brought to the Vancouver Canucks in recent years - including a 24-goal campaign two seasons ago - Quadrelli believes the team did an excellent job drafting him with in the second round back in 2019.
"While it may have been a down year for Höglander, the Canucks still did extremely well when they drafted him at 40th overall. Finding value outside of the first round is important for teams, and if Höglander can bounce back and be a 20-goal scorer once again, he'll continue to separate himself from what turned out to be a fairly weak draft class." Quadrelli said.
Heading into the 2025-26 campaign, Hoglander has recorded more points in his career than 22 first round picks, including Alex Turcotte, the fifth overall selection of the Los Angeles Kings.
The Bocktrask, Sweden native also has the third-most points of any player in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft selected outside of the first round, with Toronto's Matias Maccelli (130) and Washington's Aleksei Protas (119) being the only names ahead of him.
It's going to be a big year for Nils Hoglander and if the Vancouver Canucks are unable to add another top-six forward, he could play a significant role right out of the gate, potentially on a line with Evander Kane and Filip Chytil, who could help him get back to being a 20-goal scorer.
Source: Canucks Army/David Quadrelli
Canucks: 6 years later, how does Nils Hoglander stack up to the rest of the 2019 draft class?
Canucks: 6 years later, how does Nils Hoglander stack up to the rest of the 2019 draft class?
Previously on CanucksDaily
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