After the dust of the first round of the NHL draft settled the Vancouver left what they came with: A 10th overall draft pick. After much speculation that the pick might be included into a package to trade for some offensive help now.
At the end of the day GM Mike Gillis decided he did not get any offers suitable enough to give up on a top 10 pick in what is perceived to be a very deep draft.
So what did the Canucks get with that 10th pick?
The Canucks selected 6 foot, 185 pound center, Cody Hodgson. Hodgson was listed 9th overall by the International Scouting Services, and has been praised for his intelligence and hockey sense.
Before the draft GM Gillis repeatedly stated that intelligence and character were two very important things to him in choosing a player to draft, which might have given Hodgson the edge over Vancouver native Kyle Beach, who many guessed might be the Canucks possible pick.
Beach ended up being selected one pick later, 11th, by the Chicago Blackhawks. One area Hodgson may need to improve on is his skating and overall speed.
Hodgson was the captain of Team Canada's gold medal winning team at this year's Under-18 Championship, he also led the tournament in scoring, besting fellow top 10 pick Nikita Filatov.
Hodgson recorded 40 goals and 85 points in 68 games with the Brampton Battalion of the OHL this past season.
It remains to be seen when Hodgson will first play with the Canucks, but I'd expect to see him sooner rather than later as the Canucks could desperately use some added offensive punch down the middle.
Gillis told TSN "He's a great young player. He's got terrific leadership skills. He fits into our plans as soon as he's able to make our hockey club. We expect to give him a great opportunity and we'll see what he does with it.
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3 months ago
i think this is a good pick and will help them greatly
3 months ago
Yes, Hodgson is exactly what this team needs. It might be a bit much to ask him to jump right in and play on the 2nd line, but ideally that's what will happen here. Realistically though he will probably go back to Junior for 1 more year and you'll see him in the Canucks top 6 the year after this coming year.
Seems like a very, very solid pick though. Should almost certainly turn into at worst our 2nd line center one day, mostly likely a 1st line center.
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