General Manager Patrik Allvin says he's had plenty of inquiries about Canucks first round pick
The Vancouver Canucks 11th overall pick in next Wednesday's first round of the National Hockey League Draft is a hot commodity. That is according to General Manager Patrik Allvin. Now, some of this may be a smokescreen inside a week from the draft in Nashville. But the man overseeing the hockey club says he's getting plenty of inquiries from colleagues around the league about the first round pick the Canucks currently possess.
"There is a lot of calls regarding pick number 11," Allvin told reporters on Wednesday afternoon in a media availability at Rogers Arena. "I'm looking at options if we're going to trade up -- if that's something we have a chance to do to get a player that the scouting staff has identified to be a more intriguing player than the one we're going to get at 11."
The suggestion that the Canucks could move up in the draft comes as a bit of a surprise given most suggestions over the past weeks had been that the team was a realistic candidate to move back in the opening round in an attempt to gain assets. Last Friday's massive buyout of Oliver Ekman-Larsson has created cap space and removed the shackles from Allvin in terms of his ability to manoeuvre at the draft and into free agency.
So perhaps it's not as long a shot as it once was for the Canucks to look at trading into the top 10 next week in Nashville. However, that will come at a cost and the Canucks are not flush with trade chips to use in such a deal. The team does not currently own a second round selection in this year's draft.
"I was told by Brian Burke that you can always move up in the draft," Allvin said with a laugh alluding to the 1999 draft blockbuster that landed the Canucks Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
While it is highly unlikely to see the Canucks swing for the fences and find a way into the top five of this year's draft, if there is a player they covet that is still on the board by the time the seventh and eighth picks roll around, it's not out of the question the Canucks could try to concoct a deal.
The best guess here, however, is that a team with very little in the way of high-end prospects in its pipeline will hold on to the 11th overall selection and make the pick.