Steven Ellis/The Hockey News
Welcome to the first 2023 edition of Screen Shots, a THN.com regular feature in which we tackle a few hockey topics and analyze them in a few paragraphs. You know how this works by now, right? Onward we go:
The NHL revealed most of the rosters for the league’s upcoming All-Star Game in South Florida. The best news is that the league has decided to give a portion of the vote back to the fans. People can vote at NHL.com/Vote, and there’s a Twitter element as well, with fans allowed to vote from Jan 12-14 using the hashtag #NHLAllStarVote.
Some people aren’t going to like the league’s decision to hand over part of the All-Star process to the Average Joe and Jolene, but in this writer’s opinion, there’s nothing wrong with allowing the NHL’s paying customers to invest more of their time and emotions into the All-Star Game.
We all know the challenges the league faces in making the All-Star Weekend as competitive as they can, and if that means there’s a John Scott situation again, that’s not the worst thing in the world. People still remember Scott being voted in, and that’s what you want out of a relatively superfluous event like the All-Star Game. And we know who the true all-stars are at the end of the season when observers cast their ballots for the first and second all-star teams.
The All-Star Game is known in the industry as a thank-you to NHL sponsors, but increased fan engagement is important, too. The league can still identify the best-of-the-best by revealing most of the rosters the way they have this year, but there’s something positive about listening to fans’ voices. This system feels like a good compromise.
The Seattle Kraken followed up elite prospect Shane Wright’s terrific performance at the World Junior Championship by assigning Wright to the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs on Friday.
Wright, who scored Team Canada’s second goal in their gold-medal-winning game Thursday, celebrated his 19th birthday by earning gold. But rather than keeping him on the NHL roster and having him play less than 10 minutes per game, the Kraken made the proper choice for his development.
Team executives talk all the time about putting young players in positions to succeed, and having Wright dominate in junior – whether as a member of the Frontenacs or as a traded player to a different OHL team – is far better for his confidence than being a pine. -rider on an NHL team trying to make the playoffs.
Seattle GM Ron Francis could’ve kept Wright around, but he isn’t going to thrive at the NHL level – at least, not right away. And that’s no slight to Wright. Virtually all NHLers need some seasoning after they’ve been drafted, and Wright isn’t going to be hurt by returning to a level he’s already had much success at.
If Wright is playing in the AHL this time next season, it’ll be fair to start worrying about his career trajectory. But right now, time is on the side of the team and the individual.
Wright can go about his business without the pressure the NHL brings to its young players. And his career should be better for it.
Finally, let’s take a moment to revisit this piece we put together in late November on the woebegone Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks have played decently enough to put themselves on the fringes of the playoff race, but each time they sneak back toward the .500 mark, they lay eggs and fall back in the Pacific Division standings.
Right now, they’re six points behind Calgary for the final wild-card slot in the Western Conference, but don’t let that fool you into thinking they’re on the brink of doing something good. The reality is there are four teams above them in the race for the second wild-card berth, and the last thing this team needs is a sixth-place finish in the Pacific with no playoff games this spring and remote odds at landing generational talent Connor Bedard in the 2023 NHL draft.
Does that mean we think they should tank the rest of the year? Yes, yes it does mean that. We said it in that November column, and it’s still true today: Canucks fans will willingly accept a massive rebuild if it means coming away with a cornerstone player like Bedard.
Even if they don’t land the top draft pick, Vancouver could wind up with an elite youngster like Adam Fantilli or Matvei Michkov; both youngsters are projected to be difference-makers down the line, which should be good enough for the Canucks. They’re not going to land that type of player by trading away forwards Bo Horvat or Brock Boeser. The only way to get them long-term contributors is through the draft.
Acknowledging that, and going full-steam-ahead with a full rebuild, makes the most sense for the organization.
.