The NHL draft turns into a total crapshoot no later than the fourth round, so the Vancouver Canucks better hope their scouting staff did a good job. Because if they did, they could well end up with some late-round steals.
Now when I say late-round steal, I’m not necessarily talking about the Patric Hornqvists, Henrik Zetterbergs and Joe Pavelskis of this world. Simply getting a player that makes the NHL full time would be a huge success. That’s pretty much the only goal late in the draft.
One of the players that might have a shot at making it is WHL forward Justing Almeida, although he has a long way ahead of him, and is not a lock to be drafted at all.