On the second day of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, the Vancouver Canucks drafted five players, three of which were overage forwards. To imagine that half of the year’s draft class was a bunch of second-tier talent some of whom were passed over the year previous is certainly not a pleasant notion.
Perhaps it all started when Pierre-Luc Dubois and Jesse Puljujarvi swapped places on day one. But just as picking Olli Juolevi with the fifth-overall pick was a reach that the Canucks had to make to shore up the blueline, day two’s “reach” picks seem to be ones that the Canucks almost had to make.