Not many expected the Vancouver Canucks to be in serious playoff contention at the halfway mark of the 2016-17 season. Yet, here they are, just one point away from a wild-card spot 48 games in.
While the Canucks are barely better this season than they were in 2015-16, we need to keep their chance of success in mind looking at the draft.
Michael Schuckers has done some great work developing draft pick values, and I recommend that you give it a read. If you want to skip that and just look at the outcome, here is a great visualisation by Sean Tierney:
From first overall to around 25th, there is a huge drop-off in value.