LATEST | BC native on the verge of cracking an NHL Roster: Canucks regretting the Willander selection?
The 2023-24 season is almost here, and teams are beginning to put the final touches on their opening night rosters.
Several rookies will be to watch this season across the National Hockey League, including Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, and Logan Cooley, who were expected to be on their team's roster right from the day camp opened. But there's one player, a British Columbia native, who's about to make his team's opening night roster when everyone thought he'd return to the Western Hockey League.
At Buffalo Sabres practice on Thursday morning, 18-year-old Zach Benson was skating on the top line with Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner, and after the camp he's had, it looks like he'll be a shoo-in to make the team's opening night roster next week.
Benson, a native of Chilliwack, had a fantastic draft year with the Winnipeg Ice in the Western Hockey League, playing alongside his fellow Sabres prospect Matthew Savoie. Benson finished the season with 98 points (36 goals, 62 assists) in 60 games and was undoubtedly going to be a top-15 pick heading into June's draft. Ultimately, Benson went 13th to the Sabres, two choices after the Vancouver Canucks selected right-shot defenceman Tom Willander.
Benson was one of the names on Vancouver's radar leading up to the draft. Still, they decided to go with a right-shot defenceman in Tom Willander, which is hard to find, and the Swedish blueliner could potentially become the perfect partner for Quinn Hughes once he's done at Boston University.
It was a tough choice for Patrik Allvin and the management group on who to take with the 11th overall pick, as several good options were still on the board, including Benson and Willander. If you were the Canucks General Manager, who would you have selected with the 11th overall pick? Let us know your thoughts in the poll below!
| POLL | ||
If you were General Manager of the Canucks, who would you have taken 11th overall in June? | ||
| Tom Willander | 357 | 44.2 % |
| Zach Benson | 255 | 31.6 % |
| Other (But, Yager, Sandin-Pellikka, etc.) | 53 | 6.6 % |
| See Results | 143 | 17.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
