LATEST | The Canucks have set their eyes on a humongous goaltender heading into the draft

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Felip Gosselin
May 21, 2023 (6:59 PM)

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The Canucks have lots of work to do heading on to the draft as they currently own 6 draft picks in the first 4 rounds of the draft. While the needs for centermen and defensemen have been identified, you always need to consider every other position.

In the last few years the Canucks have had a tendency of drafting project goaltenders in the later round of the draft:

2022: Ty Young (5th - 144 OA)
2021: Aku Koskenvuo (5th - 137 OA)
2020: N/A
2019: Arturs Silovs (6th - 156 OA)

At this point, only Silovs is under contract and with the team. His development has given early vibes of a potential steal since he's one of only 5 goaltenders who have taken part in NHL games from that draft class.

Now it appears that Chris Faber has potentially highlighted the next project goaltender the Canucks will be aiming for. In a recent tweet, he referred to a 6'6'' Italian who currently plays in Sweden named Damian Clara.

''It's all about the 6'6» Italian who plays in Sweden.''

It's well known that the Canucks goaltending coach likes to work with big-bodied netminders. Clara sure fits the bill, currently ranked as the 6th best EU goalie, he was great in Sweden where he was awarded 2 starts in the Hockey Allsvenskan where he stopped 93.6% of the shots that came his way.

There is a clear line of resemblance to be drawn between him and Silovs. Two big-bodied goaltenders coming from unusual hockey developing countries Silovs are Latvian while Clara is Italian, meaning the ceiling to his potential could be very unexploited.