MAJOR | Rick Dhaliwal identifies the Canucks worst mistake in the 2016 Draft: It's not picking Juolevi over Tkachuk

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Felip Gosselin
May 25, 2023 (8:35 PM)

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Looking back on the 2016 Draft, it's quite hard to imagine that the Canucks would choose a Finnish defender instead of a franchise game-breaker winger in Matthew Tkachuk, son of the former, quite popular, Keith Tkachuk.

Olli Juolevi has now barely developed into an NHLer, while Tkachuk has been the tie-breaker in just about every game the Panthers have won so far in these playoffs. Vancouver picked Juoeliv 5th, while Calgary got the upper hand with Tkachuk 6th.

Rick Dhaliwal discussed this subject in his sequence earlier today and he was quite sure the Canucks' mistake wasn't to 'NOT' pick Tkachuck, but rather to pick Juolevi. As he stated, the Canucks had selected forwards in the first round for eleven straight years and they felt the need to draft a defenseman, Rick Dhaliwal agrees with that mentality which is why he strongly believes that the Canucks' true mistake was much different.

He mentioned that the mistake was to draft Juolevi (5th) prior to Mikhail Sergachev (9th), Charlie McAvoy (14th), or even Jakob Chrychrun (16th). There all game-breaking defensemen whereas Olli Juolevi is barely an AHLer.

While he makes a valid point that the Canucks screwed up badly, Donnie brought him back on earth saying that they should have picked the best player available whatsoever. Matthew Tkachuk (6th), Clayton Keller (7th), Mikhail Sergachev (9th), Charlie McAvoy (14th), Jakob Chychrun (16th), Tage Thompson (26th), Jordan Kyrou (35th), Alex Debrincat (39th). All impact players that could've been picked before Juoelvi whose development had already stagnated in 2016.