The Vancouver Canucks finally won the draft lottery.
Sort of.
The NHL brought back the player draft for this year’s edition of the All-Star Game, with Canucks captain Quinn Hughes named as the captain of one of the four All-Star teams. Joining him as co-captain were his brother, Jack Hughes, who is injured and won’t be playing in the game, and crooner and Canucks fan Michael Bublé, as well as Elias Pettersson as alternate captain.
When it came time for the draft, Team Hughes won the lottery, with an inaudible Wayne Gretzky revealing a picture of Michael Bublé to show who would be picking first overall. It was the first of many awkward moments for the draft.
Hughes snubs his Canucks teammates with first pick
Given the opportunity to pick first and build an all-Canuck team, Hughes and his compatriots instead took the approach of every general manager in a draft and went with the best player available: the NHL’s leading scorer, Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It seemed like Hughes would start going with Canucks after when he took Thatcher Demko with his second pick bit then threw a curveball with the Winnipeg Jets’ Kyle Connor, who was a late addition to the All-Star Game in place of the injured Jack Eichel.
With their fourth and fifth picks, Team Hughes still eschewed Canucks.
“Do you think Brock will be mad?” asked one of the four co-conspirators, likely Quinn, on their hot mics as they debated their fourth pick. “He’ll be okay,” said one of the others, possibly Jack.
Eventually, Hughes went with his longtime friend Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators, then did his brother a favour by picking his New Jersey Devils teammate, Jesper Bratt, fifth.
"We can try to trade for Millsy after."
It was an unexpected sequence of events but there were some suggestions that Hughes might have worked out some side deals with the other team captains, Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, and Connor McDavid to ensure that he got all of his Canucks teammates.
That was hinted at by Matthews at one point and seemingly confirmed by Hughes before they picked Bratt.
“We’re going to have five Canucks no matter what,” said Hughes, “And then we can try to trade for Millsy after.”
“Hot mic,” cautioned Pettersson with a grin.
The plan, then, seemed to be to take two of the three remaining Canucks — as well as one of the goaltenders, which was a requirement — with their final three picks, leaving J.T. Miller for last. The final four players wouldn’t be picked but instead sorted randomly into the four teams, so the Canucks could hope to get Miller by chance or trade whoever they got for Miller.
"I told Quinn that he should take Lindy before me."
Things almost went according to plan. Sure, they botched their sixth pick, where they were required to take a goaltender but announced Brock Boeser instead, forcing Boeser to skate back to his seat while looking forlornly back over his shoulder.
Team Hughes took Los Angeles Kings goaltender Cam Talbot with their sixth pick instead, then took Boeser with their seventh pick after a commercial break.
“Nothing that happens tonight better cost me a Stanley Cup,” quipped Bublé before the Boeser pick, seemingly hoping that their decision to wait to pick Canucks wouldn’t cause a locker room rift.
That’s when Tate McRae, the celebrity co-captain for Team MacKinnon, threw a wrench in the works by picking a player from her favourite team, the Calgary Flames. Or, rather, a player who was on the Flames up until Wednesday: Elias Lindholm.
It’s a possibility that Boeser had hoped to avoid.
“Hopefully, Quinn just drafts [Lindholm] right away so we’re all on the same team,” said Boeser on the All-Star red carpet before the draft. “I told Quinn that he should take Lindy before me.”
"I feel bad we made you wait that long."
That took Lindholm off the board for Team Hughes, who were able to pick Miller rather than hoping for random chance.
“I feel bad we made you wait that long,” said Hughes as he gave Miller a hug.
That left their final player up to chance and they got the Anaheim Ducks’ Frank Vatrano.
The Canucks regrettably weren’t able to work a trade to get Lindholm from Team MacKinnon, which means Quinn Hughes evidently isn’t as good of a general manager as Patrik Allvin.
The NHL’s choice to mic up all of the captains, co-captains, and alternate captains led to some chaos, as there was plenty of cross-talk throughout, but it did lead to some unintentionally hilarious moments, even beyond Hughes unintentionally revealing his draft strategy.
The best of those moments was definitely the two Edmonton Oilers picking Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck with their first pick, with Draisaitl loudly declaring, “We need goaltending.”
I mean, Stuart Skinner was just named the NHL’s second star for January, but the Oilers probably do still need goaltending.
Bublé jokes that All-Star draft felt like he was on mushrooms
The goofiest moment came after the All-Star draft, however, as Michael Bublé stepped up to the podium for a press conference
“My buddy told me this is just a microdose of mushrooms and he was lying,” said Bublé. “So, I’ll be honest, I thought I was in Blades of Glory for most of the time that I was out there until it sort of settled down and then I realized, ‘Holy shit, I’m at the NHL All-Star Game.’”
Bublé clarified that it was a joke to professional sports-yeller Steve Dangle shortly after.
Here’s the final roster for Team Hughes:
- Quinn Hughes
- Elias Pettersson
- Nikita Kucherov
- Thatcher Demko
- Kyle Connor
- Brady Tkachuk
- Jesper Bratt
- Cam Talbot
- Brock Boeser
- J.T. Miller
- Frank Vatrano
