Welcome back to the next instalment of our NHL Draft lookbacks here at CanucksArmy. So far this offseason, we’ve looked at Brock Boeser (10 years later), Quinn Hughes (8 years later), and are more than open to suggestions of who else we should tackle!
Next up is Nils Höglander, who the Canucks selected with the 40th overall pick at the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver.
Some Key First Round Misses
This was fittingly known as the Jack Hughes draft. The New Jersey Devils selected the middle Hughes brother at first overall, and the New York Rangers grabbed Kaapo Kakko at second overall.
In comparison to the other draft classes we’ve looked at, 2019 was a fairly disappointing one. There were some key misses, such as LA taking Alex Turcotte fifth overall, Victor Soderstrom going to Arizona at 11th, and yes, the Canucks selecting Vasily Podkolzin at 10th overall. In a redraft, Matt Boldy, selected 12th overall by the Minnesota Wild, likely goes second overall.
Value in the Second Round
Thankfully for the Canucks — as well as many other teams, actually — they were able to find some value in the second round of this draft class. While the Canucks took Nils Höglander at 40th overall, nine other teams were more than happy with their second round selections.
There were eight players selected in the first round who have yet to play over 100 NHL games. Meanwhile, in the second round, there were 20 (not including goalies) who haven’t yet played 100 NHL games. To put that into perspective, just seven players from the first round of the 2020 NHL Draft have yet to play 100 NHL games. In the second round, however, just five players have reached that mark.
For whatever reason, there was more value found in the second round of the 2019 Draft than we’re typically used to seeing. Some names taken in the second round: Shane Pinto, Arthur Kaliyev, Bobby Brink, Pyotr Kochetkov, Jackson LaCombe, Alex Vlasic, Nicholas Robertson, and Brett Leason.
How Höglander stacks up
Despite spending most of the 2022-23 season with the Abbotsford Canucks, Höglander has played the seventh-most NHL games of anyone taken in the 2019 draft. His 293 games is more than anyone taken outside of the first round has played, with Matias Maccelli (93rd overall to Arizona) bringing up the rear in that category with 224 games under his belt.
Höglander also ranks seventh in NHL goals among this draft class with 58. His 115 points is the 11th-highest total of the class.
These stats are perhaps even more impressive given the context of Höglander’s disappointing 2024-25 campaign, where after scoring 24 even-strength goals in 2023-24, Höglander tallied just eight goals and 17 assists this past season.
The list of players taken ahead of Höglander who have played fewer games than him is too long to write out, so we’ll shorten it to the amount of players drafted higher than him who have logged under 200 NHL games (not including goalies): Alex Turcotte, Philip Broberg, Victor Soderstrom, Thomas Harley, Lassi Thomson, Ville Heinola, Sam Poulin, Tobias Bjornfot, Jakob Pelletier, Nolan Foote, Ryan Suzuki, Brayden Tracey, John Beecher, Ryan Johnson, Bobby Brink, Antti Tuomisto, Raphael Lavoie, and Jackson LaCombe.
Conclusion
While it may have been a down year for Höglander, the Canucks still did extremely well when they drafted him at 40th overall. Finding value outside of the first round is important for teams, and if Höglander can bounce back and be a 20-goal scorer once again, he’ll continue to separate himself from what turned out to be a fairly weak draft class.
