{"id":766281,"date":"2026-06-28T06:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T06:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/766281\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T06:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T06:51:07","slug":"nhl-draft-analysis-vancouver-canucks-bet-on-size-and-speed-with-adam-novotny-at-24th-overall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/766281\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Draft Analysis: Vancouver Canucks bet on size and speed with Adam Novotn\u00fd at 24th overall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Quinn Hughes trade is now complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In return for trading the franchise defenceman to the Minnesota Wild, the Vancouver Canucks received Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam \u00d6hgren, and Adam Novotn\u00fd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a long while, that last spot was “first-round pick.” With the Canucks\u2019 selection of Czech left wing Novotn\u00fd, that mystery is now removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So what do we know about Novotn\u00fd? Well, he brings a couple of attributes that the Canucks are clearly trying to stack in rebuilding the roster. He, like Caleb Malhotra<\/a>, who the Canucks took at third overall, is big and fast. They both also seem like good people and hard workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Novotn\u00fd, it must be said, was expected by most prospect analysts and guides to go earlier than 24th to the Canucks. Many mock drafts and talent evaluators had him closer to 15 than 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was ultimately his combination of consistency, skating, and physicality that intrigued Cancusk general manager Ryan Johnson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The downside here is that there might not be as much upside as you could arguably get with other players at the end of the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A positive evaluation of the player typically puts him as a middle-six scoring threat, a hard forechecker, and someone who can charge to the net with and without the puck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To be honest, as someone who usually loves to chase offensive upside no matter what, a bet like that one someone who scored so well in their first OHL season sounds pretty good. On its face, it reminds one a little bit of what the Canucks had hoped they\u2019d get with Vasily Podkolzin. That probably comes with some bad memories, but Podkolzin has blossomed into a productive player that most teams in the league would love to have for a playoff run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, as evaluators like Hockey Prospecting\u2019s Byron Bader say, the chances of a player with Novotn\u00fd\u2019s scoring profile and equivalency metrics becoming a star<\/a> are not high.<\/p>\n

But there are some green flags with Novotn\u00fd when you look a little closer. After all, last year was his first year playing outside of Czechia, and he starred with Peterborough, leading the team in scoring with 65 points (34 goals!) in 58 games in a season that he started as a 17-year-old. That\u2019s not easy to do. He\u2019s also regarded as a two-way forward who is solid in his own zone.<\/p>\n

And while his World Juniors numbers have to be seen as a tad disappointing for a first-round pick (he scored four points in 14 games over two stints at the tourney), some scouts don\u2019t think he was bad there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe underlying process was stellar,\u201d said Daily Faceoff\u2019s Steven Ellis<\/a> about Novotn\u00fd\u2019s work at the World Juniors. \u201cHe consistently navigated into high-danger areas and generated quality chances.\u201d Ellis expects Novotn\u00fd to become a high-impact, top-six power forward who scores 40 to 50 points at the NHL level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Usually it\u2019s a little concerning when teams (and the Canucks have done it many times before) draft for attributes (big, fast, character, etc.) instead of production or skill, but there\u2019s enough here that it\u2019s an encouraging bet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[76,49,48,8497,569,16291,75,1048,1187,1554,2998,890,341,448,13117,3560,404,82,348,55],"class_list":["post-766281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-arts","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-city","tag-culture","tag-dining","tag-entertainment","tag-events","tag-fashion","tag-film","tag-food","tag-lifestyle","tag-music","tag-nhl","tag-nightlife","tag-restaurants","tag-shopping","tag-sports","tag-tv","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}