When you have more than one pick in the first round, there’s a little more freedom to think outside the box, especially when that second pick is a later one. Swedish winger Marcus Nordmark is one that we have earmarked as an early second-round player, but who we can easily see being selected in the first. That in-between tier, if you will, of players who could go anywhere from about pick 24 to pick 40. Especially if the Canucks are picking. Nordmark’s maturity and composure feel like attributes that a team in freefall—to put it kindly—might value in a draft pick.
Thankfully for the Canucks, that’s not all he brings to the table.
Nordmark’s vision and intelligence are the key attributes that drive the rest of his game. He utilizes them, along with a high-end set of tools, for both goal-scoring and playmaking, though his creation tends to happen more to the outside (not the best-case scenario, but better than not creating at all). He’s a player who will need a longer runway, and for that reason, the Canucks may not be the best fit development-wise, but it’s easy to picture them selecting him nonetheless. Once those skills coalesce into a well-rounded player (and the chances are better than not that they will), there’s real value there.