The Vancouver Canucks could really use a young defenseman. It’s fair to question if they should draft Adam Boqvist instead. After all, picking the best player available doesn’t always work out (see: Carolina Hurricanes). At some point, you need to draft what you need.
That said, the Canucks would be silly to pass up on Brady Tkachuk if he’s still on the board. Even if he isn’t on the board, guess what? Andrei Svechnikov or Filip Zadina will still be available. Boqvist shouldn’t be the pick for several reasons.
First of all, Tkachuk has more upside than Boqvist. That’s not against the Swedish defenseman. It’s more telling of how good Tkachuk is. He’s coming off an impressive showing at the 2018 World Juniors. Tkachuk isn’t scoring as much as expected, but he still has 28 points in 36 games as of March 12. That’s pretty good.
Also, the Canucks are going to need more centers soon. Especially with the inevitable departure of the Sedin Twins. Even with Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat, in today’s NHL, you always need more centers. Tkachuk will likely stick at center thanks to his ideal size (6-foot-3). But even if he doesn’t, he should be very good at wing.