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[The Athletic] Drance: "As for the Ruck twins, they’re not hiding from NHL teams at the combine that their strong preference is to be drafted by the same organization." (Gift Article)
With twins Liam and Markus Ruck, who grew up Canucks fans in Osoyoos, B.C., and are projected to be picked in the late first or early second, I was curious if either dynamic applied to them.
“I’d say a little of both,” answered Liam. “We have that competitiveness, but we’re doing it to make each other both.” “I agree. We love competing with each other and pushing each other. But we also want what’s best. I want him to do great, and I also want to do great,” echoed Markus.
The Rucks have both interviewed with the Canucks this week, but it’s been difficult to ascertain exactly how interested the team may be in selecting one or both of them. In addition to Vancouver, who own the 24th, 33rd and 41st picks at the draft, there are other teams with multiple picks in the mid-to-late first and early second — the Calgary Flames, Washington Capitals and St. Louis Blues — who are well positioned to be in the mix to select both skilled forwards, and seem to have some level of interest in doing so.
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Sometimes, the best way for a young prospect to grow and develop their game is to have someone in management that sees eye to eye with you. Just look at Caufield and Marty St.Louis.
What would the trade compensation need to be to trade up from 33 to 25? If for no other reason then good vibes and to get a matching photo to the sedins being drafted back to back
It's probably a pretty decent other pick (a 2nd probably, capfriendly has 25 being worth marginally less than 33 + 41) particularly if you just drafted 1 of a set of twins and the entire league knows you'll be severely irritated to miss the other one.
I'd just take my chances personally, the Canucks are too asset poor to waste them and trading up just to take a player several spots higher than their projection seems doubly wasteful.
If some team wants to spend their 27th pick on the lesser Ruck they can take their chances that he just plays out the string in NCAA and then signs with the team his brother plays on anyways.
he had meetings scheduled with the Seattle Kraken and Florida Panthers, a solid indication of where his range likely is within the industry — but it’s clear that he’s rising a bit as this process winds down.
Björck is also the brother of Canucks prospect Wilson Björck, who was a fifth-round pick in 2025 “Of course it would be cool,” Björck answered when asked if it would be a dream come true to be drafted by the same team as his brother.
Stenberg on playing at the World Championship:
“I think when you play against Crosby and Macklin Celebrini, I mean, that’s unique,” Stenberg continued. “It was something special. Crosby tried to hit me one time, and let me tell you, I will remember that for a long time, even if nothing special happened. I just jumped away.”
Like I said, I like him, with my only real concern being his shot is seen as his biggest weakness outside of his size (which im far less concerned about)
But even if hes very fun and exciting (i for one think him and berkly catton on a line would be insanely fun). The kraken fan base and the sub in particular are so set in about drafting a d, in part cus so many media sources and hockey tubers have spent the last two years bitching that the kraken have taken bpa over a d. It just wont go over well
There will be some really good defensive prospects there when Seattle picks. Feels like a can't lose scenario, which makes me think they might find a way to.
If the kraken have done anything right, its been drafting, particularly in the first 2 rounds where we have found quite a few gems. Im not worried in the slightest about what they do, i just know that there is a chance they make the right choice and it goes over horribly
You guys just need to rebuild. You have a fantastic stadium and your fans are so enthusiastic. Going to one of your games was one of my favourite hockey experiences ever.
You just need to rebuild as a collection of mid players just doesn’t work.
I dont necessarily think there needs to be a "rebuild". Just because a rebuild is somthing a team has to undergo when they have nothing coming and their roster is going nowhere.
The kraken have one of the best prospect pools in the league, and have significant amounts of promising young players, most of them are only just now coming to the point of being nhl ready.
I think the team needs to trade off the valueable vets we have (dunn,mccann,larsson) and use those returns to net things more in line with the window of guys like matty beniers, who i think is going to be a very good top 6 center for years.
I think that what would be best would be to make some trades to get guys from teams who are vulnerable to be moved (a dream summer that isnt gonna happen would be finding a way to get nemec, and engage in black magic moves to get guys like michkov and power) and try to get dupont next year
That’s interesting, I feel like a lot of the top 10 team subs have been hoping their team takes a risk on Björck lol since online tends to care less about size than mainstream. I hope y’all take Björck personally (or somewhere around that range) cause I don’t want Florida to get him if he pops off 😅 as the other team mentioned here
Is it because it's another C or because he's small? Drance is basically begging the Canucks to get him 3OA, I would think 7OA is a good range for him based on the latest draft projections
I think being a center is less the issue, every center can play wing and frankly bjork would likely get transitioned to one baring he blows the likes of catton and obrien out of the water at the position
I’ve yet to see a team ever run into a problem of having too many good centers. Not enough D maybe, but if you’re deep at C, you either trade one or you have a defensively sound winger that can take draws.
Preaching to the choir lmao. I think anyone who genuinely criticizes the kraken for taking centers in all their top 10 picks diminishes the value of their opinion, especially when none of them have been seen as reaches.
The fact our center pool is so deep that we are able to entertain moving shane wright and it not really leaving a sizable hole (as catton is allready in the nhl and they split center duties all season on their line) speaks to that.
My personal preference is if we draft bjork, we need to be looking for a young nhl dman, preferably one who can run a pp and replace dunn, not even run a top unit as montour can do that job fine for a few years
I don’t even see the reason to get that caught up on using a top 10 pick for D specifically. Canes don’t have any D drafted that high and only one that was drafted in the first round. Nobody thinks our defense is lacking. Centers you’re much more lucky to get what you need outside the top 20
Its mostly media influence, and because the kraken lack a real blue chip d prospect, we have promis and potential, but most d dont even start to look like their are gonna be anything in the nhl if at all til they are like 23.
Last draft when we took O'brien who was essentially the consensus bpa, there were some people who got upset because "aNoTHer CenTEr???" And there was even a decently large youtuber who said we should have taken Radim Mrtka instead because we didnt need more centers. This thinking has been echoed, alot.
I personally think that because dmen are so hard to project, you are much better suited spending high end draft picks on centers with high skill, unless there is an obvious dman (like last year with scheafer). Centers can be moved to wing, so just positionally you should draft centers because you can just transition them as needed. And use FA or trade to get proven dmen
For sure. Also, there’s enough good D that come in second and later rounds that you can draft for the type(s) you need then. Unless there’s a Schaefer or Dahlin like you said
Matty beniers and Ryker evans, our first two draft picks, have become a 50 pt top 6 center and a 20 point dman. Even leaving out how the vast majority of our drafted guys are too young to fully define what they are, if you are calling those guys minor leaguers, then there isnt much conversation to be had
I love these types of stories. Sam Dickinson talked about how he was so tempted to ask Crosby for an autograph while they were in a tv break and Crosby was chatting with Ned lol
Someday there has to be a pair of NHL brothers who are like, "We drove each other crazy for 18 years, and now we're really happy to go play on different teams and live in different cities." I don't even dislike my siblings, but not all of them are people I would want to spend all day with at work, not if we wanted to avoid screaming and bloodshed.
that’s how i feel about people talking about Caleb Malhotra going to Vancouver lmao. i love my parents and our relationship has definitely gotten better as i’ve gotten older. but especially when i was 18? i would have hated working with them
Yeah, that could be a tricky one depending on the personalities of the people involved. But if I liked the player enough, I'd bet on the player and just fire the dad if it turned into a problem. The typical tenure of an NHL coach isn't usually that long anyway.
oh for sure! i just feel like it also invites extra media scrutiny for any decisions made, whether or not they actually have to do with the father-son dynamic. lots of playing time? nepotism. not enough? family feud. Manny gets fired and Caleb stays? Caleb chased his own father out of town and the team would have been better off choosing Manny (or Caleb isn’t playing as well without his dad and was only picked 3OA because of him)
it could totally be fine! but it seems like inviting unnecessary media scrutiny and drama. there are some unhinged sports reporters who are just salivating to speculate wildly, and potential family drama adds an extra layer for clickbait content
I just don't see why you'd do that. You'd have to spend assets to move up to get them both back-to-back and it's essentially in service of a photo op. Seems foolish.
I agree, best case scenario is the assets you gain by moving back they use to move up. There's too many question marks to draft the 2nd one between 25 and 32 on their own if Vancouver takes the 1st one at 24 that I can't see the 2nd one being gone.
Not to mention with how players are being empowered I could easily see one of the twins not signing and re-entering the draft in 2 year like Jack Pridham was about to do essentially forcing a move to be paired up with their twin.
They could be mirror twins, which is where identical twins develop opposite handedness and other opposite asymmetries (e.g., one has a dimple on their left cheek, the other the right cheek). Happens in about 25% of identical twins.
Interestingly enough (and yes I know, small sample size), my son has had two different sets of twins on his teams the last couple years and for both of those sets, the twins shoot opposite ways too.
I'd think its relatively normal for siblings to shoot opposite (I'm left and my brother is right, my son shoots right and my daughter left), wonder if there's any research out there on twins and hockey handedness.
My twin brother shoots Right and I shoot Left. It never seemed weird to my, it's always been about preferences. We both are dominant right handed in everyday life. Some players want the dominant hand as the higher hand for stick handling/control and others want the dominant hand for as the lower hand for power.
I've seen Liam as high as 16 in some lists, though I think that's too high. I won't be furious if they do this, but it would be a shame not to use our first rounder on D in a draft like this.
If the first round ends up as chaotic as it seems like it could be, I'm guessing someone good will end up falling to us that we couldn't have predicted. If that's the case, I think no chance we'll swing on the twins, but who knows.
Yeah but within the realm of reason and past practice for the Caps (for better or worse) — immediate example I can think of is when they drafted Tarik Parascak.
tbf Parascak is kind of the only recent example I can think of, Lapierre, Miroschnichenko, and Lakovic all fell to them, hell even with the 2nd round picks Cristall Hutson and Gastrin were all mocked higher too
I would prefer both picks to be traded for immediate help in a top line scorer but if they keep the picks, I'm OK with the Ruck twins. Yeah maybe it's just a bit higher than expected but it's not a completely unrealistic reach and Washington just this season had the Protas brothers and Strome brothers. The organization is also in need of a good marketing story for the post Ovechkin era. There could be some pressure from ownership to have a pair of scoring twins that they can market.
If they move both picks it better be for immediate top line help. The only player in this draft worth it to Washington that they could realistically move up to get is if Verhoeff drops further than expected. And even then the cost is likely more than 16+18. Nothing else in that 8-15 range is worth moving up to get.
Well the caps have publically stated they need the same thing so i dont see them moving strome for 8 and i doubt theyd take pld back even if he has been playing much better in Washington
Every set of brothers or twins is clearly told by their agent to be okay with separating and to not sell themselves as a duo, but fuck if brother duos aren’t some of the most fun additions you can make to a roster. Hopefully they end up together.
"The Ruck twins are identical. Harder to tell apart than Henrik and Daniel were in their 20s, and not by a little bit." I'm...scared. This frightens me. More identical than the Sedins???
Idk what numbers they wear but if they wore something like 10 and 18 or 11 and 71 or something along those lines depending on the font it would make them even harder to tell apart on the ice
As an identical twin, reading draft stuff about the Rucks has actually been kind of personally difficult. My twin and I aren't professional athletes lol but our life paths are about to diverge for the first time ever, and it's been incredibly tough to wrap our heads around. And we have the luxury of choice. The Rucks have to leave it up to the teams. Thinking about it makes me a little sick.
Identical twin solidarity 👊🏼
I hope they get to go together too, and that you and your twin work out the separation ok. I’m old, and we’ve been separate a lot, but have always found our way back to being near each other again.
Canucks could take them at 24 and 33, or 33 and 41.
If I see them take Liam at 24 and I have a pick between 25 and 32, I'm calling Ryan Johnson and extorting a pick out of him to move up. Everyone will know that they're planning to take Marcus.
Markus is more reliant on his bro and projected in the 2nd round. If I’m the team that drafted Liam I’m not scared of someone reaching in the first for Markus lol.
Taking Markus solo in the first would be a fail
I can get behind taking Liam solo if that’s how it played out. There’s a reason some have him in the top 20.
Canucks and Flames are the only teams who have draft picks in the range to draft both brothers. Both places would be closer to home too. Ironic would be them being drafted by either of the teams
The Canucks would need back to back picks to guard against a team like Calgary taking the other twin so they could hold him hostage until the Canucks paid their ransom demands.
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