What we’re hearing about the Canucks’ pursuit of Aidan McDonough and the chase for NCAA free agents – `

The Vancouver Canucks’ prospect pipeline has atrophied in recent seasons.

A few years back, when Vancouver’s system was headlined by Quinn Hughes, the Canucks’ pipeline ranked among the most promising in the league. More recently a series of win-now trades, some high profile graduations and good old fashioned attrition have whittled down Vancouver’s system, which currently stands among the bottom 10 in the league by most estimations — among them the grading of ` has alternately ranked as the third or sixth best Canucks prospect in recent rankings — looms large following the conclusion of Northeastern’s college campaign on Friday evening.