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“We do our list by not listening to the outside noise and we put players in an order we feel strongly about,” Benning said Thursday. “We go with our order rather than listening to other people strategizing about where players should go.”

Photo by Gerry Kahrmann / PNG files

The Canucks have serious interest in Swedish defenceman Victor Soderstrom, but if one of the elite U.S. National Development Team forwards falls to No. 10 — especially winger Matthew Boldy or perhaps teammate Trevor Zegras — there might be a temptation to take a forward and then a blueliner in the second round. Moving up is an option, but that will mean swapping first-round picks with the Detroit Red Wings at No. 6 and also parting with the second-rounder.

“I feel we’re going to get a good player at No.10, so depending on what the cost is to move up, we’ll look into it,” said Benning. “But if it’s too much and we have to give up a second-round pick, that’s too much because the draft is deep enough.

“And you just don’t know how the draft is going to fall. We could have a player rated in the top six falling to us at 10.

“The last couple of drafts, we’ve been lucky with players we really like falling into our lap (Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson) and we hope that happens again this year.”

That could mean Boldy slipping three spots and Zegras two positions. But if they’re already gone, Soderstrom should be sitting there. Same with blue-line countryman Philip Broberg.

“Defenceman are deep this year, maybe not at the high end, but once you get halfway through the first round, there’s a lot that we like,” added Benning. “If that guy is there at No. 10 we’ll be taking him. It’s been proved by teams still playing that good teams are built through goal, defence and centre. That’s the basic principle.”