VANCOUVER — To understand the heft of this draft for the Vancouver Canucks, consider this: their three selections in the top 65 matched their volume of picks in that range from the last five years.
Friday night’s first-rounder, Seattle Thunderbirds centre and captain Braeden Cootes, equalled their second-highest pick since 2019. And their eager selection Saturday of 17-year-old London Knights goalie Alexei Medvedev with the 47th pick was their first second-round choice since the 2021 draft.
In all, the Canucks’ six swings at future National Hockey League players included four centres, which emphatically addressed organizational needs down the middle of the ice, one winger and the first Russian goalie the franchise has ever drafted.
But more important than their positions, the skater draftees generally profile as ultra-competitive, physically engaged players who are difficult to play against.
The Canucks, and everyone else, have noticed how unyielding and abrasively the Florida Panthers have played on their way to the last two Stanley Cups.
“Well, I think if you watch the playoffs. . . that’s what happens when the chips are down,” Canucks amateur scouting director Todd Harvey explained Saturday after the NHL’s annual talent lottery was finally completed. “I think that’s what we’re trying to do here: be annoying to play against, be hard to play against. And I think our players that we selected are that.
“I am happy with every pick we’ve made. We made it for a reason. I love the fact that we have competitive people. We have good people, and people that we want to be Vancouver Canucks. And I think that is the most important thing. You talk about Cootes? Quality human being. All the players that we’ve selected, our guys have done the work on them, and they’re quality people. And that’s important for us.”
Championed by Canucks goaltending scout Ian Clarke, Medvedev was snatched up by Harvey to start the new additions on Saturday. The team also drafted two-way centre Kieren Dervin from the Kingston Frontenacs (third round, 65th overall), buzzsaw centre Wilson Bjorck from Djurgardens Juniors in Sweden (fifth round, 143rd), powerful winger Gabriel Chiarot from the Brampton Steeheads (sixth round, 175th) and physical centre Matthew Lansing from Fargo of the United States Hockey League.
“It’s an important part of it for us to make sure that the guys compete, drive play, get to the inside and be hard to play against,” Harvey said.
Dervin, Bjorck and Lansing are headed to NCAA programs in the U.S. next season. Cootes, Medvedev and Chiarot will be returning to their major junior teams for another season in Canada.
Vancouver did not pick in Saturday’s fourth round, having dealt that slot to the Edmonton Oilers in Wednesday’s trade for Evander Kane, whose combative style turned out to be the theme-of-the-week for the Canucks.
Their centre-heavy draft was reminiscent of the 2023 draft when the Canucks addressed an earlier organizational need for defencemen by using their first three picks on blue-liners.
The Canucks are seeing the results of that focus, as Tom Willander and Sawyer Mynio, two of the defencemen chosen two year ago, are among the organization’s top prospects and could soon be pushing to join (or dislodge) young defencemen Elias Pettersson and Victor Mancini at the NHL level.
But the team has a potential crisis at centre after J.T. Miller was traded last season, the original Elias Pettersson had a disastrous campaign and new Canuck Filip Chytil suffered another in a series of concussions.
Good minor-league prospects Aatu Raty and Max Sasson have the chance to make the Canucks next fall, and it looks like Cootes will lead the next wave of centre-prospects after them.
“Obviously, defence and centres are hard to come by,” Harvey said. “And I thought today we kind of targeted that, and the way we put our list together is kind of the way it happened. We don’t deviate really off our list. So those are the guys that were in the spot, and we ended up taking them.”
Harvey said he hoped to have the new draft picks join other entry-level prospects and undrafted invitees at the Canucks’ annual development camp, which starts Monday at the University of British Columbia.
The camp will be run by Mikael Samuelsson and Mike Komisarek of the Canucks’ player development department, as well as development coaches Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
Their boss, Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin, will be working through the weekend and into free agency next week to acquire a top-six centre who can help immediately.
The team announced one trade on Saturday, acquiring 24-year-old Ilya Safonov from the Chicago Blackhawks for future considerations. The six-foot-five centre from Moscow, a sixth-round pick in 2021, has spent all of his career in Russia and last season posted seven goals and 22 points in 51 games for Kazan of the Kontinental League.
Safonov is expected to attend development camp so the Canucks can assess him.
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