If you were to do word association with the median Vancouver Canucks fan right now and said “draft”, their response would likely be, “Gavin McKenna.” And for good reason, too.

The Canucks, who entered a rebuild earlier this season and sold off at the NHL Trade Deadline earlier this month, are just weeks away from pulling off a successful tank, as they currently sit 9 points back of the Calgary Flames for dead-last in the overall NHL standings. As a result, the Canucks are just weeks away from locking up the best odds at landing the first overall pick at the NHL Draft Lottery, which would give them the first opportunity to draft McKenna.

After taking a beat to get comfortable with the adjustment from the WHL to college hockey, McKenna has come alive lately, tallying 30 points in his last 15 games dating back to January 17th. While the gap between him and Ivar Stenberg hasn’t been large in the eyes of most to this point, it could be widening, especially with Stenberg going a bit cold as of late over in the SHL.

So yes, right now, most Canucks fans’ focus is on Gavin McKenna and landing the first overall pick at the NHL Draft Lottery in early May. But there’s another prospect that is quickly getting on fans’ radars: defenceman Landon DuPont.

DuPont, who grew up a Canucks fan and won’t even turn 17 until after his season is over, has put up 71 points in 61 games with the WHL’s Everrett Silvertips so far this season. As a 15-year-old last season, he tallied 60 points in 64 games. That level of production from a U17 player is almost unheard of, especially when that player is a defenceman. Listed at 5’11” and 183 pounds, DuPont is a smooth-skating right-shot defenceman who dictates play and tilts the ice in his team’s favour anytime he’s on the ice. It’s no wonder people are starting to keep close tabs on him, hoping their team will get the chance to draft him in 2027.

In a recent interview on The Prospect Don, DuPont shared three players who he models his game after:

“Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, and a new young stud defenceman, Zeev Buium, I like him a lot,” DuPont said.

Obviously, Makar and Hughes have each won Norris Trophies and are essentially in a tier of their own when it comes to the NHL’s top defencemen. And while the 20-year-old Buium certainly has a long way to go before he’s in that tier, it is certainly interesting to hear an NHL prospect name-drop him as a player he models his game after.

Acquired in the Hughes trade with the Minnesota Wild, Buium has gone through some growing pains in his first season of professional hockey, all of which has taken place in the NHL. Before that, though, Buium was a dominant force on the backend for Denver during his two seasons of college hockey. In his freshman year, Buium led Denver in scoring among defencemen with 50 points in 42 games, leading Denver to its 10th NCAA National Championship. And in his sophomore season, Buium once again led Denver in scoring before turning pro, signing his entry-level contract with the Minnesota Wild and appearing in four Stanley Cup Playoff games.

Buium has certainly shown flashes this season (even before he was a Canuck), but has also shown some defensive warts, which can almost always be expected from a young defenceman learning what it takes to compete in the NHL on a night-to-night basis. Of course, being one of the main pieces of the Quinn Hughes trade certainly brings on lofty expectations, even if that’s not entirely fair to the player. And a recent interview we did with The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler on Canucks Conversation served as a good reminder that this is all part of the process.

“Any defenceman as young as Zeev is with that star-level upside – with how hard it is to be a defenceman in the NHL – it’s getting harder for young defencemen to have that big impact over the last few years,” Wheeler said. “It’s a hard leap, and it’s just going to take time. He’s in his draft-plus-two year. At this same age, Lane Hutson was playing college hockey for the season, and you can go down the list. There’s some grace that’s owed to a lot of those kids having struggles — whether it’s Sam Rinzel, Sam Dickinson, Carter Yakemchuk — all from that class are having some issues. I don’t think Canucks fans need to worry that he’s having some issues, which he’s had both in Vancouver and Minnesota.

“At the college level, he was so involved in everything. That was the bread and butter of Zeev – offensively, he had the shake and bake and would make guys miss, he’d have the puck at the blue line and attack the slot with it, swing below the goal line. Defensively, he played a very active, tight style that allowed him to shut down some of the best players in college hockey across two really good seasons, but it’s hard to play that style in the NHL. He’s got to get back to trusting himself and his ability. He’s got the ability and IQ, and he’s competitive – and it’s all going to come for him.”