After Tuesday night’s NHL Draft Lottery results, the Vancouver Canucks fell yet again and will be selecting third overall in the 2026 NHL Draft.

Here are some of my quick thoughts on how the day went down.

Like, it just had to be the Toronto Maple Leafs that moved up to first overall, right? After all the deserved scrutiny they received at the John Chayka introductory press conference, they were rewarded with the first overall pick after missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 seasons.

They missed the playoffs this season because of poor goaltending and a defence corps that realistically has never been at a contending level. However, they were usually able to outscore their problems. But once Mitch Marner left, that really was the difference maker for the Leafs.

Marner was not only able to drive play as a playmaker on the wing, but also served as a pivot on both sides of Toronto’s special teams. He manned the point on the power play after Morgan Rielly’s offensive decline and was able to transition quickly on the penalty kill that often led to shorthanded chances.

As is the Maple Leafs luck, they’re now able to at least replace Marner’s playmaking along the wing if they go ahead and select Gavin McKenna at first overall.

As Stephan Roget wrote this morning, the Sharks moving ahead of the Canucks may be a blessing in disguise.

Assuming Toronto takes McKenna first overall, that leaves Ivar Stenberg, and then a massive crop of defencemen to their choosing: Chase Reid, Carson Carels, Keaton Verhoeff, and Alberts Smits. Caleb Malhotra is shooting up the draft boards, but their future centre duo of Macklin Celebrini and Michael Misa, they will likely pass him over.

If you’re looking at organizational needs, the Sharks’ biggest need is on the blueline. Heading into 2026-27, they have just Dmitry Orlov, Sam Dickinson, and Luca Cagnoni on the NHL roster signed for next year. Shakir Mukhamadullin is a restricted free agent, so it’s safe to assume he will be on the team next year. However, Nick Leddy, John Klingberg, Mario Ferraro, and Vincent Desharnais are all set to become unrestricted free agents on July 1.

In the Sharks’ system, they have a few promising young defencemen, but none were drafted high enough that one could confidently predict they would be massive difference-makers for the NHL team anytime soon. Now the question becomes, do they take yet another forward in the first round, or do they go with a more positional need on the blueline?

Since 2020, the Sharks have had nine first-round picks. Just one of those picks has been a defenceman, Sam Dickinson in 2024. Seven of those selections were forwards: Misa, Celebrini, Will Smith, Quentin Musty, Filip Bystedt, William Eklund, and Ozzy Wiesblatt. With Stenberg being ranked as the second-best player in the class, that is far from a consensus. So, it would make sense for the Sharks to take a defenceman, given where they’re at organizationally on the blueline.

This is what everybody cares about. Now that we know where the Canucks will be picking in June, who they pick is at the forefront of all the conversation on Wednesday morning.

As mentioned, the Canucks will have their pick of at least five of these guys on the draft floor: Stenberg, Reid, Carels, Verhoeff, Smits, and Malhotra. Regardless of your view on what the biggest need is for the Canucks, they just need elite talent coming in. They have promising young pieces in Zeev Buium, Tom Willander, Elias Pettersson (D) on the blueline, and Marco Rossi, Liam Öhgren, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, and Braeden Cootes up front, who are 24-and-under. However, is there a truly franchise-changing player among that crop? This author doesn’t believe so. They’re nice supporting pieces, but not that elite difference-maker teams need to contend for a Stanley Cup.

But who is that player? We won’t dive in depth on each of the options; you can read up on them in our CA Draft profile series. But on Donnie & Dhali on Wednesday, Rick Dhaliwal shared that he heard the Canucks had McKenna first on their draft board, Malhotra third, and Reid somewhere in their top five. So, if we’re to assume Stenberg is second on their board, as he is on many draft experts, would they be willing to trade up to get him?

If the Sharks want a defenceman, they are in a fantastic position to trade down, still get the blueliner they want and add assets to do so. Would the Canucks be willing to part with one of their additional picks they acquired to do so? If they believe Stenberg can be that true elite player for them, it may be worth it. Could they risk it, knowing the Sharks likely need a defenceman and hope Stenberg falls to them at three? Absolutely. However, you now run the risk of another team jumping up

Hypothetically, could the Canucks trade third overall and the Sharks’ 2027 second-round pick to the Sharks for second overall to guarantee they get Stenberg? Vancouver would still have Dallas’ second-round pick next season in this move, but the more intriguing move is giving the Sharks back their pick so they could use it in a potential offer sheet this summer.

The RFA class is stacked this summer: Jason Robertson, Connor Bedard, Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson, Trevor Zegras, Pavel Dorofeyev, and Adam Fantilli, just to name a few. But those teams won’t let those guys go. However, with the Sharks needing blueline help, they could go out and offer sheet defencemen like Brandt Clarke, Alexander Nikishin, Jamie Drysdale, Jordan Spence, Simon Nemec, Simon Edvinsson, Olen Zellweger, Pavel Mintyukov, or Braeden Schneider.

There are lots of options for the Canucks at three. Typically, we don’t see much pick movement that high on the draft floor. So, Vancouver will likely pick third. And even if McKenna and Stenberg are taken, the organization seems comfortable selecting Malhotra at third overall, according to reports.

Is it upsetting that the Canucks fell to three? Absolutely. However, let’s keep a positive mindset. There have still been some fantastic third overall picks in NHL history. One everybody is familiar with is Henrik Sedin, the Canucks’ franchise leader in points. Jonathan Toews, Marian Gaborik, Scott Niedermayer, Leon Draisaitl, Pat Lafontaine, and Denis Savard were all third overall picks that went on to have fantastic, if not Hall of Fame, NHL careers. More recently, Anton Frondell, Beckett Sennecke, Adam Fantilli, Logan Cooley, Mason McTavish, and Tim Stutzle were the third overall picks since 2020.

There’s still hope, Canucks fans.