We are one day away from the 2026 NHL Draft. Vancouver Canucks fans have been waiting for this event since the focus shifted from contending to building for the future.

Ahead of the potential monumental day in Canucks history, new general manager Ryan Johnson met with the media to talk draft plans, updates on pending unrestricted free agents and coaching staff hires, and many more topics. Here are six notes from the availability.

In what has been a wild week for trades around the National Hockey League, with franchise pieces and three trades involving top-10 selections, the Canucks have been watching from the sidelines. While they haven’t made any moves yet, Johnson is prepared to move around the draft board if needed, but is firm in their position at third overall, believing they will get a great player in that slot.

“Yeah, I think obviously there’s been a lot of movement and a lot of teams looking to move up, or some teams that maybe don’t have second, third round picks that are looking to move back,” Johnson said. “So, it’s conversations that I’ve had. I think it would take a lot for me to move out of 3.

“We love being there, we love the players that we’re going to get there. As far as some of the later opportunities through the group. If there’s an opportunity to move back that benefits us or move the other way that we think will benefit us, it’s always something that we’re going to consider.”

The Brady Tkachuk trade from the Ottawa Senators to the Florida Panthers was a large talking point, aside from the whole blockbuster side of the move. It was an example of another American-born player playing in a Canadian market who forced his way out. His brother did the same thing with the Calgary Flames a few years ago, and Quinn Hughes did the same last season.

But it may not just be a Canadian market thing. Dylan Larkin has asked for a trade out of Detroit. There are rumblings that Zach Werenski may be looking for a new home. Both players currently play in the USA, so it appears to be a winning issue over a nationality issue. However, Johnson is aware of that issue, but shared that it’s not going to deter him in Friday’s draft.

“I think you’d be crazy not to think everybody in the league is not thinking or talking about it. Is that a trend that is just in the last year or so that has caught fire? Is it a coincidence on the situations that certain players are involved in? I think he has an organization to talk about it. At this point, is it something that I would say we are going to shy away from drafting a player because he’s from a certain nationality? Not at this point. But it is a situation that’s put some teams in a pretty tough spot, and that’s unfortunate.”

During his short time as Canucks general manager, Johnson has made three hires: Manny Malhotra as head coach, Daren Hermiston as director of player development, and Richard Seeley as both assistant GM and Abbotsford GM. However, there are still vacant jobs left in the organization. Johnson addressed the organization’s stance on those hires.

“Yeah, as far as coaching staff here in Vancouver, I hope to be able to have something for you guys by early next week. I think we’re in a good spot there. Obviously, Rich Seeley has come on and is taking on a lot in a short amount of time, but he is well into the process of filling out the staff [in Abbotsford]. And as far as you know, more support for myself, the administrative side, I think at some point I had to park and really start focusing on the hockey team, the draft, free agency. So that’s something I just felt my time was better focused on: the team, the draft, getting through that point, and maybe reevaluating things.”

Make sure to keep an eye out for a more in-depth discussion on this later today. However, despite the current state of the NHL trade market, Johnson has not, to this point, spoken with veterans about their trade protection.

“Not at all. Not at this point,” Johnson said when asked if he’s talked to any of his players about potentially waiving their trade protection. “I want to be clear to anybody that if I’m going down a path, it has to be to the vision and to what we’ve said we want to accomplish. But by no means am I having back-and-forth collecting lists. I’m just doing the due diligence and speaking with 31 other teams. And if there comes a point where we have to make a decision or speak to somebody in our group, then we approach it that way.”

It has been reported that the Canucks UFAs Teddy Blueger and Derek Forbort will be testing the free agent market on July 1. And without naming names, Johnson pretty well confirmed that today when he was asked about their plans regarding their pending UFAs.

“The group that we have now, I’ve been very clear with the UFAs that we have currently, that we won’t be moving forward with. Where we stand, it’s tough to just keep coming back. We’ve got some decisions to make; players that I have a lot of respect for that were here, it’s just if I’m trying to move forward, trying to change some things a bit at a time, you’ve got to make some tough decisions.”

Johnson had a message to Canucks fans on what to expect over the next seven days between the draft and free agency:

“Well, I think they’ll be able to see that everything that was talked about since day one, the vision, that hasn’t wavered. Every day, we’re exhausting avenues to walk through that vision and deliver it. It is not going to happen overnight. We know that, and we stress the patience and the ability to sometimes take a step back. Sometimes the best moves you make are the ones that you don’t. And I’m discussing that with our group. We can’t knee-jerk it. We’ve got to make sure in the long term that what we’re doing is staying to see us through, not to just be good, but sustainably good for a period of time. I think that’s what our fans deserve and what we want to put forth for them.”

That answer didn’t suggest the organization is sitting on a bunch of moves, or necessarily has much lined up for the next few days. So, as a follow-up, Johnson was asked whether he’s preparing for a low-movement offseason.

“I think you have to be prepared for that. I think one thing I do want to slowly chip away at is that I don’t want to just sit with the same group. I think by [making] even small changes, you add a different energy and an excitement. So, do I want to keep just rolling it back with the same group? Preferably not, but you can’t rush the process. … I do want to add, whether it’s via trade, via free agency, even if it’s a small piece to start to put a role over people that I think are going to be help us short and in the long term deliver to the enviornment we want to build, how we play, all the thing that we’ve already talked about.”