It’s that time of year again — the moment we take stock of the Vancouver Canucks’ prospect pool and reshuffle the board with our latest CanucksArmy prospect rankings.

Admittedly, this edition comes with a slightly different approach. In previous instalments, we’ve typically run a Top-20 list accompanied by an Honourable Mentions section. But if you’ve been following along, you’ll know that this organization’s prospect pool has thinned considerably in recent months.

With just 24 prospects currently meeting our guidelines, we’ve trimmed this installment down to a Top-15 ranking. Truth be told, separating hairs between several long-shot prospects didn’t feel like a particularly worthwhile exercise, and tightening the list better reflects the state of the system.

The silver lining? The Canucks currently hold seven draft picks in the 2026 NHL Draft — four of them in the first two rounds — which should allow us to return to a deeper rankings format in the near future.

A big reason this list has shrunk is graduation. With Vancouver sitting 32nd in the standings, a pair of top prospects from our Summer Edition — Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Tom Willander — have crossed our NHL games threshold, while Arshdeep Bains has aged out of eligibility.

Before diving in, let’s clearly outline the rules governing these rankings.

To qualify for our rankings at CanucksArmy, a prospect must:

This immediately removes Arshdeep Bains (25), Jett Woo (25), and Nikita Tolopilo (25) from consideration.

It also excludes several players who would otherwise rank quite highly, including Tom Willander (45 games), Jonathan Lekkerimäki (37), Aatu Räty (93), Max Sasson (79), Elias Pettersson (75), Victor Mancini (42), and recently acquired players like Liam Öhgren (72) and Zeev Buium (51).

As always, we’ll continue to remind readers of these rules throughout the rankings.

Our primary evaluation lens remains based on upside. What could a player realistically become in a best-case scenario? Development is rarely linear, and while not every prospect hits their ceiling, projecting that ceiling remains central to the exercise.

Age also plays a role. A 19-year-old like Riley Patterson naturally has more developmental runway — and therefore more upside — than a 24-year-old like Ilya Safonov.

With the rules in place, let’s dive right in and start with our Honourable Mentions list.

Perhaps one of the more intriguing names on this HM list comes in the form of a recent seventh-round pick. As a freshman with Quinnipiac, Matthew Lansing has put up respectable numbers despite being glued to the team’s bottom-six. Of course, the Bobcats are currently the best team in the ECAC, and the goals have been plentiful, which helps slightly stack his current ledger.

He’s produced 12 points while winning 54.7% of his faceoffs across 104 draws — good for 10th among conference freshmen. Lansing is still early in his development, and that youth alone keeps him firmly on the radar.

Since he was drafted in the fourth round (112th overall) in 2022, Daimon Gardner has piqued our interest as a heavy-set power forward archetype. And with 42 points in 46 games through his draft-plus-one season in the USHL, there was some valid excitement.

Unfortunately, with a high of 14 points set in his sophomore year, that production just hasn’t followed him through three seasons at the NCAA level. With just two points through 20 games this season at St. Cloud, minutes are increasingly becoming tough to come by for the now 22-year-old centre. As we saw with Jackson Kunz, another heavy-set forward who earned an AHL contract over the summer, we are likely looking at an AHL-bound prospect.

Drafted around the same time as Gardner (119th overall) a year later, Matthew Perkins has also struggled to produce at the NCAA level. While an initial freshman year with 15 points in 35 offered some interesting potential, that production and utilization have gradually declined. Now with the Northeastern Huskies, Perkins has seen occasional elevation in the lineup, but there hasn’t been enough progression to suggest meaningful upside growth. Now 22 and without a defining physical trait to lean on, it’s difficult to project Perkins as anything more than organizational depth at this stage.

Yes — we know. Seeing Klimovich in the Honourable Mentions will raise eyebrows.

After a promising bounce-back season last year, where he posted career highs and showed renewed confidence, expectations were cautiously rising. But now in his fifth AHL season, much of that momentum has stalled. Despite seeing good minutes on a dwindling roster, there’s been little growth in his overall impact. His contract expires at the end of this year, and we would not be surprised to see him either start fresh elsewhere or sign an AHL deal.

At this point, the projection feels increasingly capped.

Brought in from Finland through free agency, Anri Ravinskis has been in and out of the Abbotsford Canucks lineup. When dressed, he does bring a decent amount of speed and ruggedness to the ice, but it just hasn’t been enough to warrant any true excitement as an upside prospect. That said, he has chipped in with a few more points in recent weeks. But at 23, we probably know where he stands, and that’s a serviceable AHL grinder.

First-round pedigree always buys time, and Stillman is no exception. Despite a difficult sophomore season in 2024-25, he showed encouraging signs during his AHL rookie year two seasons ago.

Unfortunately, a broken leg has sidelined him for much of this campaign. Turning 23 soon, there’s still a chance he finds a role down the line — and in a Top-20 list, he’d likely make the cut. For now, he sits just outside the main rankings.

When he’s playing down in the ECHL, we love what he brings to the ice. He plays the game with speed and knows how to put the puck into the net. Yet, when he’s up in the American League, he struggles to bring that same type of confidence. With the number of injuries and promotions in Abbotsford this season, he has seen stints in their top six and still hasn’t shown much at that level. Playing on an expiring contract, we wonder whether Bloom will make it to another contract with the Canucks beyond this season.

If effort and personality were the criteria, Celebrini would rank far higher. Unfortunately, his on-ice impact hasn’t yet justified a spot inside the Top-15. With players like Tom Willander out of the BU Terriers system, the hope was that we’d see Celebrini jump up and take on a much elevated role. While he’s seen stints on the second pair, his usage has generally remained consistent on the third pair. Considering he’s a young, right-shot defender, we could see him snag an AHL contract. But for now, his NHL upside remains limited.

If we’re being honest, there are parts in Ilya Safonov’s game that we actually love. Mainly the fact that he’s a big-bodied centre who practically lives in the blue paint. The majority of his goals are being scored on the doorstep, and he flashes some decent shot and decent wheels for his size, too. In the same breath, he’s nearly 25, he’s without a contract, and he really left us wanting more when he skated among kids at last summer’s development camp.

Could he earn a contract this summer, cross over and carve out an interesting fourth-line centre role? Sure. Maybe. But there are just too many unknowns for him to carve out a spot in our rankings.

With our criteria and HMs out of the way, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty of our top 15. Stay tuned as we dive into our list tomorrow here at CanucksArmy.