We blinked, and the 2026 NHL Entry Draft has come and gone. All the speculation and conversation has been put to rest, and the Vancouver Canucks have a fully revamped prospect pool after installing nine new additions.

Entering the draft with four picks in the first top-41, the Canucks were in a prime position to have one of the most successful drafts in the league. That being said, that result is far from a guarantee, and we won’t know the true extent of how well they did for a few seasons, as these players start to develop and see if they live up to their projections.

However, the Canucks’ haul in this draft is viewed as among the top of the class across the league. While we’ll remove our biases from a full league-wide ranking, we will instead assign letter grades to each of the Canucks’ picks and show who I would have selected at each pick, given who was still available on the draft board.

I had my qualms about the Canucks drafting Malhotra, but that was mostly if Ivar Stenberg was on the board and they passed on him for Malhotra. He ultimately was not, so I’m actually quite excited about Malhotra and what he’s going to bring to the Canucks both on the ice and in the locker room.

Am I still a little hesitant about his scoring profile with just one year of top-of-the-line production? Yup. However, there is something to be said about those NHL bloodlines.

Looking around the NHL right now, there are a ton of examples of former NHL players’ kids being better players than their parents: Bowen Byram (Shawn Byram), Jakob Chychrun (Jeff Chychrun), Sean Couturier (Sylvain Couturier), Jake DeBrusk (Louie DeBrusk), and Tage Thompson (Brent Thompson), to name a few. And we haven’t even mentioned the other great examples of the kids playing just as well as their fathers, such as Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, William Nylander, Jake Sanderson, and soon-to-be Tij Iginla.

So, while some question his top-line centre upside, it’s hard to knock the Canucks selecting the top centre in the class.

I’ve been high on Carels the entire draft process, so I have to stick to my guns here and say him. A 6’2″, physical, two-way defenceman, whose draft year scoring profile we haven’t seen since Scott Niedermayer, and wants to bring a Stanley Cup back to Canada? Yeah, he would have been my guy.

Novotný was a player I never expected to be available for the Canucks at 24th overall. He was projected to go in the mid-teens and fell into the Canucks’ lap. A 6’1″, 205-lb physical winger, who has one of the best shots in the entire class. His shot and motor give him significant upside to play in a top-six role at the NHL level.

When a guy ranked in the teens falls to 24, that’s just the clear and obvious pick. In my eyes, the Canucks made the right choice.

I’ll preface this by saying I can still like the pick without giving it an A grade. 6’7″, right-shot centreman don’t grow on trees. So, taking a shot on that unicorn of a physical profile is the safe pick.

However, I would say their first two picks were safe. On their current trajectories, Malhotra and Novotný are almost guaranteed to play NHL games. And due to his frame alone, it’s probably safe to peg Rogowski for at least a bottom-six role in the NHL.

Still, he found a way to produce nearly a point per game on a poor Oshawa Generals team this season, and that shouldn’t be ignored. The 33rd overall pick is basically a late first, so aiming for a Tage Thompson or Dean Letourneau-like trajectory – who both went late in the first round – is what Canucks fans should be hoping for, given their similar statures – although, Rogowski doesn’t possess the same shot as the other two.

Preston would have been the pick here for me, solely based on upside. He was projected to be a top-10 selection coming into the year, and fell due to a mid-season trade, followed by an injury. In an anonymous prospect poll by the Athletic, other top prospects in this class have Preston second, tied with Ivar Stenberg, to only Gavin McKenna – the two players drafted first and second overall. That’s the kind of offensive swing I would have preferred the Canucks to take.

With his goal-scoring ability and overall upside, it wouldn’t have shocked me to see Aaram-Olsen go late in the first round. So seeing him available for the Canucks at 41, that’s the type of upside swing we would have preferred them to take at 33. Taking a shot on a toolsy, speedy winger with an elite shot is the boom-or-bust type of swing we’re happy the Canucks took after going safe eight picks earlier.

No notes. The Canucks made the right pick here.

I’m not a goalie expert, so I won’t pretend to be one. But according to EliteProspects, Ivchenko was their 11th-ranked goaltender and their 127th prospect in the class. However, when the Canucks selected him at 78th overall, he was the seventh goaltender off the board. So, it may have been a tad early. However, with Ian Clark still in the Canucks organization and helping to find netminders he believes in, we shouldn’t question the pick.

Considering the Canucks selected Aleksei Medvedev in the second round of last year’s draft, this may have been a little high to take a goaltender for my liking. I would have seriously considered taking a defenceman here, but there wasn’t much in terms of value left on the board. Taking a shot on more of that skilled forward profile in Tomas Chrenko, who was viewed as an early second-round pick, would have been my pick.

Personally, I don’t mind taking a swing on overagers in the later rounds. Teams are usually a little hesitant, but we get to see another year of their development to find out the true projection of their potential. Bryzgalov showed he has the offensive skill to be selected here, and at 6’3″, he has the prototypical NHL size. He’ll need to work on his skating, but he’s not a terrible shot in the fourth round.

Here is where I would have selected the first defenceman. Floriš, a 6’3″ right-shot defenceman out of Slovakia, played in the Finnish U20 league, where he scored 10 goals and 18 points in 38 games. He added two goals and four points for Slovakia and the U18s this season as well. Floriš is best described as a good skating, toolsy defenceman who’s not afraid to use his frame in the physical game. He went just nine picks after the Canucks selected Bryzgalov.

Following the overager trend, Davis was also passed over in his first year of eligibility. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much about him coming into the draft, as he wasn’t really ranked entering the draft. But a hard-working, never-quit motor is likely what appealed to the Canucks to select him in the fifth round.

Again, following the trend of taking a defenceman, Pantelas was ranked much higher than he ultimately fell. He’s a 6’2″ right-shot, physical, defence-first defenceman. He showed he can provide some offence, posting six goals and 37 points in 68 games this year. He will need to continue developing his offence and puck-handling if he wants to carve out an NHL role, but his shutdown ability would have made him the pick for me.

Not only was size a target for the Canucks in this draft, but they also went for shooters, and that’s what Bernát brings. He is a high-volume shooting winger, whose 6’3″ frame gives him that power forward profile if things break right.

Zurawski’s season was a tale of two stories. He had early success offensively, but tapered off as the season went on. However, he didn’t stop progressing, as he started developing his two-way play and off-puck work. He’s got a high motor, an incredible work ethic, and he’s just a pure athlete. He was a star at the combine, finishing in the top 10 in nearly all of the physical tests. Give me a hard-working athlete who made himself effective even when the offence wasn’t clicking.

This late in the draft, betting on a profile with some tools is a move I can get behind. Standing at 6’6″ tall, the Swede is more known for his defensive acumen, but isn’t afraid to instill fear in his opponents with his physicality. He will need to improve his skating, but the frame alone can intrigue many talent evaluators with the potential of what he could become.

I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but in our late round gems episode of Blackfish, Eriksson was one of the honourable mentions I highlighted as an option for the Canucks to take. He’s very raw, but his height and translatable tools piqued my interest – and apparently the Canucks’ as well.

What do you think, Canucks fans? What grades would you give each of the nine Canucks draft picks, and who would you have picked instead? Let us know in the comments below!