The New York Rangers have made their decision regarding their first-round pick, electing to send the 12th overall selection in the 2025 NHL entry draft on Friday to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Why this matters to Canucks fans is because this pick was originally acquired by the Vancouver Canucks in the JT Miller trade. The Rangers acquired Miller, defenceman Erik Brännström and defensive prospect Jackson Dorrington in exchange for centreman Filip Chytil, defensive prospect Victor Mancini and a top-13 protected first-round pick in 2025.

Before the trade, the Rangers sat 22nd in the league, five points behind the playoff bar. With no guarantee that Miller could turn them into a playoff team, Rangers GM Chris Drury placed the condition on the pick to protect themselves in case they won the lottery and moved higher in the draft. In doing so, they left themselves the option to be more vulnerable and elect to keep their 2025 selection and send an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to Vancouver instead.

However, the Canucks quickly moved that pick, along with forward Danton Heinen, defenceman Vincent Desharnais and prospect Melvin Fernstrom to the Penguins in exchange for defenceman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor – who have now both been extended.

Miller performed well down the stretch for the Rangers, finishing second on the team with 13 goals and 35 points in 32 games. But the Rangers fell short of the playoffs, finishing six points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the last Wild Card spot and the New Jersey Devils for the third spot in the Metropolitan Division.

New York came into the draft lottery holding just a 3.0% chance to pick first, 3.5% to pick second, 0.1% to pick third, 79.9% to pick 11th, 13.4% to pick 12th and 0.5% to pick 13th. Unfortunately for the Rangers, their New York rivals finished just one spot ahead and won the lottery.

With the 2026 draft expected to be one of the deeper classes in the last few seasons, the Rangers are electing to hold onto that pick and send the 12th overall pick to the Penguins.

Pittsburgh now holds back-to-back picks, selecting at 11th and 12th overall. According to Daily Faceoff’s Final Top 120 rankings, Steven Ellias had Roger McQueen ranked 11th and Jackson Smith ranked 12th – Victor Eklund, Kashawn Aitcheson, Radim Mrtka, and Justin Carbonneau are four others projected to be selected around their pair of picks.