If you thought Aleksei Medvedev’s tough sophomore OHL season was going to make him plummet down our rankings, think again. I couldn’t help but laugh when a couple of commenters yesterday were preemptively upset that we’d dare put Medvedev fourth in our rankings after the season he put up with the London Knights in 2025-26. And that’s mostly because we’ve seen overreactions to goaltenders’ junior seasons before. Remember Marc-Andre Fleury’s .882 save percentage in the QMJHL in his D+1 year? Okay, maybe let’s not use the future Hall of Famer as our case study, but you get the point.

Instead, take Ty Young as a very recent (and topical for us) example. Young had tools and intangible abilities that we believed in, so he didn’t free-fall down our rankings despite losing his WHL job to a younger goaltender and putting up mediocre numbers as a fourth-year WHL player in 2023-24. I remember the outrage to that, with some people even telling us that Young would never play pro games in North America, let alone reach the AHL and eventually get a taste of NHL action.

Young turned pro in 2024-25, putting up an eye-popping .926 save percentage in the ECHL and a respectable .904 save percentage through 11 AHL games. What matters much more to us than results in junior is a goaltender’s process. How are they getting beat? Are they making adjustments? Are they losing their net in a way they haven’t before? More importantly, how are they holding up mentally? Was a rough season going to be a roadblock, or a learning experience?

I remember talking to Young at Canucks training camp ahead of the 2024-25 season. At that point, he still had no idea where he was going to end up. He wasn’t sure if he’d be given the chance to turn pro, or if he’d have to head back to the WHL, where he’d likely need to find a new team after Joshua Ravensbergen took over the Prince George crease the season prior. Young still had a smile on his face talking about the adversity he’d faced. He was complimentary of Ravensbergen. He wasn’t feeling sorry for himself, and was eager for his next chance to prove himself. I walked away from that conversation feeling confident that Young would bounce back. And that’s what he did.

I get a similar feeling from Aleksei Medvedev, who we spoke with earlier this month at Canucks development camp about his tough season, where he posted an .891 save percentage (compared to a .912 in his draft year).

“I feel like, obviously, I had a little bit of an off year. I was off to a really good start, but then I lost my game a little bit,” Medvedev said about his season in London. “But I thought it just gave me a really good perspective on the game of hockey. When you’re in that discomfort of not playing your best, you keep looking for stuff to improve your game. So I was able to find so many great things that helped me and explore them a lot more in this offseason.”

“I feel like this year just made me realize how important that is, and I never really faced that much adversity. Especially as a second [round] pick, you’re coming into a year with a lot of expectations, and then you’re not quite playing up to them. Just realizing how important that is and learning from it, just using it to your benefit, that’s my biggest mindset. I feel like that might have been one of the best things that’s happened to me. Especially that early on in my career, it’s really valuable experience.”

The things that stood out about Medvedev in his draft year haven’t changed. The size, athleticism, compete level, technical ability, puck-tracking ability, and more are all of high quality. He uses his long frame and flexibility to recover on second chances and make highlight-reel saves that would be in the back of the net against most goalies. His lateral pushes are explosive, and his ability to seal the lower portion of the net is still downright impressive.

Medvedev’s baseline level of elite intangible qualities gives him a high enough floor that makes us firmly believe in his potential. To put it simply: technique and details can often be cleaned up somewhat easily when a goaltender has the physical tools that Medvedev does. He’s not even going to turn 19 until September, and has plenty of time to make the necessary adjustments to his game as he continues to develop.

All of this is to say: Sleep on Aleksei Medvedev at your own risk. For us, he’s unquestionably the Canucks’ top goaltending prospect, and absolutely deserves a spot in the top five, even after a down D+1 season.

Ceiling: NHL starter, and maybe even an elite one. The tools are all there.

Floor: Typically a goaltender’s floor is that they don’t ever make it to play pro hockey in North America, and even if they do, it’s a season or two in the ECHL before heading to play professionally overseas. We’d say for Medvedev that his floor is certainly higher than that. It would be downright shocking if he doesn’t play NHL games, even if as a backup. We’ll call his floor that of an AHL netminder.

ETA: Whenever he turns pro, Medvedev will follow the path of other Canucks prospect netminders like Ty Young and Aku Koskenvuo, both of whom spent time in the ECHL and AHL last season. Realistically, Medvedev could spend the next two seasons in the OHL, but if he puts together a strong enough season in 2026-27, the Canucks might feel that turning pro is the right next step for his development. He’s already signed to an entry-level contract, so really, anything is possible. We’ll put his NHL ETA at around 2030-31, when he’ll be 23 years old.

Keep up to speed with our rankings so far with our honourable mentions and criteria, and our rankings thus far: