The 2026 NHL Draft Lottery is complete, and the Vancouver Canucks have been ‘awarded’ the third overall selection. That pick will undoubtedly provide the Canucks with a prospect of extremely high quality. But that won’t happen until the end of June. Until then, what the third overall pick is bringing the Canucks is a degree of uncertainty, and probably more of it than they’d like to be dealing with in an offseason already full of difficult decisions.

Had the Canucks won either lottery draw, things would be a lot more set in stone. If they had the first overall selection, they’d have the luxury of selecting Gavin McKenna and of building their future forward corps around him. Even if they’d won the second overall selection, the Canucks would be able to decide ahead of time which of the non-McKenna prospects they’re picking, and plan accordingly.

But in the third slot, the Canucks are at the whim of the San Jose Sharks, who won the second lottery draw and got bumped up seven spots to the second overall pick. The Sharks might reasonably just take Ivar Stenberg, the left winger and second-ranked prospect in the draft class, in most estimations. Or, seeing a need to add talent to their blueline ahead of their already overstuffed forward group, the Sharks might reasonably choose to instead take a defender at second overall, and that defender might reasonably be any one of Keaton Verhoeff, Chase Reid, Carson Carels, or Alberts Smits.

The Canucks are then left with a choice of who’s left. Or, if they prefer, maybe none of the above, because maybe the Canucks prefer centre Caleb Malhotra, a player the Sharks would have little interest in, but who has been ranked as high as second overall by some pundits.

In other words, the Canucks know that whoever they pick at the top of this draft will be a key piece of their rebuild moving forward – maybe even the centrepiece for the time being. But they don’t know whether that player will be a left wing, a centre, a left-shot defender, or a right-shot defender. And that can’t help but throw a bit of a wrench in their immediate plans.

The Canucks will be looking to move a few more veteran bodies off their active roster this summer to bring in as many future assets as possible and create space for younger players, including that third-overall selection. But exactly which veteran bodies will be at least a bit dependent on where this new prospect fits into the equation.

Draft Stenberg at third overall, for example, and trading Jake DeBrusk goes from an option to a priority. If the team wants Stenberg to get an immediate opportunity in the top six and also wants to continue to increase Liam Öhgren’s role, that almost requires DeBrusk to get out of the way.

Draft one of the LDs, like Carels or Smits, at third overall, and the priority move becomes Marcus Pettersson. That’s a contract the team might want to get out of sooner rather than later, anyway, but if the team wants an immediate pathway for a new defender on their left side, they’d have to clear Pettersson out. Then, running the left side of Zeev Buium, Elias Pettersson, and the new arrival would be interesting, and would probably require the offseason acquisition of some veteran presence on the right side to balance it all out.

Draft one of the RDs, such as Verhoeff or Reid, and the need for any immediate changes lessens. With Filip Hronek in place, Tom Willander showing well, and the progress of Victor Mancini a little stagnant at the moment, it’s easy enough to imagine a right-shot defender joining the blueline next year, and then slowly but surely working their way up the depth chart.

But draft a RD as good as Verhoeff or Reid, both of whom are said to have some top-pairing potential, and an eventual trade of Hronek becomes almost inevitable down the road. And if that’s the case, the team has to start at least planning that trade now, and watching out for the point of maximum value, which could very well be right now. Draft a RD, and the offers from other teams for Hronek’s services will almost certainly increase. The quality of those offers may, in turn, force the Canucks’ hand sooner than they’d intended.

Draft Malhotra, the centre, at third overall, and the roster could stay relatively unchanged for the time being. It’s unclear if Malhotra is destined to join the NHL right away, anyway. And if he made a push for the roster, he could slot easily enough into a rotation with Elias Pettersson and Marco Rossi, earning more minutes as he develops. That would probably leave Braeden Cootes in the AHL for his 19-year-old season, but that’s a good place for him and a likely outcome even without Malhotra in the equation.

As with Hronek, the drafting of Malhotra would probably mean the eventual trade of Pettersson or Rossi, or perhaps both. And, like Malhotra, the Canucks would have to start the process of looking into those trades this offseason. But such moves could also be held off on for another season or two as Malhotra and Cootes develop further. Drafting Malhotra definitely seems to have the fewest immediate implications for the Canucks.

Of course, that’s only true when it comes to the roster. Draft Malhotra, and the potential decision to replace head coach Adam Foote with Malhotra’s father, Manny, becomes a lot more complicated. Too complicated, probably, which would lead the organization to go in a different direction on its next bench boss. And that might have longer-term implications than any one roster-related decision.

Any uncertainty we’ve described here gets cleared up on June 26, when the Canucks’ new GM takes to the podium and actually makes that selection at third overall. But then, it’s only five days until the Free Agent Frenzy opens up, and that’s a pretty narrow window to work with.

The end result of it all might be that the Canucks have to do a bunch of their business on Day Two of the draft, trying to shift out an excess veteran or two to bring in some later picks. Or, it may result in them waiting until after the dust of the Free Agent Frenzy has settled to do their dealing, in hopes that teams that were unsuccessful in their UFA pursuits might then show more interest in what the Canucks are selling.

Overall, however, the uncertainty around the third overall pick means that whoever the Canucks hire to helm their next front office’s first job will be…to wait and see. Wait and see who the Sharks are going to pick, wait and see who is left for the Canucks, and then wait and see what trades need to be made to accommodate the growing and changing shape of the new core.

It’s going to be a busy offseason. We just don’t know exactly what kind of busy quite yet.