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Canucks Draft 2026: A recent history of the third overall pick
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Stephan Roget
May 9, 2026, 17:00 EDTUpdated: May 9, 2026, 13:23 EDT
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Barring any trades, the Vancouver Canucks will be selecting at third overall in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.
It’s a disappointing result as far as the Draft Lottery goes, but it’s hard to be upset about the pick itself. The Canucks have drafted at third overall just four times in franchise history, which is also the same number of times they’ve drafted at second overall. This pick will be one of the highest this team has ever made, in other words, and their highest since 1999, when they picked Daniel and Henrik Sedin at second and third overall.
The odds of the Canucks getting a high-quality NHLer out of the third overall selection are high. The odds of said player becoming the new centrepiece of the ongoing rebuild seem better-than-decent. But to get a little more specific about exactly what level of prospect the Canucks and their fans should be expecting here, we thought a little day-trip through the recent history of the third overall pick was called for.
2010: Erik Gudbranson (RD) at third overall to the Florida Panthers
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
842
35
105
140
Current Status: Depth defender
Peak Status: Bottom-pairing defender
We have to start somewhere, and it made sense to do so with a familiar face. Gudbranson was supposed to be a minutes-munching, tough-as-nails defender when selected at third overall, but while he was handed a number of top-four deployments over his career – including during his time in Vancouver – he was never really up for it.
Gudbranson has to be considered one of the biggest disappointments on this list, for both the team that drafted him and the Canucks, who traded for him. He was always better suited for his current role as a depth defender with good work habits, but his time in the NHL is probably coming to a close fairly soon.
2011: Jonathan Huberdeau (LW) at third overall to the Florida Panthers
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
962
263
544
807
Current Status: Expensive bottom-six forward
Peak Status: NHL superstar
Huberdeau is one of the toughest players to talk about. At his peak, he scored 115 points in a single season. That’s way more than anyone else on this list, except for Leon Draisaitl, who has only beaten that total once. But then, Huberdeau’s second-highest season of scoring was 92 points, and his third-highest was 78 points, and you begin to see the problem.
Huberdeau was always a bit inconsistent, but since his trade to Calgary, he’s fallen off the proverbial cliff. Now, it’s tough to even call him a top-six forward on most nights, even if he’s still paid like one.
In this case, however, it’s tough to call him a disappointment for the Panthers. They got Huberdeau’s best years in, then traded him for Matthew Tkachuk.
2012: Alex Galchenyuk (F) at third overall to the Montreal Canadiens
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
654
146
208
354
Current Status: KHL exile
Peak Status: Briefly top-six forward
We arrive at the only player on our list who could be called an outright bust, though it’s a little more complicated than that. Galchenyuk did have some early success in the NHL, reaching 56 points in his fourth season, but personal issues seemed to hold him back. He bounced around seven NHL franchises, with his last stop being 11 pointless games with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022-23.
Then came the infamous 2023 arrest, and Galchenyuk has been back in the KHL ever since, where his most recent season saw him put up just 30 points in 52 games.
2013: Jonathan Drouin (LW) at third overall to the Tampa Bay Lightning
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
671
111
287
398
Current Status: Bottom-six forward
Peak Status: Top-six forward
We’re on a bit of a run here of third overall picks who started strong, then faded fast. But Drouin is not quite that. He struggled initially with the Tampa Bay Lightning, then reached 53 points in 73 games in his third NHL season, and was later flipped to the Montreal Canadiens for Mikhail Sergachev. Whereas Sergachev went on to become a top-pairing D, Drouin found diminishing returns in Montreal, made further complicated by battles with mental health.
Drouin floundered for a few more years before reconnecting with junior teammate Nathan MacKinnon in Colorado. That got Drouin up to a career-high of 56 points in 79 games, but since leaving Colorado, he’s back down to bottom-six production and a questionable fit in most lineups.
2014: Leon Draisaitl (C) at third overall to the Edmonton Oilers
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
855
434
619
1053
Current Status: Future first ballot Hall of Famer
There’s no real question who is the best recent third overall selection. Draisaitl is the only player on this list who is a guaranteed future Hall of Famer, and he’ll be a first ballot induction, at that. If we’re looking for a best-case scenario for 3OA, it’s definitely Draisaitl, who would already be considered the best player ever for a number of other franchises (but not the Oilers).
He’s better than most players drafted in most drafts at any position, let alone third.
2015: Dylan Strome (C) at third overall to the Arizona Coyotes
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
597
165
277
442
Current Status: Top-six centre
Strome is a player who took some time getting up to NHL speed. He floundered with the Arizona Coyotes, achieving just 16 points in his first 48 games with them, before being flipped to the Chicago Blackhawks. He never really got fully up to speed there, either, but then found himself with the Washington Capitals, where he’s been a pseudo-top-line centre for a good four years running now.
Strome peaked with 82 points in 82 games in 2024-25, but seems most comfortable in the 60ish-point range, which probably best qualifies him as a weak first-line centre but a strong second-line centre. We’ll stick with calling him a “top-six” type.
2016: Pierre-Luc Dubois (C) at third overall to the Columbus Blue Jackets
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
627
170
257
427
Current Status: Top-six centre
Joining Strome in that Washington top-six is Dubois, another third overall pick who had a hard time finding his way in the NHL, but who eventually got there. Dubois started strong for the Columbus Blue Jackets, earning 48 and 61 points in his first two seasons, but then tailed off. He was traded to the Winnipeg Jets for Patrik Laine, where he got 60 points or more in two consecutive seasons, before being flipped to Los Angeles, where he was an unmitigated disaster.
The Kings more or less dumped Dubois on the Capitals last season, where he immediately posted a career year of 66 points in 82 games. This most recent season, however, saw Dubois battle several injuries, limiting him to just 29 games and 19 points. That’s a down year in a very up-and-down career, but Dubois seems like he should be able to bounce back into that 60-point range if he can recover his health.
2017: Miro Heiskanen (LD) at third overall to the Dallas Stars
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
552
67
279
346
Current Status: NHL superstar
After Draisaitl, Heiskanen is probably the next best player on this list. He’s nowhere near as flashy, and his numbers don’t jump off the stat page, but Heiskanen has been a franchise defender since arriving in Dallas and has been ranked as a top-five D in the league for the past several years. Heiskanen is probably also the single-most versatile blueliner in the entire NHL, as he’s spent entire seasons on both the left and right side of the Stars’ top pairing.
If Draisaitl is the best-case scenario for a third overall pick, Heiskanen is a fine, and slightly more realistic, best-case scenario for selecting a D at third overall.
2018: Jesperi Kotkaniemi (C) at third overall to the Montreal Canadiens
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
518
78
125
203
Current Status: Depth player/playoff scratch
Another difficult player to talk about. Kotkaniemi was a bit of a reach when the Canadiens picked him here, and after a strong rookie campaign, he immediately regressed as a sophomore. After putting up 20 points in 56 games in his third season, Kotkaniemi signed a high-priced one-year offer sheet from the Carolina Hurricanes, touching off a bitter controversy. But it probably would have been more bitter had Kotkaniemi not largely flopped in Carolina.
He did get all the way up to 43 points in 82 games during his second year with the Hurricanes, but he has not maintained that level. Kotkaneimi became a regular healthy scratch this season and has yet to suit up for the Hurricanes through two rounds of the playoffs.
He’s not quite a bust, but he’s the closest thing to it on this list, aside from Galchenyuk.
2019: Kirby Dach (C) at third overall to the Chicago Blackhawks
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
306
51
85
136
Current Status: Bottom-six forward
Multiple injuries have really devastated Dach’s career, and that goes all the way back to his earliest days in the NHL. The Chicago Blackhawks gave up on him and sold him off to the Montreal Canadiens, where he’s continued to suffer injuries – including one that limited him to just two games in the 2023-24 season.
Those who are watching Dach in the playoffs right now will attest that he’s found a new level, and he does have three goals and four points through nine postseason games. Perhaps that is something to build on moving ahead, but for the time being, the best we can label Dach as is a bottom-six forward.
2020: Tim Stutzle (C) at third overall to the Ottawa Senators
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
447
149
260
409
Current Status: NHL superstar
Stutzle is a top-level NHL forward, and probably a little better than his stats show, given how often he has had to carry his team in Ottawa. He’s been producing like a top-line centre ever since arriving in the league, and has scored at a roughly 80-point-or-better pace for the past four seasons running.
The real gravy here is that Stutzle was selected with the unprotected first-round pick the Senators got back from the San Jose Sharks for Erik Karlsson. He was, essentially, a bonus franchise player, and the Sens are still reaping the benefits of that six years down the road.
2021: Mason McTavish (C) at third overall to the Anaheim Ducks
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
304
77
104
181
Current Status: Top-six centre
Prior to this season, most folks would have called McTavish a slam-dunk long-term top-six centre. This has been a bad year for him, but that’s got at least something to do with missing training camp due to a contractual holdout.
Still, McTavish got up to 41 points in 75 games, making for his fourth 40+-point season in four NHL campaigns. And he’s scoring at a higher pace in the playoffs so far, with four points in seven games through one-and-a-half rounds. It seems safest to predict that McTavish will rebound from this year and continue to play as a top-six centre in the long run, though whether or not that happens in Anaheim remains to be seen.
2022: Logan Cooley (C) at third overall to the Arizona Coyotes
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
211
69
83
152
Current Status: Top-line centre
Cooley has made steady progress toward NHL stardom over three seasons with three different NHL teams (Arizona Coyotes, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth). He scored 44 points in 82 games as a rookie, 65 in 75 as a sophomore, and 43 in 54 this past season, with injuries being a factor.
He may technically line up behind Nick Schmaltz on some nights, but there’s little doubt that Cooley is Utah’s 1C of the future, and maybe even of the present day, too.
2023: Adam Fantilli (C) at third overall to the Columbus Blue Jackets
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
213
67
73
140
Current Status: Top-six centre
We’re now getting into the ‘too soon to call’ territory, but in saying that, Fantilli is already on his third NHL campaign, with each being better than the last. Fantilli had a bit of a tough time getting going as a rookie, but scored 54 points in 82 games as a sophomore and then upped that to 59 in 82 games this past season.
For now, we’ll call Fantilli a top-six centre, as he’s yet to take that next step into true 1C status. But it is still expected of him, and folks will be keeping a close eye on his point total for next year, looking for a true breakout performance.
2024: Beckett Sennecke (RW) at third overall to the Anaheim Ducks
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
82
23
37
60
Current Status: Burgeoning NHL star/superstar
Sennecke is still within his NHL rookie season, but he’s already achieved 23 goals and 60 points, which is more than plenty of the players on this list have ever scored. It’s safe to say that Sennecke is on his way to some form of NHL stardom, though exactly where he ends up is yet to be determined.
Remaining a top-line fixture seems like a near certainty. Becoming a true superstar is still well within the realm of possibility.
2025: Anton Frondell (C/LW) at third overall to the Chicago Blackhawks
 
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Career
12
3
6
9
Current Status: Burgeoning NHL star/superstar
Frondell has only played 12 NHL games to date, but they were a really good 12 games, and he did come into them with a lot of hype – perhaps more than is usually given to the typical third overall pick.
Frondell seems to be on the way to a form of NHL stardom all his own, but until we’ve seen more from him, it’s just a lot of potential at this point.
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