It’s official. The Vancouver Canucks have locked up last place in the NHL standings and will have the best odds at drafting first overall at the 2026 NHL Entry Draft – and they’ve done so on April 2nd against their former captain, Quinn Hughes.

With the 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night, the Canucks can finish with a maximum of 66 points. The 31st-ranked Chicago Blackhawks have 68 points, with seven games remaining.

Heading into the 2025-26 season, the Canucks were trying to remain competitive to convince their captain to re-sign with the team. In an effort to do so, they re-signed Brock Boeser, extended Conor Garland and Thatcher Demko – players close with Hughes – traded for 34-year-old Evander Kane, and hired an inexperienced head coach in Adam Foote — all to appease Hughes.

Those moves were not enough to bring the Canucks back into contention, and Hughes was traded in mid-December for a package of Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Öhgren, and a 2026 first-round pick.

While it’s been an awful season in Vancouver and one that fans are eager to wipe from their memories, at least it will end on a positive note with a guaranteed top-three selection.

Highlighted at the top of the 2026 NHL Draft are two wingers: Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg. Along with a full crop of defencemen: Keaton Verhoeff, Chase Reid, Alberts Smits, Carson Carels and Daxton Rudolph. There are some tantalizing centres in this draft as well: Caleb Malhotra, Viggo Björck and Tynan Lawrence. However, despite the Canucks’ desperate need for help down the middle, that trio of centres is not as high-quality as the prospects listed before them.

The Canucks have never picked first overall. Although they did hold the first overall pick in 1999, before former GM Brian Burke orchestrated a series of trades that eventually landed them Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Now that the team can no longer lose draft positioning with their on-ice results, fans and team tankers can cheer for wins the rest of the way.