The 2025 NHL Draft Lottery was conducted on Monday evening, and although two teams with relatively low odds won the draws – the Islanders, jumping from 10th to 1st, and the Utah Hockey Club jumping from 14th to 4th – the Vancouver Canucks stayed right where they were originally slotted at 15th overall.
The 15th overall pick, or 15OA for short, is a selection at the tail-end of the first half of the first round of the Entry Draft. It’s not what anyone would call a high pick, but it’s not a low pick, either. It’s somewhere in the middle. But, like the proverbial third bowl of porridge sampled by Goldilocks, will the Canucks find the 15th overall pick to be ‘just right’?
Below, you’ll find a brief and recent history of the last ten players to be picked at 15th overall. It’s hoped that this will give folks at least some idea of the sort of prospect the Canucks might select there – that is, if they keep, and don’t trade, the pick.
2015 15th overall: Zachary Senyshyn, Boston Bruins
NHL | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Avg. TOI |
Career | 16 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 9:26 |
Our list starts a little ominously with the infamous 2015 draft. Here, the Bruins received three consecutive first round picks and only hit on one of them: current Canuck Jake DeBrusk at 14th overall.
Senyshyn was the Bruins last of the three picks, and wound up being the worst of the set. Considered a bit of a reach at the time, his selection is made all the more worse in retrospect because the next three players picked were Mathew Barzal, Kyle Connor, and Thomas Chabot. Senyshyn is currently skating for the Schwenningen Wild Wings of the German DEL.
2016 15th overall: Luke Kunin, Minnesota Wild
NHL | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Avg. TOI |
Career | 434 | 73 | 69 | 142 | -97 | 14:53 |
In Kunin, we have a genuine NHL player, though one who has played almost exclusively in the bottom-six throughout his career. Kunin topped out at 15 goals and 31 points in his third season. He has brought grit and a little bit of toughness to four different NHL teams already in eight seasons, and seems likely to move on to his fifth team sometime this upcoming summer.
2017 15th overall: Erik Brännström, Vegas Golden Knights
NHL | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Avg. TOI |
Career | 294 | 10 | 67 | 77 | -17 | 16:41 |
Here’s a name we’re all too familiar with. As a bit of a spoiler, consider this: of the ten players on this list, Brännström has probably enjoyed the third-best NHL career to point. That’s not the most encouraging fact regarding the 15OA, but it is true until some of the younger names manage to surpass him.
Brännström was a passable bottom-pairing defender for a number of seasons who occasionally showed more and played higher in the lineup, but only for short stints. The holes in his defensive game were ultimately insurmountable, which is why all indications are that he’ll be returning to Europe to continue his career as of this offseason.
2018 15th overall: Grigori Denisenko, Florida Panthers
NHL | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Avg. TOI |
Career | 33 | 0 | 7 | 7 | -7 | 10:38 |
Too early an arrival to professional hockey, and not enough ice-time once there, contributed to a stalled development for the once-promising Denisenko, as did a couple severe injuries, including a broken kneecap.
That’s largely prevented the would-be scoring winger from getting his career off the ground. Bouncing from Florida to Vegas didn’t helped matters much, nor did the February trade that sent him to Nashville.
Denisenko seems to have settled into a role as an AHL scorer and only occasional call-up, and may be headed back overseas in the near future. At 24, his odds of breaking through to regular NHL minutes are dwindling.
2019 15th overall: Cole Caufield, Montreal Canadiens
NHL | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Avg. TOI |
Career | 287 | 118 | 101 | 219 | -30 | 17:59 |
Halfway through, we hit our first and only genuine star player. It’s no secret why Caufield fell to 15th overall despite starring for the US Under-18 Development Team in his draft year, and it has something to do with his listed height of 5’8”.
But size or not, Caufield has beaten the odds and gone on to become a big-time scorer for the Canadiens, with 37 goals and 70 points this past season, his fourth in the NHL. Having just turned 24, expect Caufield to continue putting up numbers for quite some time. Call him a rare, best-case scenario for 15OA, but not a reasonable expectation for the results of any one draft.
2020 15th overall: Rodion Amirov, Toronto Maple Leafs
A tragic interlude here. By all accounts, Amirov was progressing well as a prospect before being stricken with cancer that formed, among other things, a brain tumour. Amirov bravely battled through treatment, but passed away on August 14, 2023 at the age of 21.
2021 15th overall: Sebastian Cossa, Detroit Red Wings
NHL | Record | GAA | Save % |
Career | 1-0-0 | 2.67 | .857 |
Don’t hold the one career game against him. Goaltenders traditionally take a while to develop, and Cossa has progressed well into a young AHL starter. He’s considered a top-five prospect in Detroit, and will get his chance at more NHL minutes in the very near future.
2022 15th overall: Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Vancouver Canucks
NHL | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Avg. TOI |
Career | 24 | 3 | 3 | 6 | -6 | 12:30 |
Another name we’re mighty familiar with. The Canucks’ own most recent 15OA has hit the NHL a little sooner than the average player picked at that spot, though Lekkerimäki can’t be called a full-time big-leaguer quite yet.
He seems poised to make that distinction as of 2025/26, however, and just experienced an excellent developmental year that shot him up a few prospect rankings. Already, he seems to be on a better path than some of the outright busts listed earlier.
2023 15th overall: Matthew Wood, Nashville Predators
NHL | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Avg. TOI |
Career | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11:35 |
Wood concluded his NCAA career and got his first taste of pro hockey at the tail-end of the 2024/25 season. The burgeoning power winger remains on track as a highly-regarded prospect, but one who is still a little raw to make any long-term judgements on.
2024 15th overall: Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Detroit Red Wings
NHL | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Avg. TOI |
Career | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:00 |
Brandsegg-Nygard is definitely too close to his draft date to say much about. He spent this season in the SHL as a teenager and didn’t post the best numbers, but that’s perhaps to be expected. He’s still a highly-rated prospect and, at the very least, hasn’t done anything yet to make Detroit regret taking him in this spot.
READ NEXT: Checking in on 34 more ex-Canucks’ 2024-25 NHL seasons
Sponsored by bet365
