Just a day after signing 15th overall pick Braeden Cootes, the Vancouver Canucks have signed another one of their selections from the 2025 NHL Entry Draft. On Thursday, the club announced that they have signed goaltender Aleksei Medvedev to a three-year entry-level contract.

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin had this to say about Medvedev:

“Aleksei is an important addition to our organizational depth in goal and his signing is a great thing for our hockey club,” said Allvin. “He showed us a lot at development camp and has a bright future if he continues to build on his skill set and fundamentals. We look forward to monitoring his progress and helping him develop into a solid pro.”

In case you’re new around here, we are very high on Medvedev here at CanucksArmy. If you haven’t already, head on over to read what yours truly had to say in my writeup on Medvedev, titled “Why the Canucks may have hit a home run with the Aleksei Medvedev pick”.

Next season, Medvedev will head back to the Memorial Cup Champion London Knights, where he’s currently slated to be “the guy” in the London goal crease after splitting starts as a 17-year-old last season. On top of their Memorial Cup win in 2024-25, the Knights are coming off back-to-back OHL Championships as well. Expectations are going to be high, and it’s going to be interesting to see how Medvedev deals with that pressure this coming season.

One thing to note about Cootes and Medvedev signing ELCs: These contracts coming now essentially guarantee that these two players won’t go to the NCAA, which could have made the Canucks wait longer for them to come play for their organization. Even worse — it would open the door for the players to walk themselves to free agency by refusing to sign with the Canucks and finishing out their collegiate careers instead.

Both players will be at camp in the fall, and while they’ll most likely be among the first cuts at camp — although Cootes presents a bit of an interesting case — it’s a big win for the Canucks to get both of these players signed to ELCs so shortly after drafting them.

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