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Video shows Canucks offered 33rd and 41st overall picks to Ottawa at 2026 NHL Draft

Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images

By Jacob Fraser

Aug 13, 2026, 14:40 EDTUpdated: Aug 13, 2026, 15:18 EDT

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In a video posted to the Ottawa Senators YouTube channel titled “Untapped Potential | Breakaway”, Senators General Manager Steve Staios took a phone call during the draft, seemingly from the Vancouver Canucks, where the Canucks offered picks 33 and 41 for picks 25 and 72. Here’s the clip, where you can hear the Canucks’ offer right from Steve Staios’s mouth as he mulls it over, presumably with Canucks GM Ryan Johnson on the other end of the phone call:

The Senators released a behind the scenes draft day video which shows that the Canucks made an offer of picks 33 + 41 for picks 25 + 72.
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“33 and 41… so you want 25 and 72 for 33 and 41? I’ll text you right back here,” says Staios on the phone call before talking to his staff and electing not to do the deal.

Though the trade didn’t come to fruition, the Canucks made the effort to move up in the draft for an unknown player immediately after the Adam Novotný selection. The Senators opted not to make a deal despite receiving multiple offers for the pick, including one from Kyle Dubas and the Pittsburgh Penguins that included a roster player, and instead selected Swedish forward Jonas Lagerberg-Hoen at 25th overall, who Staios seems to allude to being ranked 16th overall on the Senators’ draft board.

The Canucks, of course, ended up selecting big centreman Brooks Rogowski and Norwegian winger Niklas Aaram-Olsen with the two picks they wanted from Ottawa. The Senators used the 72nd overall pick to select Slovak winger Adam Nemec.

The Canucks reportedly ended up selecting four players that were ranked in the team’s top 24 rankings with Caleb Malhotra, Novotný, as well as Rogowski and Aaram-Olsen, so the mystery player the team may have been hoping to move up for at 25 could have remained one of their two second-round selections. Most likely Rogowski. Although, we don’t know this for sure.

Though the team was and should be quite happy with their overall draft, it’s a promising sign for the future that this management group seems to be aggressive and willing to make moves that will continue to help build this team for the future.

Rogowski and Aaram-Olsen both have immediately lifted this team’s prospect pool, as both players project as future NHLers and were within the top ten of our most recent ranking of the top 20 Canucks prospects.