Welcome back to WWYDW, the only hockey column on the internet you get three times per three-week period.

Speaking of three times, that’s a pretty standard amount of thing to get in most regards. Hockey games have three periods. You get three strikes in baseball. Chinese food from the mall often comes via a three-item combo.

And, of course, there’s the iconic genie-lamp scenario, in which a lucky individual is granted three wishes.

We don’t have much in the way of lamps to offer you today. The Canucks just haven’t been lighting them this season. But we do have the opportunity for a three-item wish combo all the same, and we hope you’ll take us up on it.

Our thinking here is that asking our readers what they want out of the Vancouver Canucks’ 2026 offseason might be too big of an ask. The task ahead of the Canucks themselves is enormous, and there’s just too many different things to discuss.

But if we limit our focus, and limit your responses, we might end up with something a little more workable. So, we’re asking you to make your wishes, and keep them to three, for the purpose of building up a little collective priority list for the Summer of ’26. You get to decide how realistic your wishes must be, so go with whatever you find most personally interesting to write about.

This week, we’re asking you to rub your internal lamps and asking you:

Make your wishes known in the comment section.

You answered below!

Curt Fraser.

Going through the list of second round picks, there aren’t many successes, so in the future, why not pick just pick the biggest, meanest guy who can skate?

Curt Fraser, Mike Peca, and Thatcher Demko are my top three in no particular order.

Looking through the drafts over this franchises history, it was actually shocking to see how many second round picks were traded over the years. The Canucks have had TWENTY drafts with no second round picks and only five drafts with two second rounders (zero with three or more). The Canucks have also had nine drafts without a first round pick and also only five drafts with two first rounders (also zero with three or more). This year (assuming they keep them) will be the first year the Canucks have had two first round and two second round picks in the same draft…EVER.

Rasmus Andersson?

I’m not sure I want to answer this, but I salute all the players drafted by other teams that were recipients of Canucks second round picks via trade who went on to have solid NHL careers.

Honorable mention to Artem Chubarov. If not for the 2004 work stoppage that sent him back to Russia, he was looking like a real workhorse who could have been a very solid middle-six centreman.

It is a little depressing how slim the pickings are in that round. Between trading out so many second rounders and a healthy number of disappointments, there isn’t too much to go on. It’s also probably worth stating that some ill-advised selections right before an eventual star talent was chosen don’t help matters much (looking at you, Taylor Ellington and Danila Klimovich).

But, I am going to answer this about my “favourite”, and the answer is Harold Druken for one specific memory that he created for me. It was the last week of the 2000-01 season, and the Canucks, for as improved as they were from the previous four seasons, remained on the bubble to make the playoffs. The rebuild was taking shape around the “West Coast Express” core and the growth was palpable, but the Phoenix Coyotes were still threatening to supplant us from our return to the postseason. I was on an evening shift at work (was in my late teens at the time), with the Canucks game on CKNW. They were playing the Kings, who were backstopped by Felix Potvin, a recent bugaboo for Canucks fans having completely flopped in Vancouver only to improve his SV% by 30 points to help propel the Kings to their own playoff spot. The game went to OT, with a Canucks win sufficient to secure their slot. The Canucks gain the zone, and Harold Druken, the pride of St John’s, Newfoundland and the 36th overall pick in the 1997 draft, cuts across the ice and beats “the Cat” to end that miserable four-year drought. Even on the radio, it was very cathartic and memorable to this day.

Druken’s career fizzled after that season, but I will always appreciate him for that one indelible moment.

Unfortunately, our best second rounders tended to be traded…..but my three favs are:

Curt Fraser, could do it all…he could score and really throw down.

Brent Ashton, big centre who had a great career outside of Vancouver.

Mike Peca, kind of an updated Curt Fraser.

And my all time favourite is…Logan Stankoven!!!!!? Wait, what? Oh yah, we took Klimovich.

Brent Ashton and his nearly 1000 games of solid work across a number of teams, but best years with the Nords and Jets. Honest two-way forward who had a great shot.

Demko, with honorable mentions to Chubarov and Druken, for being both quality players, and having excellent names.

There have been so few second round picks and so few of those have “hit” that I have to go with Thatcher Demko and those three complete seasons he’s had (including 2020/21 where he played 35 of a shortened 56-game season) since they drafted him in 2014.

Ron Sedlbauer is my favourite Canucks’ second round pick.

He was taken with the 23rd overall pick in 1974, one pick after the Islanders took Bryan Trottier!

Sedlbauer scored 40 goals for the Canucks in ‘78/79, put up a nice Cy Young line of 40 – 16. That is tied with Rick Nash for the fewest assists in a 40-goal season.

Ron Sedlbauer was traded to Chicago early the next season for Dave Logan and Harold Phillipoff. Logan played 40 games for the Canucks; Phillipoff apparently never appeared in a Canuck uniform.

The ‘70s Canucks were something special, alright!!

Gotta give some love to Mason Raymond, drafted straight out of Junior A and managed to make a decent career out of his speed and shot, including a mandatory stint as Rotating Sedin Linemate. Even had a bit of a cultural zeitgeist moment with his mention on How I Met Your Mother.

Why isn’t anyone taking Kole Lind?

I have different answers for the ‘best’ and ‘my favourite’ second round Canuck choice. Thatcher Demko is the best of the bunch, and it’s not particularly close, but his health makes me reluctant to choose him as my favourite. I liked Michael Peca, but his best days were played in Buffalo. Curt Fraser played long enough in Vancouver in reasonably good health to qualify as my favourite second round choice.

It is certainly interesting how many successful Canuck second round picks spent little time with the Canucks before getting traded.

I’ll take Curt Fraser, who several others have mentioned. He was a good player with an edge and between his four-and-a-half good seasons with the Canucks and the 250 goals that the player he was traded for (Tanti) scored for the Canucks, it has to be among the most productive second round picks in the Canucks’ history.

I think Demko would have been a popular choice if not for his injuries over the years.

Many of the favourites from years gone by would be first rounders today.

Höglander, Rodin, and Rohlin.

Did anyone already pick Harold Druken?

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