The Vancouver Canucks are officially out of the playoff race.

The Vancouver Canucks are also still in possession of their first round selection in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft.

You know what that means. Heck, we’re willing to bet that some of you literally have Tankathon open in another tab, running simulations to see just how likely it is that the Canucks’ pick ends up winning the lottery.

As of this writing, the odds are not good: a 0.5% chance of winning a lottery, and a 0.0% chance of drafting first overall as a result. Those odds could change a little over the final week of action on the 2024/25 regular season, but probably not by much.

In any case, we have a strong feeling that the subject is a bit of a moot point. Because, from where we’re standing, the odds of the Canucks actually using that draft choice to make a selection at this year’s draft are almost as slim as their current lottery odds. That’s because the Canucks desperately need some roster upgrades this offseason, and because their own draft picks are some of the only real tradeable assets available to them.

We’ve already written about the immense importance of the team performing as well as possible in 2025/26. It’s the last year before the last year of Quinn Hughes’ current contract, which makes it the last year that they will be able to operate without the distraction of negotiations…and without the possibility of Hughes walking away hanging over their heads. We’ve also made the argument that how the team does in 2025/26 will probably have a lot to do with whether or not Hughes is willing to re-sign when his deal is done.

We wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s all riding on next season, but we wouldn’t stop too short of that statement, either.

We’ve also recently written about the importance of the emergence of the younger Elias Pettersson, and how he’s quickly made himself into a largely ‘untouchable’ asset.

The argument here is built upon the previous one. With the 2025/26 season being so ultra-important – and if that doesn’t work out, then with 2026/27 being potentially the last kick at the can with Hughes – having NHL-ready prospects ready to tackle major minutes while still on their entry-level contracts is crucial. Having someone like EP25 on the books for less than $1 million and playing a regular role saves cap space, it saves the assets that it would normally take to acquire a player to fill that role, and it starts providing on-the-job training for an individual who should be a long-term investment.

In this article, we’d like to extend such notions to all of the Canucks’ ‘NHL-ready’ prospects. This is a list that definitely contains Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who just got sent back down to the same AHL he’d been dominating all season long. By next year, he’ll be ready to step in as a scoring wing, and that will be vital in the wake of a potential Brock Boeser and Pius Suter departure.

There is also a good chance Tom Willander belongs on the list. He plays in the semi-finals of the Frozen Four on Thursday evening, and one way or another, will be eligible to sign soon. We wrote earlier in the year about how Willander is coming out of a college program that tends to produce high-profile defenders capable of stepping directly into the NHL, and we’ve seen plenty of indications that Willander could follow that trend.

Nothing is certain until he actually hits NHL ice. But the possibility of him playing a regular role as soon as next year is too tantalizing to even consider trading Willander prior, save for offer-you-can’t-refuse territory.

Having two impactful defenders on ELCs on the blueline would just be far too much of a boost to the Canucks’ overall ability to build a strong roster that it’s hard to imagine what could be worth giving Willander up now.

While we’re at it, we might put Aatu Räty up for consideration here, too. He’s nowhere near as ‘untouchable’ as any of the three previously listed, but with the Canucks’ centre depth in a crisis, and with five goals in eight games since his latest call-up, he’s another player that Vancouver is almost certainly better off hanging onto than trading. (Though Räty is not still on his ELC, which expires as of this offseason, and will need to be re-signed.)

Think of it this way: by far the most cost-effective way to acquire talent in the NHL is to draft and develop it yourself. The Canucks have already done this with these players. Any attempt to turn these players into older, even more-developed assets from other teams will result in some conversion loss. Keeping the players you built up in house is almost always better asset management.

So, if we take all of these prospects off the table, the question becomes one of what else the Canucks could possibly give up in order to land the players they need this summer – with a 2C being top of the shopping list, clearly, and a top-six winger following shortly after that.

And the answer, like it or not, is definitely their own draft picks.

The Canucks are currently in possession of most of their own selections in the coming drafts, save for their own third and seventh picks in 2026, and their own second rounder in 2027. But this isn’t really a question of abundance, but more of immediate needs.

If the 2025/26 campaign is so all-important, then we must admit that draft picks, in and of themselves, don’t help the Canucks’ current goals much. Even if the Canucks were to tank hard over the final week of the season and somehow slip into the top-ten of the draft – highly unlikely, already – they still wouldn’t end up with a player ready to help them this coming season, and probably not the season after, either.

The further into the draft, or the further in the future, that a draft pick is located, the lower the chances of it having an impact on the current, Hughes-oriented timeline.

But draft picks are also the primary currency of trades in the modern NHL, and on that front, these picks can definitely help the 2025/26 Canucks.

We understand any hesitancy you may be feeling as you read these words. Canucks supporters are rightfully a little gun-shy about trading picks, after years upon years of seeing them traded at the wrong times for players who ultimately didn’t make much of a difference in the Canucks’ final fates in the seasons they were acquired.

But if we’re talking timing, then the time is definitely now. The Hughes Window is open, it won’t remain open for ever, and not trying to make the most of it just isn’t an option.

The roster needs to improve. Keeping NHL-ready prospects around helps meet that goal in multiple ways. Draft picks, right now, only help meet that goal if they’re used in trades.

We’d actually go as far as to say that the Canucks would probably be better off trading multiple high draft picks – like this year’s first and next year’s, too – before they considered trading an EP25 or a Lekkerimäki or a Willander. Of course, trade negotiations are tough to predict, and there’s no way of knowing what other teams are asking for.

We’ll include a caveat here that no one is every truly untouchable, and there’s no doubt a price out there that could be met to entice the Canucks to trade any of the prospects we’ve mentioned. But we don’t think it’s very likely that price is met.

We think it’s far more likely that the Canucks get their shopping done with picks this summer, and as many picks as it takes, at that.

It’s not just the best path of asset management available to them, it’s the only one they can realistically take without compromising on their own current and vital aims to compete in the very-near future.