Studying the NHL Trade Deadline is a lot like trying to make it to the top of the charts on TikTok.

It’s all about the trends.

We’ve wrote plenty already about the trades already going down around the league, and what they might mean to the Vancouver Canucks and their own trading intentions. One smaller trend we’ve noticed that hasn’t merited mention until now is that a lot of the future-based assets being traded are a little more future-based than usual.

The Minnesota Wild acquired Gustav Nyquist on Saturday for a 2026 second-round pick. The Florida Panthers acquired Seth Jones for, in part, a 2026 first-round pick that will become a 2027 first-round pick if the Panthers don’t wind up owning a 2026 first-round pick.

It’s still early, but it’s also a trend that has been happening all year. Cam Fowler went for a 2027 second-rounder back in December. Mackenzie Blackwood went for a 2026 second the week prior.

In fact, a full 14 picks from the first three rounds of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft have already been traded. If that’s not a trend, we don’t know what is. And, as always, we need to bring it back around to the most pertinent question:

What does it all mean for the Vancouver Canucks?

We’ve made it pretty clear by now that we believe that GM Patrik Allvin and Co. should engage in some selling at the 2025 Trade Deadline. Traditionally, the thinking has been that when selling current assets for more future-based assets, the more immediate those future assets are, the better — especially for a team, like Vancouver, who isn’t interested in a long-term rebuild.

The thinking makes sense. A young player already in the NHL can contribute right away — a prospect on the verge of making it can contribute as soon as next year. A draft pick in the current draft can at least be selected and then have their development process start, so as to hopefully be ready for NHL minutes within a few years.

Then any assets based in more future-flung drafts, in turn, lose some of that value of immediacy. For example, a team that acquires a 2026 draft pick right now doesn’t even get to pick that player until June 2026. This means that player probably isn’t hitting their roster until the 2028/29 season, at best.

The Canucks, in particular, can’t afford to wait around until 2028/29. They don’t even know if they’ll have Quinn Hughes at that point.

All of which might lead someone to believe that the current trend of 2026 – and beyond – draft picks being moved as the currency for deadline-buying is a negative trend for the Canucks and their intentions.

On the contrary, however, we think it’s a good thing. In fact, we believe it’s something the Canucks should lean into.

We’ve got two lines of thinking to explore here. The first and simplest is that the 2026 draft class is reportedly much stronger than the 2025 class.

We’ve heard similar notions before. However, as scouting steadily improves, such statements tend to be truer and truer. The 2026 draft class is headlined by the ‘next one,’ Gavin McKenna, who we’ve been hearing about for years already, and continues on strong from there. At the very least, a perception exists that 2026 draft picks will wind up being more valuable than their equivalent picks in the 2025 draft.

So, if we’re just doing asset valuation, 2026 picks are worth more. Worth more to the Canucks, when they might still have to wait for said prospects to develop? Perhaps not. But then when we’re talking about the Canucks and the future-based assets they might acquire, we’re not necessarily talking about them using those draft picks.

We’re probably talking about them flipping them.

This is, after all, kind of the Canucks’ ‘thing’ these days.

They turned the first-round pick they got back for Bo Horvat into Filip Hronek. They turned the first-round pick they got back for JT Miller into Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor.

Chances seem reasonable that if the Canucks do trade some of their roster pieces for future assets at or ahead of the 2025 Trade Deadline. That said, future assets will eventually be sent out in exchange for more immediate pieces to help the team in 2025/26 and subsequent years.

And if that’s the case, 2026 draft picks should definitely be of added interest to the Canucks.

Look at it this way: a 2025 draft pick must be either traded or used on a draft selection by June 2025. That’s not a ton of time to work with. It precludes the opening of 2025 Free Agency, for example, and gives the Canucks just a handful of months to find that pick a new home.

Contrast that with a 2026 draft pick, which does not have to be used until June 2026. That gives the Canucks a whole extra year to test the market for that asset and find the best possible return. Those 2026 assets could be spent now, at the 2025 draft, at the start of 2025 Free Agency as teams look to clear space, or throughout the summer, into the 2025/26 season, then the 2026 Trade Deadline and all the way up to the 2026 Entry Draft. That’s a lot of opportunities gained by trading for draft picks just one extra year into the future.

Add that to the aforementioned fact that 2026 picks are projected to just, in general, be more valuable than 2025 picks. You’ll see why we think it’s actually a good thing that 2026 (and beyond) picks seem to be the trendy currency of the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline – and why they’re something the Canucks should pursue, not shy away from.