2025 NHL Draft: How will the Canucks draft in rounds 2 to 7?

National Post

a day ago

Whatever happens Friday night for the Vancouver Canucks in round one of the NHL Entry Draft, we know this much: They will make selections in the rest of the draft, which continues Saturday morning.
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This year's draft is an unusual affair, with teams making their picks remotely rather than in years past where they all assembled on a common draft 'floor,' usually an arena, although last year at The Sphere in Las Vegas and in its original 1960s and '70s form at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.
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Friday night's big show is at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles and league officials will run the remainder of the draft from there.
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Canucks GM Patrik Allvin and his chief scout Todd Harvey will call their picks in from the team's offices at Rogers Arena.
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As of Friday afternoon, the Canucks will pick 47th, 65th (originally San Jose's pick), 143rd, 175th and 207th.
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How the picks will play out is anyone's guess.
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A few round-by-round notes:
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47th overall (round two)
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It's hard to believe a team in the Canucks' position has had so few second-round picks over the past decade, but here we are.
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They haven't picked in the second round since 2021, when Jim Benning rolled the dice on Danila Klimovich, passing up on the likes of Logan Stankoven.
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Klimovich had an impressive World U18s in front of Benning — that tournament was in Texas, and you'll recall Benning's return was how we learned he and some of his colleagues had somehow scored a national interest exemption from quarantining upon return — but has yet to play in the NHL. He's shown growth in the AHL, but remains a longshot to be an NHLer.
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Stankoven, on the other hand, has played NHL games in Dallas and was a key piece in the Mikko Rantanen trade.
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As a counter, the previous second-rounder was Nils Höglander, selected in 2019, who has proven to be a solid NHLer.
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Beginning in the fourth round, the chances of finding an NHL player really start to dive. The last time the Canucks drafted a player after the fourth round who played NHL games was Adam Gaudette in 2015.
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Gaudette was actually the fourth time in five years the Canucks found NHL games in the fifth round, following Gustav Forsling — who obviously never played in Vancouver — Ben Hutton and Frankie Corrado.