A primer on which picks the Canucks possess heading to Nashville for this week's NHL Draft
The first round of the 2023 National Hockey League Draft takes place Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena. The subsequent rounds will follow on Thursday. As it stands now, the Vancouver Canucks have seven picks spread across the seven rounds of the draft.
The team possesses one first rounder, a pair of third round selections, three in the fourth round and one in the sixth.
The first round pick is 11th overall. That was a result of the Canucks missing the Stanley Cup playoffs and failing to have any luck in the May 8th draft lottery.
Vancouver is currently without a second round selection in this draft as a result of a March 1st trade with Detroit for Filip Hronek. The 43rd pick now belongs to the Red Wings.
That means -- if nothing changes -- the Canucks will select 11th on Wednesday and then won't be on the clock again until the 75th pick on Thursday. The Canucks are also pegged to use the 89th selection which was acquired from Toronto in exchange for Luke Schenn ahead of the NHL trade deadline.
The Canucks are slated to be busy in the fourth round of the draft currently holding the 105th and 107th picks along with the 119th. The first of their fourth round slots originally belonged to Detroit. The second fourth rounder is Vancouver's own. The third of the team's fourth round picks was acquired from the New York Rangers as the return for Tyler Motte at the 2022 NHL trade deadline.
Based on current draft order, the Canucks will also select in 171st slot of the draft which is their own sixth round pick. The team doesn't not have a fifth round pick as a result of the Ethan Bear acquisition from Carolina last October. Nor do the Canucks have a seventh round selection which was peddled to Arizona as part of the massive 2021 draft deal involving Conor Garland and the recently bought-out Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
All of this can change in an instant, but as the team heads for Music City, the Canucks stand to make seven selections spread over the seven rounds of the draft.
Next year the Canucks possess their own first round pick, but are currently without a second rounder which was sent to Chicago along with Jason Dickinson in exchange for Riley Stillman. The Canucks currently have all seven of their allotted 2025 draft picks.