Will Canucks add picks at this year's draft?

It's a question that gets asked every year: will the Vancouver Canucks add picks ahead of the National Hockey League Draft? As it stands right now, the Canucks hold seven picks for the seven rounds of this week's proceedings in Nashville. History suggests the Canucks will not add to that total.

Only twice in the past decade have the Canucks exceeded their allotted number of draft picks. In 2019, when they were the NHL Draft hosts at Rogers Arena, the Canucks made nine selections including Vasili Podkolzin, Nils Höglander, Arturs Silovs and Aidan McDonough. And in 2017, the Canucks made eight selections -- and the first five that year have all played in the National Hockey League (Elias Pettersson, Kole Lind, Jonah Gadjovich, Michael DiPietro and Jack Rathbone).

Over the past decade, that 2017 draft stands as one of just two years the Canucks have held more than three picks in the first three rounds. It also happened in 2014 -- the last time the Canucks owned two first round selections. That year yielded Jake Virtanen, Jared McCann, Thatcher Demko and Nikita Tryamkin.

In the last 10 years of the draft, the Canucks have made 10 first round selections. They had two picks in the first round in both 2013 (Bo Horvat and Hunter Shinkaruk) and the following year (Virtanen and McCann). They also were without first round picks in 2020 and again in 2021 as a result of the JT Miller and Oliver Ekman-Larsson/Conor Garland trades.

In five of the past 10 drafts, the Canucks have left town with six or fewer selections. We'll know by Thursday evening how many picks the team has made in the 2023 draft.