That\u2019s something the Canucks are going to need more of, and soon. First round picks are difference-makers. Both in terms of their inherent value as prospects-to-be-selected, and in their trade value.<\/p>\n
The Canucks are looking to trade some veterans in the near-ish future. And not just any veterans, but some that might run the gamut from \u2018fan favourite\u2019 to \u2018all-time franchise great.\u2019 Thus far, folks like POHO Jim Rutherford have only stated a general desire to \u201cget younger\u201d<\/a> and have mentioned a slight preference for developed prospects over unmade picks. But there are certain trades potentially upcoming with which the Canucks essentially need to acquire first round picks, or else leave their fanbase in a deep disappointment. Or worse.<\/p>\n Trade Kiefer Sherwood, and don\u2019t get back a first round pick? That\u2019s a disappointment.<\/p>\n Trade Quinn Hughes, and don\u2019t get back a first round pick? (Or, ideally, multiple?) That\u2019s not just a disappointment, that\u2019s a disaster.<\/p>\n Suffice it to say that if the Canucks enter the 2026 or 2027 Entry Drafts with just their own first rounder, something has gone wrong.<\/p>\n But acquiring first round picks is always easier said than done. And that might be especially true in this 2025-26 regular season.<\/p>\n The NHL standings are, as we\u2019ve mentioned before<\/a>, as jam-packed as they\u2019ve ever been. We are just under a third of the way through the season, and the number of teams in the playoff race is sort of outrageous.<\/p>\n As of this Wednesday morning writing, we\u2019ve got 13\/16 teams in the Eastern Conference either in or within two points of the playoffs. The Western Conference is only slightly looser, with 12\/16 teams in or within two points of the playoffs.<\/p>\n On the surface, this might bode well for the Canucks\u2019 chances of getting some good trade returns. More teams in the running means more teams that believe they can compete, and that should lead to a larger pool of suitors for the Canucks\u2019 various veterans<\/a>. More suitors means more bidding, and the returns should naturally increase through that bidding process.<\/p>\n But that same standings reality may make it more difficult for the Canucks to get first round picks, specifically. Or, at the very least, first round picks that don\u2019t come with some serious restrictions.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll explain. Trading a first round pick mid-season always carries with it some risk, with the primary risk being that a team will tank in the standings post-trade and actually give away a much higher pick than they intended to. It happens all the time, but it seems like an especially likely outcome in this 2025-26 season, where a difference of a couple points can send a team wildly up or wildly down the standings.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s use a random team as an example here. Let\u2019s make it the New York Islanders. Led by Bo Horvat, they\u2019re having a surprisingly successful season, and as of this morning are tied for the last wildcard spot in the East with 31 points. There\u2019s early word that the Islanders might be looking to add veterans to bolster their postseason chances, and that could include looking at some of what Vancouver has to offer.<\/p>\n But trading a first rounder would be exceptionally risky to a team in this mushy middle like the Islanders. A two-point gain would bring these Islanders into the top-three in the Metropolitan Division, sure, and that\u2019s almost certainly what their management is thinking about as they window-shop for vets. But at the same time, a four-point drop is all that separates the Islanders from being in the bottom-ten of the league \u2013 and thus having their first round pick wind up being a potential top-ten selection.<\/p>\n In other words, within this season, a team could easily end up trading a pick while it\u2019s slotted somewhere in the late-20s, string together a couple losses, and suddenly find that same pick slotted near the top of the draft.<\/p>\n Now, there are some teams out there that don\u2019t really have to worry about that. Some teams have escaped the mushy middle. The Colorado Avalanche have a .846 record, and the Dallas Stars are at .722. They don\u2019t have to worry about trading first rounders. But then the Avalanche and Stars already traded their 2026 first round picks long ago.<\/p>\n The vast majority of the teams the Canucks will be negotiating with will be in that mushy middle, and may remain there right up until the 2026 Trade Deadline. And that will make acquiring first round picks from those teams all the more tricky.<\/p>\n A somewhat obvious solution is to acquire first round picks with protective clauses. We see this all the time, as in a conditional first rounder with \u2018top-ten protection.\u2019 That usually means that the pick is only traded if it falls outside of the top-ten, and if not, the pick slides to a future year.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not necessarily an issue. Sometimes, it can work out well, and occasionally that slid pick can wind up even higher than the one that was protected.<\/p>\n But for the Canucks, to miss out on 2026 picks because they\u2019ve slid to 2027 and 2028 is less than ideal. It kicks the \u2018youth movement\u2019 can a few further years down the road, and makes it all that much longer to wait until the Canucks are good again.<\/p>\n In writing all this, we don\u2019t think that the Canucks are going to outright fail to acquire any additional firsts. We\u2019re just saying it might be more difficult, more complicated, and more laden with conditions than most would assume. Are players like Sherwood<\/a> and Hughes worth firsts in a vacuum? Of course they are. But this isn\u2019t a vacuum, this is the highly-unique 2025-26 NHL regular season. A season in which the first round picks will not come easy.PRESENTED BY VIVID SEATS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why the Canucks might find it difficult to acquire first round picks within the 2025-26 season First round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-323316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}