Canucks’ prospect depth chart showing signs of new life

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Two signings of two new draftees in two days in July doesn’t mean much on its own, but when you’re the Vancouver Canucks and your prospect depth chart has got a little short, they mean more than usual.

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Heading toward last month’s NHL Entry Draft, we considered how the Canucks are going to pivot into their post-J.T. Miller era — and we had to take note of the quality of the team’s prospect pool.

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And what we saw was — to paraphrase former Canucks coach Travis Green — just OK. Jonathan Lekkerimaki put together a nice AHL regular season but struggled in the playoffs. Tom Willander progressed well at Boston University and should be a handy NHL regular once he’s ready, hopefully later this coming season.

Elias Junior Pettersson has pretty much graduated into NHL regular status and that’s good. And there are a handful of useful depth prospects on hand, like Victor Mancini, Kirill Kudryavtsev, Linus Karlsson, Arshdeep Bains and Aatu Raty. The goaltending factory carried on as well, with Nikita Tolopilo and Ty Young showing promise that they could be useful enough to make some NHL starts down the road although, as ever, goalies are voodoo so who really knows there.

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But this wasn’t a pool overflowing with players who were going to change the big-picture narrative of this team, no young centre on whom to hang the team’s culture around, no hotshot defenceman who would make teams sweat even when Quinn Hughes left the ice.

This week’s dual signings of Braeden Cootes and Aleksei Medvedev tell us that the picture is shifting.

Neither is an heir apparent to Quinn Hughes, so the team’s future on the blue line will continue to be a talking point, but Cootes has clear Bo Horvat vibes to him. He’s a remarkable leader and competitor. Seattle GM Bill La Forge told me a story about when Cootes was in his first season with Seattle as just a 16-year-old, after his U18 prep season was over. He’d already proven to be such a competitor that star veterans Dylan Guenther and Brad Lambert would ask to have him as their linemate when practice would turn to three on three drills.

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He plays hard but has skills to deliver. And there’s a desire to get better. When Horvat was drafted in 2013, the knock on him was his skating. But by the time he made the NHL two years later, he was already a vastly improved player. Cootes brings similar vibes; you can see him in the long run being an excellent second centre behind Elias Pettersson.

And Medvedev, it’s clear, is the best goalie prospect this organization has had since Thatcher Demko. All of a sudden the Canucks look like they have a burgeoning future. Of course one of these prospects could find themselves in a trade to land the coveted second-line centre, the kind of forward who would change the narrative around this team, which doesn’t just want to be a playoff team. Of course they have to make the playoffs first.

How 2025-26 plays out in the NHL remains to be seen. But what’s clear is the long-run picture does look more solid than it did even a month ago. Funny what just two picks can do.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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