CA’s top 20 Canucks summer prospect rankings: #4 Aleksei Medvedev

We are back with the 2025 summer edition of CanucksArmy’s top 20 Vancouver Canucks prospect rankings.

The beauty of keeping your high draft picks is that you get to add some pretty exciting prospects in the process. It’s something Canucks fans haven’t gotten to enjoy all that much in recent years — particularly in the second round. But this past draft, the Canucks elected to keep their second round pick, and used it to select one of the top goaltenders in this year’s draft.

Coming in at number four in our rankings of the Canucks’ top prospects is goaltender Aleksei Medvedev.

• #20 – Ilya Safonov
• #19 – Aku Koskenvuo
• #18 – Parker Alcos
• #17 – Wilson Björck
• #16 – Anri Ravinskis
• #15 – Josh Bloom
• #14 – Kieren Dervin
• #13 – Danila Klimovich
• #12 – Riley Patterson
• #11 – Anthony Romani
• # 10 – Vilmer Alriksson
• # 9 – Ty Young
• # 8 – Ty Mueller
• #7 — Sawyer Mynio
• #6 — Arshdeep Bains
• #5 — Kirill Kudryavtsev

Team: London Knights | Age: 17 | Position: Goalie | Height: 6’3″ | Weight: 178 lbs | Catches: Left | Drafted: Round two, 47th overall, 2025 |

Prior to selecting Medvedev, the last goalie the Canucks drafted was Ty Young back in 2022. As such, the 20-year-old Young (who turns 21 in September) was the Canucks’ youngest goaltender in the system. It was certainly expected they would draft a goalie in 2025, but what we didn’t expect was for them to take one with one of their early picks, as they’ve typically elected to hunt for hidden gems in the later rounds of the draft under the advice of Ian Clark.

Even though Medvedev was ranked highly and was well-regarded by many teams, he still might have the “hidden gem” tag applied to him, to some extent. You see, if Medvedev were born just five days later, he’d be a 2026 NHL Draft prospect, not 2025. As one of the youngest players in the draft, Medvedev still has growing to do. In fact, he was listed at 6’2″ but told reporters shortly after the draft that he’s now 6’3″. As someone who stood next to him at development camp early this month: He wasn’t lying.

Further, Medvedev now has a clear path to being “the guy” on what’s sure to be a dominant London Knights team in the OHL. This past year (his first in the OHL), Medvedev split starts and wasn’t used in playoff games as London captured their second straight OHL Championship and added a Memorial Cup Championship as well. That team is going to be great once again, and Medvedev is going to be the one backstopping them to wins.

So where would a 6’3″ (or more) goaltender who could be one of the OHL’s top goaltenders in 2025-26 have been drafted if he were only available in 2026? It’s a question that we’ll certainly be asking down the road, and one that Canucks fans are thankful they don’t really need to worry about. Simply put: the Canucks added a great goaltending prospect with tremendous upside when they selected Aleksei Medvedev.

Shortly after he was drafted, this author penned a piece titled “Why the Canucks may have hit a home run with the Aleksei Medvedev pick.”

Medvedev has all the tools to be an elite NHL netminder and brings an intriguing blend of natural traits and abilities along with some structure that should only improve as he gains more and more experience.

Here is what Canucks Director of Scouting Todd Harvey had to say about Medvedev and why the Canucks selected him.

“He’s a calm, calm kid, big kid, moves well in the net and does, never seems to get rattled. He has that presence in there that makes the team in front of you play a little calmer. We thought he was our guy. We kind of targeted that, and that was a good pick.

“This guy’s a good goalie. We’re pretty happy with him. I think that he’s going to show next year that he’s ready to take workload. For him to take the net in London next year and run with it is going to be big for him and his development.”

“Well, I mean, obviously Ian [Clark] has a lot to say on [who the Canucks decided to pick]. We looked at the draft, and he wanted this pick, and we thought it was the right time. And Clarky will be in touch with the goalies. I think we have a real good staff here for development and bringing him [Medvedev] along; he’s going to have the net next year in London. And you never know, London, they always have a good team. So maybe they get back to a Memorial Cup.”

Dave Hall and I teamed up after the draft to discuss each of the Canucks’ picks, and you can watch our video on Medvedev below!