Director of Scouting Todd Harvey discusses Canucks’ 2025 NHL Draft class

The 2025 NHL Draft has come and gone. And in surprising fashion, the Vancouver Canucks held onto all six of their draft picks.

While some Canucks fans might be upset they didn’t use any of their picks to upgrade the current team, Director of Scouting Todd Harvey was certainly pleased to use all six picks.

To recap the draft, here are all six of the Canucks’ 2025 draft class:

• 1st round, 15th overall: Braeden Cootes
• 2nd round, 47th overall: Aleksei Medvedev
• 3rd round, 65th overall (via SJS): Kieran Dervin
• 5th round, 143rd overall: Wilson Bjorck
• 6th round, 175th overall: Gabriel Chiarot
• 7th round, 207th overall: Matthew Lansing

Harvey met with the media following their final pick of the draft to discuss his thoughts on the newest class of Vancouver Canucks.

They kicked off by asking about the first-round pick, Braeden Cootes, and why he was the right pick at 15:

“He’s a great kid, leadership qualities, he skates well, he drives play hard, he goes to the inside. He’s got the skill to put the puck in and there make plays. He plays the whole rink; he doesn’t play one end of the rink. He’s a 200-foot player and a real, real good
person.”

While a lot of the focus will be around Cootes, Harvey mainly spoke about the picks he made on Day 2 of the draft, which started with second-round goaltender Aleksei Medvedev:

“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.”

Former Head of Goaltending Ian Clark switched roles this past offseason to a goaltending scout and goaltending development coach. So, how big of a role did Ian Clark and the rest of the goalie staff have in terms of picking Medvedev, especially in the top 50?

“Well, I mean, obviously Ian [Clark] has a lot to say on that. We looked at the draft, and he wanted this pick, and we thought it was the right time. And Clark will be in touch with the goalies. I think we have a real good staff here for development and bring 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.”

Their third-round pick, Kieren Dervin, was a tough one to rank. Not just for us here at CanucksArmy, but even the professionals, as Dervin was ranked as high as 96th by DobberProspects and as low as 193rd by Draft Prospects Hockey. So the Canucks selected him at 65th overall might have been considered a reach, but not to Harvey and the Canucks:

“That’s okay, he wasn’t ranked [that low] by us. I watched him play near the end of the year a few times, and into the playoffs. He’s got good size, he skates pretty well, can make plays, sees the ice well, and he’s not afraid to play in traffic. I thought I saw something there, and our guy in Ontario really liked him, and I thought it was the pick for us.”

The one player Harvey was not asked about was Wilson Bjorck. There was mention of him, but only asking if he played centre, which Harvey confirmed. That resulted in four of the Canucks’ six picks being centres. With the Canucks’ dire need for centre depth, Harvey was asked if that weighed into his decision to draft Cootes at 15, despite the wingers and defenders (Victor Eklund and Kashawn Aitcheson) who went shortly after:

“Obviously, defence and centres are hard to come by. I thought today we targeted that. The way we put our list together is kind of the way it happened. We don’t deviate off our list. So those are the guys that were in the spot, and we ended up taking.”

With the Canucks’ sixth-round pick, they selected Gabe Chiarot, who doesn’t have the richest production history. His career high in the OHL was last year, with 21 goals and 35 points. This marks the second time in the previous three drafts where the Canucks had taken a relatively unproven player at the junior level, but Harvey made sure to point out who that first player was and how he turned out:

“Well, you said that about [Ty] Mueller, too,” Harvey laughed. “But I think at the end of the day, you watch him play; he had a really good second half and started putting the puck in the net. He skates well, he plays a north-south, hard game around the net, and those guys play in playoffs.”

The Canucks rounded out their draft with another centre, selecting Matthew Lansing. This followed a familiar trend from this organization’s scouting department, where they pick players who have strong second halves of their season. Last season, they drafted Riley Paterson, who fit a similar mould to Lansing. Harvey was asked if they’re noticing a developmental curve at that midway point of a season, and if they’re using that as a strategy for him and his group:

“One hundred percent. I mean, we want to see these guys improve throughout the year, and that’s part of scouting, right? I think sometimes it’s not all going to be straight lines. Sometimes it’s a little different for everybody. When you see guys take steps in their game at the right time and start pushing, it’s almost like the light goes off and they figure it out. And it’s really good to see guys take steps like that throughout the season.”

Canucks Director of Scouting shared his hopes that all the recently drafted players will be able to attend next week’s development camp, and that the team sorting out arrangements to get them to Vancouver.

We’ll leave you with one of the last questions. Harvey was asked to take a step back and look at what he accomplished by drafting these six players, what was he most pleased about in the Canucks’ 2025 NHL Draft class:

“I am happy with every pick we’ve made. We made it for a reason. I love the fact that we have competitive people. We have good people, and people that we want to be Vancouver Canucks. And I think that is the most important thing. You talk about [Braeden] Cootes; quality human being. And I think all the players that we’ve selected, our guys have done the work on them, and they’re quality people, and that’s what’s important.”

You can watch the entire availability below!