{"id":586799,"date":"2026-05-30T01:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/586799\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T01:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:33:13","slug":"5-goalies-the-canucks-could-select-at-the-2026-nhl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/586799\/","title":{"rendered":"5 goalies the Canucks could select at the 2026 NHL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past decade, the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> have made it a habit to draft a goaltender roughly two out of every three years.In fact, ex-Canucks director of goaltending-turned-scout-who-still-has-a-huge-say-on-who-to-draft Ian Clark even said as much prior to the team drafting Aku Koskenvuo in 2021<\/a>. You can see the pattern yourself, too. And when you do, you\u2019ll likely agree that it\u2019s at least likely the Canucks will select a goalie at the 2026 NHL Draft.Canucks\u2019 goalie drafting patterns suggest they\u2019ll draft a goalie<\/p>\n

2017: Michael DiPietro (Round 3, Pick 64)
2018: Matthew Thiessen (Round 7, Pick 192)
2019: Arturs Silovs (Round 6, Pick 156)
2020: No goaltender selected
2021: Aku Koskenvuo (Round 5, Pick 137)
2022: Ty Young (Round 5, Pick 144)
2023: No goaltender selected
2024: No goaltender selected
2025: Aleksei Medvedev (Round 2, Pick 47)<\/p>\n

Another trend you can see based on that list is the Canucks\u2019 typical desire to get their goaltenders from the later rounds of the draft. Drafting Aleksei Medvedev in the second round certainly went against that trend, but perhaps the Canucks felt the need to get a prospect goaltender with some more pedigree since they didn\u2019t select a goaltender in 2023 or 2024.<\/p>\n

If the Canucks\u2019 two out of every three years rule \u2014 or some similar version of the philosophy \u2014 is still in place, then it would seem like a safe bet to think that they will indeed select a goaltender in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.<\/p>\n

What kind of goaltender might the Canucks target?<\/p>\n

The Canucks quite clearly have a type when it comes to their prospect goaltenders. Under the guidance of Ian Clark, the club has made a habit of selecting somewhat unpolished goaltenders who boast impressive physical traits, strong instincts, and good athletic ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I\u2019m a big believer when it comes to scouting in evaluating the intangibles when it comes to goaltenders. Technique and structure and all those types of things are very tangible. Those are things we can kind of do with our eyes closed. They\u2019re very tangible and very blueprint-y.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say this, and I probably shouldn\u2019t, but I say that we can teach a goaltender technique in a weekend,\u201d Clark said with a laugh. \u201cSo for me, those things really don\u2019t register for me when I\u2019m evaluating a goalie. What I\u2019m really looking at is the intangible things that I know through my history in the game are much more difficult to teach through nurture.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, we were talking about Aku Koskenvuo, a promising goaltending prospect that the Canucks selected in the fifth round back in 2021. Other NHL teams might put more importance on results and technical ability when evaluating prospect goaltenders, but the Canucks are looking for wild horses in the draft.<\/p>\n

Big shock: those numbers typically improved shortly after Clark began working with them. All it takes is a weekend, after all!<\/p>\n

But the Canucks can also deviate from their late-round strategy whenever they please if there\u2019s a goaltender who still possesses those intangibles, as we saw them do with Aleksei Medvedev. That\u2019s why we won\u2019t limit our search to only late-round options today.<\/p>\n

Top goalie prospects at the 2026 NHL DraftBrady Knowling (Midterm Rank: 1)Michal Orsulak (Midterm Rank: 2)Tobias Trejbal (Midterm Rank: 3)Filip Ruzicka (Midterm Rank: 13)Jan Larys (Midterm Rank: 4)Marek Sklenicka (Midterm Rank: 8)William Lacelle (Midterm Rank: 6)Tobias Tvrznik (Midterm Rank: 5)Samuel Hrenak (Midterm Rank: 10)Harrison Boettiger (Midterm Rank: 7)Dmitri Borichev (Midterm Rank: 1)Yegor Rybkin (Midterm Rank: 2)David Vermirovsky (Midterm Rank: 7)Dmitri Ivchenko (Midterm Rank: 8)Douglas Nilsson (Midterm Rank: 3)Frantisek Poletin (Midterm Rank: 5)Matvei Karbainov (Midterm Rank: 6)Viggo Tamm (Midterm Rank: 4)Sebastian Charvat (Midterm Rank: 9)Yuri Ivanov (Midterm Rank: \u2013)<\/p>\n

In his May top 100 rankings (which came out just Wednesday), Daily Faceoff\u2019s Steven Ellis has Tobias Trejbal (45th), Dmitri Borichev (46th), Harrison Boettiger (90th), Carter Casey (93rd), and Brady Knowling (95th) as the only goalies going in the top 100 of the draft.<\/p>\n

We have five goaltenders who we think would be a good fit for the Canucks. Just one of them is projected to go in the top 100, meaning the Canucks will have some options if they want to add to their goaltending pipeline in the later rounds.<\/p>\n

5 goalie prospects who fit the Canucks\u2019 type<\/p>\n

Remember, they\u2019ve got a type.<\/p>\n

Dmitri BorichevAfter dissecting some tape, the netminder who jumps out the most is Dmitri Borichev. He\u2019s 6\u20193 and extremely athletic \u2014 sometimes to a fault, which is the same thing I noted about Arturs Silovs<\/a> once upon a time. Borichev is still working on his speed in the crease, but his eyes seem to follow the puck well, and eventually, with more coaching and development, he should be able to have his body catch up. Borichev is the top-ranked international goaltender, however, and unless the Canucks want to look for a goaltender with one of their second-round picks, they likely won\u2019t get a chance to draft Borichev.Tobias Tvrznik<\/p>\n

Tobias Tvrznik\u2019s stock absolutely skyrocketed following a stellar debut WHL season with the Wenatchee Wild. As one colleague put it when we discussed Tvrznik, \u201che\u2019s the only reason the Wild won any games this year.\u201d Tvrznik put up a solid .913 save percentage through 39 games in his first WHL season in 2025-26. Possessing excellent NHL size, he relies on elite mechanics, strong lateral mobility, and exceptional east-west tracking. Standing at 6\u20193, Tvrznik excels at reading cross-ice plays, utilizing a powerful cross-crease push that allows him to get set early and square up to shooters. There isn\u2019t much panic in his game. Best of all? He might be available as a mid-late round pick for the Canucks.<\/p>\n

Marek Sklenicka<\/p>\n

Staying in the WHL \u2014 and with Czech goaltenders \u2014 Marek Sklenicka is another name that we\u2019ve got our eyes on. Sklenicka backstopped the Seattle Thunderbirds this past season, and had more than one hot streak that makes us think there is absolutely something there that can be harnessed with the right coaching and development. At 6\u20194, Sklenicka is a raw and athletic netminder. That athleticism should help him overcome one of his biggest obstacles, which, in my viewings, appears to be lateral movement and recovery after he\u2019s dropped to the ice. I also have questions about his decision-making \u2014 I noticed a few instances where he dropped into the butterfly too soon \u2013, but again, those are things that can be cleaned up at the next level. His ability to seal off the bottom of the net in a hurry is undeniable, and that\u2019s one of the main things to look for in a goaltending prospect.<\/p>\n

David VermirovskyBack to the international ranks (and yes, it\u2019s another Czech goaltender), David Vermirovsky rose from seventh on the midterm NHL Central Scouting rankings all the way up to third on the final rankings. The reason for that is largely thanks to a strong playoff run, where he posted a .913 save percentage through 13 games. The tallest goaltender on our list at 6\u20195, Vermirovsky is confident in his size in that he trusts pucks to hit his large frame when tracking shots through traffic. The crew over at Elite Prospects<\/a> notes that Vermirovsky has an unconventional and unpredictable playstyle that can throw off shooters. Sounds like the perfect thing for him to work through! One drawback I noticed in my viewings of Vermirovsky is that he likes to keep his hands a bit too far back instead of out in front of him to further take away space. Again, something to work on, but just something I noticed that was worth mentioning. Now, Vermirovsky is likely more of an early\/mid round pick more than he is a mid-late round option like some of the other names on our list, but the Canucks should be absolutely thrilled if they\u2019re able to land him in the fourth or fifth round.Juuso Ainasto\u00a0Now we move to a goaltender not ranked in the top 10 of European goaltenders. Some mock drafts have him as low as 193, while others, like Elite Prospects<\/a>, have him ranked as a second or third round talent. We\u2019d agree with EP on this one. Ranked 14th by NHL Central Scouting, there is absolutely a chance the Canucks would be able to snag Ainasto in the later rounds of the draft, and that would be a great option. At 6\u20194, Ainasto is surprisingly polished for an 18-year-old, but make no mistake about it, this is a goaltender with a ton of raw ability as well. His .892 save percentage with Jokerit in the Finnish U20 league likely hurt his draft stock, but we (and the Canucks) don\u2019t really weigh results all that heavily when evaluating prospect goaltenders. It\u2019s more about the process, and Ainasto\u2019s process is solid.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an eight-minute video of him playing goal. Note especially the switching of stances (narrow when the puck is up high, lower as the play moves towards him), the smooth post integration, the explosiveness in his lateral movements, and the tracking of the puck through traffic:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Put me down as a big Juuso Ainasto guy.<\/p>\n

Those are our five, as we are now officially less than a month away from the NHL Draft!<\/p>\n

PRESENTED BY VIVID SEATS\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past decade, the Vancouver Canucks have made it a habit to draft a goaltender roughly two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[462],"tags":[5,4,465,466],"class_list":["post-586799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl-draft","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-draft","tag-nhl-entry-draft"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116660955066808497","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}