Ryan Johnson reveals prospect the Vancouver Canucks didn't expect to land
There’s always one guy that goes lower than expected at the NHL Draft.
Well, the Vancouver Canucks seemed to get one of those guys in Adam Novotny at 24th overall.
The Canucks released a behind the scenes video of their work during the NHL Draft on Friday. In the video, it was revealed who the Canucks were thinking of picking just before the 24th overall selection.
Right before their pick, the Utah Mammoth traded 23rd overall to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for prospect goaltender Sebastian Cossa.
That’s when amateur scouting director Todd Harvey predicted what would happen next.
“It’s either one of them, RJ,” Harvey said in the video. “They take one of them and pick Novotny or [JP] Hurlbert.”
“Just wait and see.”
Sure enough, the Red Wings stepped up and selected Hurlbert, leaving the Canucks to select a guy they didn’t expect to be available for them.
“Getting Adam [Novotny] at 24, we really thought that that wouldn’t be a scenario that would fall to us,” Johnson said in the clip.
“When you look at the player type again, size and strength and speed and skill, great skater, shoots the puck very well.”
Novotny was the 15th-best prospect heading into the draft on Elite Prospects’ Consolidated Rankings.
“Great details, good wall work,” Harvey said. “Kind of can play up and down and all over the map there for you.”
Did Canucks snag four first-round calibre players?
Remember when former Vancouver Canucks GM Patrik Allvin infamously touted that he received the equivalent of three first-rounders in the Bo Horvat trade?
That didn’t age well.
The Canucks did get a first-rounder in return, along with Anthony Beauvillier and Aatu Raty. Beauvillier was a former first-rounder, but he was 25 when the Canucks acquired him. He was traded away within a year for a fifth-round pick. Raty was once considered to be a first-round calibre talent, but he was actually taken in the second round, 51st overall.
Hopefully, Johnson’s take about the 2026 Draft ages better than Allvin’s.
While Johnson didn’t explicitly say the Canucks landed the equivalent of four first-rounders, he did reveal that Vancouver’s first-four draft picks were all on their board above the first-round cut off.
“We end up with, in the first two rounds, four guys that were were in our top 24 on our list,” Johnson said.
“To be able to to get that, walk out of the first two rounds like that, we were pretty excited.”
The Canucks had Niklas Aaram-Olsen (left) and Brooks Rogowski (right) higher on their boards compared to where they were picked. (@Canucks/X)
Mammoth-sized centre Brooks Rogowski was 28th overall on Elite Prospects Consolidated Rankings. The Canucks acquired him with the first pick of the second round at 33rd overall.
Niklas Aaram-Olsen was ranked as the 35th-best player on Elite Prospects Consolidated Rankings. However, only one public list in the consolidation had him as a first-rounder. He was ranked as low as 64th overall on Elite Prospects final ranking.
The Norwegian sniper did profile as more of a high-risk, high-reward prospect, something the Canucks had the draft capital to target. However, some scouts did question what he provides outside of his shot.
Perhaps one thing the Canucks liked about Aaram-Olsen, was that he absolutely crushed fitness testing at the NHL Combine.
Aaram-Olsen’s named appeared in the top-10 in several tests at the combine. He finished first the vertical jump and pro agility right tests. The 6-foot-1 winger also placed second in the pro agility left test and Wingate test. Aaram-Olsen was also among the leaders in the 10-metre sprint (third) bench press (seventh) and force plate no arm jump (10th).