Ranking Vancouver Canucks' all-time top 5 strongest NHL draft classes

The Vancouver Canucks have made some stellar draft picks which have helped shape their franchise.

However, the Canucks have had several years of horrible draft classes that saw no player even appear in NHL games.

Ahead of the 2025 NHL Draft on June 27-28 in Los Angeles, let's reflect back on the Canucks' five best draft classes in team history.

Vancouver Canucks' all-time top 5 draft classes

#5, 1979

The 1979 NHL Draft was a solid one for the Vancouver Canucks.

With the Canucks first pick, the team landed Rick Vaive fifth overall who skated in 876 games. Their second pick, Brent Ashton, had played in 998 career games, while fifth-round pick Dirk Graham played in 772 games.

Those three made it a solid draft class.

#4, 1988

The 1988 NHL Draft for the Canucks could have ended after their first pick and it would have been one of their five best.

The Canucks selected Trevor Linden second overall and he ended up skating in 1382 NHL games. He's inducted into the Canucks Hall of Fame.

The 1988 NHL Draft also saw Vancouver take Leif Rohlin and Dixon Ward among others. In total, six of their 11 picks played NHL games.

#3, 2004

The 2004 NHL Draft was a solid one for Vancouver as plenty of the players helped shape their run to the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals.

The Canucks used the 26th pick on goalie Cory Schneider who had multiple good years as the starting goalie for the Canucks. The team's third-round pick was Alex Edler, who skated in 1030 games.

Vancouver also picked Mike Brown in the fifth round, who played in 407 games, and their final pick was Jannik Hansen, who skated in 626 games.

#2, 1981

The 1981 NHL Draft saw eight of the nine players picked appear in NHL games.

Vancouver hit on basically every pick as six of the nine picks played 100+ games. Some key names in the draft class are Garth Butcher, Wendell Young, Moe Lemay, and Petri Skriko.

#1, 1999

The Canucks picked eight people in the 1999 NHL Draft and although only two played games, it's still the greatest draft class in Vancouver history.

The Canucks selected Daniel Sedin second overall and Henrik Sedin third overall. The twins are two of the greatest players and arguably the two best Canucks players ever.

Daniel played in 1306 games while Henrik played in 1330 games. Both are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.