Brooks Rogowski is a Vancouver Canuck this morning, but a new video shows the front office nearly went a completely different direction at the draft.
A video posted to the Senators' YouTube channel this week shows general manager Steve Staios fielding a live call from Vancouver's camp during the first round.
The Canucks offered picks 33 and 41 for Ottawa's 25th and 72nd selections, an aggressive swing at jumping into the back half of round one.
Staios repeats the numbers into the phone, then turns to his table before deciding to pass on the deal.
Vancouver finished the 2025-26 season in last place overall, posting 58 points and a minus-100 goal differential, so the urge to climb the board made sense.
The clip catches Staios repeating 33 and 41 back into the receiver, then shaking his head at his own staff before hanging up on the offer.
Ottawa wasn't just fielding Vancouver's call, either. Steve Staios also turned down a package from Kyle Dubas and the Penguins that included an actual roster player.
Vancouver walked away from the deal with something better anyway
The Senators held onto pick 25 and selected Swedish forward Jonas Lagerberg-Hoen, a player Staios suggests was ranked 16th on Ottawa's own board.
Whether Vancouver needed to move up at all is fair to question. Their board clearly had a specific name attached, and draft night panic is a real thing, not just a broadcast cliche.
The Canucks got their guys anyway. Rogowski and Norwegian winger Niklas Aaram-Olsen both landed in Vancouver with the 25th and 72nd picks the team tried to trade for.
Ottawa, meanwhile, used that 72nd pick on Slovak winger Adam Nemec after standing pat on every offer that crossed Staios' desk.
Vancouver rounded out its class with Caleb Malhotra and Adam Novotný, giving the Canucks four players from their internal top 24 rankings across the draft.
Rogowski projects as the headline piece long-term, but the tape of Staios waving off two separate trade offers says just as much about where Ottawa's front office thinks it stands.
Nobody in Vancouver is complaining about the names they walked away with.
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But somewhere there's still a player the Canucks wanted at 25 that they never got, and nobody in Ottawa has explained why.
Should the Canucks have pushed harder to move up for that 25th pick?
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