BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Vancouver Canucks brought a larger staff than usual to the NHL Scouting Combine this year.In years past, the club has generally sent director of amateur scouting Todd Harvey, assistant general manager Cammi Granato, and perhaps a couple of trainers or mental performance staffers from its human performance department. Former general manager Patrik Allvin might check in for part of the proceedings, too.This year, general manager Ryan Johnson was in Buffalo for the first part of combine week, before returning to Vancouver to introduce Manny Malhotra as the team’s new head coach.Both of Vancouver’s assistant general managers, Émilie Castonguay and Granato, were in Buffalo this week, as was Harvey and cross-checking scout Phil Goulding. Director of human performance Alex Trinca and several members of his staff, most notably mental performance consultant Alex Hodgins, who plays a major role in shaping the club’s interviews with various prospects throughout the week.“It evolves every year,” Granato said of Vancouver’s interview approach. “This is our fifth year with this group, and for us, we want to get to really know the kid, the player, as a person.”In contrast with teams that show various prospects critical video clips and ask them to explain mistakes, or plays on which they took a hit, or ask a variety of oddball questions like the Montreal Canadiens to test how prospects react, Vancouver’s interview approach was repeatedly described to us by the prospects they spoke to this week as “chill.”“I think disarming them a little bit is kind of the approach that we take, just so we can see the real person behind the player,” Granato explains. “Everyone has their own philosophies in terms of do we want to be on the edge, or have the conversation be calmer. For us, our approach is more conversational. Our guys have watched these kids all year and in their underage years, so getting them in front of our scouts and the people who’ve seen them play, we’re just trying to get the most out of picking their brains and where they’re at.”Here’s what we heard from some of the top prospects that Vancouver spoke with this week, and will consider with their picks at 24th, 33rd and 41st.Casey MutrynMutryn, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound hard-hitting right winger, was a player The Athletic specifically heard the Canucks linked to throughout combine week.The son of a Boston College quarterback who enjoyed a brief professional football career, Mutryn is a heavy power forward out of the U.S. National Team Development Program and is committed to his father’s alma mater for next season.“Yeah, I met with Cammi Granato and Ryan Johnson earlier on in the week, and it was great talking to them,” Mutryn told The Athletic on Saturday.“It’s a great organization, and being from Boston and growing up a Boston Bruins fan, now I don’t really remember the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, because I wasn’t even 3 at the time, but I’ve watched the highlights on YouTube, and that was a great series.“Then seeing Vancouver in the playoffs last year on a team with a lot of Boston guys and Americans on it, plus Tom Willander went through BU, and they’ve got Zeev Buium. So it’s a great organization, and I’ve seen the environment there on social media, and it’s clear that market loves its hockey.“So I’ve heard it’s an awesome city, and it would be an awesome place to play.”Alexander CommandIn addition to being a highly skilled playmaker and a natural centre with prototypical NHL size to stick in the middle, Command hits to hurt.And he hits a lot.“I enjoy the physical hard part of the game,” Command said when asked about his pugnacious play style. “And it gets the other guys going. It gets my opponents pissed off also. So it’s a win-win.”Command’s combination of precocious hockey IQ, offensive juice as a playmaker and the hardscrabble way that he plays has caught the eye of an awful lot of NHL teams over the course of this season. At the combine, he interviewed with 30 teams, the Canucks among them.“They were pretty nice guys, had a bit of a softer tone, so I enjoyed talking with them very much,” was how Command described his interview with Canucks officials to The Athletic.In all probability, Command will be long gone before Vancouver’s second first-round pick comes on the clock. If he slips to the later part of the first round, however, he would represent a significant value proposition, while playing precisely the sort of hard-skilled game that has always endeared itself to Canucks fans historically.Simas IgnataviciusStanding 6-foot-3 and weighing in at nearly 200 pounds, Ignatavicius is an imposing figure and the new standard-bearer for Lithuanian hockey.Born in Memphis, Tenn., to a professional basketball-playing father, Ignatavicius has cut an unconventional path through professional hockey, culminating in a very solid showing as an 18-year-old regular for Geneva in the very challenging NL, the top men’s professional league in Switzerland.Just to underscore how tough that league is, Ignatavicius’ teammates this season were a who’s who of recent NHL depth players, from Markus Granlund and Jan Rutta to Jesse Puljujärvi and Jimmy Vesey.“It was obviously a humbling experience, a great experience. I think I learned a lot from those guys, obviously just the way they are as people,” Ignatavicius said of his experience in Geneva in his draft year. “You can learn a lot and understand why they played in (the) NHL and why others didn’t.”Ignatavicius is under contract with Geneva for another season, after which he’ll look to make the leap to North America. He’s likely to be selected at the fringes of the first round, and would seem to match some of what the Canucks traditionally look for, especially once you factor in the universally glowing reports of his character from around the industry.“I met with the Canucks on my second day,” Ignatavicius told The Athletic, noting that he met with Vancouver before Johnson left town.“It was pretty straightforward,” Ignatavicius said of his interview. “They wanted to get to know me as a person. Just what kind of person I am and the person I’m on ice. And yeah, I think it was a great experience. They were happy. Obviously, I was happy to have the chance to talk to them, and yeah, we’ll see how things go.”Jaxon CoverOn the first day of the combine, the Canucks met with London Knights winger Jaxon Cover, who has one of the wildest backstories in recent NHL Draft history.“It was pretty relaxing,” Cover said of his conversation with Canucks brass. “It was a pretty straightforward interview, just pretty chill. Honestly, I had a great time.”Cover is a very good athlete with prototypical size for a top-six winger, and he was decently productive in his draft year, scoring 20 goals and producing more than 50 points for a deep London Knights side.What makes Cover’s profile so fascinating, however, is that he’s only been playing organized ice hockey for about five years now. Hailing from the Cayman Islands, Cover learned to skate in two-week drips and drabs while visiting family in the Greater Toronto Area over the years. He was a prolific roller hockey player until his parents sent him to boarding school at St. Andrew’s College in the wake of the pandemic, after which he rather quickly established himself as something of a prodigy.Cover is well spoken about his non-traditional path through high-level hockey. And the bet a team would essentially be making is that this forward has all of the tools, but potentially a lot more development runway than your average prospect, given that he’s played about a quarter as much organized hockey as most of his peer group did growing up.“I feel like my story, I just hope it can inspire the younger generation who come from unconventional places to hopefully get in the game of hockey,” Cover said. “I just want to show them that you don’t need to be playing these sports for your whole life. It’s just about putting in the right amount of dedication and right amount of hard work, and you can get there.”Maddox DagenaisDagenais is one of the most intriguing possible options for the Canucks with their latter three picks in the top 50.The 6-foot-4 centre has high-end puck skills, which, in combination with his size, give him a rare tool kit in this draft class. He’s likely to go a bit later than that skill set might normally dictate, however, because of leaguewide skepticism about his ability to play centre at the next level — notably, he played mostly on the wing for the Quebec Remparts this season — and because Dagenais’ consistency and, more importantly, his motor can run a bit hot and cold.“I’ve played both wing and centre in my life,” Dagenais said about what position he prefers, noting that he expects to start his next QMJHL season on the wing in the fall. “And I learned a lot about playing wing last year.“I think, because of my size, I prefer the centre position, but it was for sure useful to learn the defensive game on the wing last year. I think having both in my toolbox is just a plus for me.”In terms of his pure skill level, if Dagenais is on the board at 33 — and certainly if he’s still on the board at 41 — then he’d represent a significant steal for the Canucks from a value proposition perspective.Vancouver, for what it’s worth, is doing its homework on the player and was one of the 25 teams that interviewed Dagenais during combine week.“They were one of my last interviews,” Dagenais told The Athletic, describing Vancouver’s approach as “chill.”“I think they just wanted to learn about the person, the families, their path and what the person is like behind the hockey players,” said Dagenais. “It was a really good interview.”Mathis PrestonAcquired by the Vancouver Giants in a midseason trade with the Spokane Chiefs, Preston was hurt within two games of making his Giants debut.In a bit of a twist of fate, however, his injury occurred in the same game as an injury to teammate — and fellow top 2026 draft eligible — Ryan Lin. That at least allowed the two Giants players to spend their time rehabbing together.“We grew up playing against each other, and we’ve been really close for a while. We played together at the Brick Tournament, and both getting hurt, it drew us closer. I hated to see him get hurt, of course, but it was kind of nice to have a guy to go through it with,” he said. “Having a guy you can lean on and vice versa, it helps. We both love the game so much, so any time it’s taken away, it hurts. Not having to go through that alone was really helpful.”Lin, meanwhile, describes Preston as his “best friend” and echoes those sentiments.“We spent six weeks attached at the hip, doing basically everything together,” Lin said.Preston is one of the most gifted and athletic scoring forwards in the 2026 class, outside of the elite wingers at the apex of the projected draft order. And he’s one of the players who we’ve most frequently heard the Canucks linked to over the course of this week in Buffalo.Vancouver was among the 24 teams that interviewed Preston in Buffalo this week.Adam AnderssonA 6-foot-4, 205-pound natural centre, Andersson is a fast, late riser in the 2026 draft. Powered by a solid performance for Sweden in their surprise gold medal win at the U18s and buoyed by his projectable size and athleticism, Andersson could well hear his name called among the top 40 or so — in a range on draft in which Vancouver is currently slated to select twice.Andersson laughed about some of the interview questions he received, including a series of critical clips of his game in which he turned the puck over or took a big hit (this is a tactic commonly used by both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes). He also shared his answer with us that he gave the Canadiens, a notoriously pointed interviewing team, who asked him which animal he is off the ice.“I think on the ice, I’m a big moose or a big bear. Off of the ice, I live alone, so I’d say I’m a female lion because I do all of the work,” Andersson laughed.Andersson interviewed with the Canucks earlier this week. “They were pretty straightforward, and I had a good feeling about being here with them,” Andersson told The Athletic following athletic testing. “I liked the character of those people in the organization; I felt comfortable talking to them.”Tommy BleylHigh-scoring QMJHL defenceman Tommy Bleyl, who hails from New York state and is committed to Michigan State University for the 2026-27 campaign, had a very good day at athletic testing on Saturday.Bleyl measured at nearly 6 feet, which will allay any height concerns and stabilize his draft stock as a late first-rounder. Especially once teams factor in that Bleyl is right-handed, and produced at a stunning clip in his first QMJHL campaign, managing 109 points in 84 games across the regular season and playoffs.More than anything, Bleyl is intent on presenting himself as a defender who’s more than just an offensive force from the back end. When asked by the media who he compares his game to on Saturday, Bleyl name-checked Mike Matheson and described himself as a “two-way defender.”“In the D-zone, I’m pretty physical and competitive. Maybe I’m not overly physical, but I’m pretty feisty and competitive,” Bleyl said.Bleyl met with 30 teams at the combine, including the Canucks late in the week.“There were a lot of meetings, so it’s hard to parse the specifics,” Bleyl said, “But what I remember about my conversation with the Canucks is that they were a really good group of guys.”Ryan LinNobody was more excited about having the opportunity to interview with the Canucks than Lin, who’s from Richmond, B.C.“It was surreal, I’d say,” Lin said. “Me, my dad and my brother are die-hard fans. We talk about hockey and the Canucks all the time.“So, actually speaking to their GM and high-up people in their organization, it was a cool experience for sure.”Lin was a productive 17-year-old defender in the WHL, recording over a point per game for the Giants. He followed that up with a standout showing for Canada at the U18s, in which he displayed the sort of physical edge that should stabilize his draft stock in the middle of the first round and was a better-than-point-per-game producer.Next season, Lin will join the reigning national champions at the University of Denver. Though he measured in just under 6 feet on Saturday at the athletic testing portion of the combine, some teams are extremely high on Lin’s two-way play, intelligence and offensive potential. As a result, Vancouver is unlikely to have the opportunity to make Lin’s Canucks dreams come true with the 24th pick.“I’d say that was probably one of my best interviews, just how it went,” Lin told The Athletic. “I felt like they were giving me a good vibe when we got along. I mean, being the hometown guy, I think we found a lot of stuff in common.”