VANCOUVER — He is too young to remember being there, but Ryan Lin has photographic evidence from the 2011 Stanley Cup Final of his early devotion to the Vancouver Canucks.
He was three years old.
“We didn't go to any of the actual games in Vancouver, but when there were away games and there were watch parties at Rogers Arena, there are pictures of me in face paint and all that, being there with my family,” Lin tells Sportsnet. “I don't remember a whole lot from that, but I have the photos. And the most recent run they had, in 2024, I loved watching that team. There are a lot of memories from watching the Canucks.”
Lin, who turned 18 in April, grew up in Richmond, across the Fraser River from Vancouver.
The city of 210,000 is one of the most multicultural in Canada. In the 2021 census, 80 per cent of Richmond residents identified themselves as visible minorities, and just over half of the population has roots in China.
Lin’s surname is Chinese, but grandparents from his dad’s side of the family moved to Richmond from Japan. His family lives in the Steveston Village area, which was built partly by Japanese immigrants who arrived more than a century ago to fish for salmon and work in related industries.
Steveston’s riverfront is bookended by two national historic sites, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery and Britannia Shipyards. There is a lot of history to the place.
As a point-per-game defenceman with the Vancouver Giants, Lin is expected to be the first British Columbian selected in the 2026 NHL Draft. Projected to be chosen in the middle third of the first round — for Sportsnet, Jason Bukala ranks him 12th and Sam Cosentino 15th — the mobile, right-shot defender should also be the highest-ever draft pick born and raised in Richmond
Former first-round picks Brent Seabrook (14th in 2003) and Scott Hannan (23rd in 1997), who logged more than 1,000 NHL games each, were born in Richmond but raised primarily in nearby Delta and Surrey, respectively.
Given the cultural makeup of the city — and the NHL — Lin's selection should be viewed with added significance.
“My name is Chinese but my dad is half Japanese and half Taiwanese,” Lin says. “I mean, I never really thought about it growing up because there's a lot of Asian hockey players in Richmond, and there’s starting to be more in the Lower Mainland for sure. But I mean, I do take a lot of pride in that.
“There are not a lot of people who I play with now, at the higher levels, that are Asian. After some Giants games this year, I had some Asian people who wanted to speak with me and talk to me after games, and some kids that were going to play in a tournament that were Asian. So I've seen it more recently, I guess, the impact that it has. I love to be an ambassador, if you want to call it that.”
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The Toronto Maple Leafs hold the No. 1 pick as the next group of NHL stars gets set to enter the league. Live NHL Draft coverage begins with the first round on Friday followed by Rounds 2-7 on Saturday. Catch it all on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
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That kind of awareness and maturity is evident in Lin’s game.
At five-foot-11 and 180 pounds, he is another fleet, super-skilled defenceman in the prototype revolutionized by players like Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, Rasmus Dahlin and Zach Werenski. But there is also a highly competitive, defensive orientation to Lin’s game.
“I do take a lot of pride in defending,” he says. “I think playing the right way gets rewarded with offence, and I know that if I'm doing the right things defensively with my stick and angles, shutting down plays and reading the play, that it will ultimately lead to better offence for the whole team, not just me. I've always approached it that way.
“I think I do have offensive capabilities and can create offence, but I really take a lot of pride in my defensive game as well. Growing up a Canucks fan, Quinn Hughes has always been my guy that I really liked to watch and pick stuff up from. But more recently, a guy like Josh Morrissey is one that I’ve looked really closely to. And I’m not the same size as Zach Werenski, but I really like a lot of stuff about his game as well.”
In his second season of junior hockey, Lin had 14 goals and 57 points in 53 games for the Giants, who selected him sixth overall in the 2023 Western Hockey League draft. He also had six points in five games for Team Canada at the Under-18 world championship.
As WHL rookies in 2024-25, Lin and Everett Silvertips blue-liner Landon DuPont, the consensus top prospect for the 2027 NHL Draft, became the first Western League defencemen aged 16 or younger to record 50 points since Hall-of-Famer Scott Niedermayer, another B.C. kid, did it in Kamloops 36 years ago.
“I think everyone feels the pressure,” Lin says of his draft year. “But during the season, like, there were a few interviews and stuff, so it was on my mind a little bit. But I think I could just go out and play. We have a lot of games (in the WHL), a heavy schedule, so there's not a whole lot of time to focus on that other stuff. But since the season ended and I've had a bit more time to think, and there’s, like, an interview or two a day, I guess it just kind of adds to maybe the stress of the draft coming up. And I'm thinking about it more.”
Lin feels lucky to have played all of his hockey close to home. At age 13, he left minor hockey in Richmond for the Delta Hockey Academy one suburb over, but still lived at home. He stayed with a billet family the last two seasons with the Giants but, obviously, got home often.
His parents, Weily and Karen, are educators. An older brother, Teo, was the high-scoring captain of the Richmond Sockeyes of the Pacific International Junior Hockey League this past season. The boys have a younger sister, Samantha.
Ryan would love to play for the Canucks, but almost certainly will be drafted somewhere between his hometown team’s first-round selections at No. 3 and No. 24.
Lin has committed to the University of Denver for next season.
“My brother and mom get in my ear about it,” Ryan says of going to the Canucks. “I wouldn't even know what to say. I know how much the team means to the community, and how much it means to me as well. So that would be amazing to be drafted by them, like, such an honour, just unreal. I am a fan of the Canucks and I guess I have time (before the draft) to still be a fan.”
On Friday night, his allegiance likely changes.
