Building Blue: Kieren Dervin Growing Confidence in First Full OHL Season

It has been a year of learning, developing, and growing for Vancouver Canucks’ prospect Kieren Dervin as he plays his first full season in the OHL.

Dervin was selected 65th overall in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft and spent most of the 2024-25 season with St. Andrew College. He played 10 regular-season OHL games and 11 playoff games with the Kingston Frontenacs, but is now in his first full season with them.

Dervin has picked up 12 goals and added 18 assists for 30 points in 39 games this season. He is leading the Frontenacs in points and feels good about how his game has grown over his draft-plus-one season.

“I just feel more confident out there. And know what I am capable of doing in this league. I think we’ve had a pretty, pretty strong season so far,” said Dervin.

“I think we’re getting better every day and every week with practices, and the games are going well right now. So, I think if we just keep it up for the rest of the season, hopefully we’ll be able to make a little bit of a push here and climb a little bit higher in the rankings before the playoffs start.”

The Frontenacs had a nine-game losing streak that began in mid-November, but the team bounced back with five consecutive wins. Dervin has been pleased with how his team has handled adversity this season and how the young group is learning to win in the OHL.

Dervin has been in constant communication with Canucks development coaches Mikael Samuelsson and Mike Komisarek throughout the season. Their experience has helped Dervin as he navigated a mid-season injury that kept him out for three weeks.

In his last 10 games, Dervin has picked up four goals and five assists and is back to playing with the high level of confidence he had earlier in the season.

“I’ve had a pretty good month of games since I’ve been back. And I think that started during the injury, just making sure that it wasn’t a huge setback, and just staying in shape and continuing to work out through the injury, so when you come back, it’s not a huge task or a huge wall to climb when you come back.”

After a standout performance at the NHL combine, Dervin has continued to improve his strength throughout the season and is benefiting from higher-level teammates in practice compared to last season. He doesn’t feel like any single part of his game has improved more than the rest, as his focus is just to become a better player in general, and he feels that he is accomplishing that overall improvement this season.

“I’m taking bits and pieces from my coaches and my teammates, kind of like when I was in Vancouver,” said Dervin about how he is improving his game. “I’m just trying to learn as much as I can from those guys—and kind of the same thing here in Kingston. Everyone is taking stuff from each other, and it’s almost like a classroom. We are all learning from each other.”

Dervin is continuing to focus on improving all aspects of his game as well as being a leader to the young players in Kingston. He hopes to finish his season strong and then make some noise in the OHL playoffs.

It has been a strong start for the Canucks’ 2025 third-round pick, and we will continue to keep an eye on how he develops as his junior career progresses.