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........

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