Welcome to draft week. Or should we call it trade week?

Acquiring a second-round pick isn’t the first concern for the Vancouver Canucks, but it is a secondary target, especially when you don’t have one.

The hockey operations department has finalized its preferred order of selection in Buffalo. The Canucks are ready to adjust to any curveballs when the first round is conducted Friday and ready to dangle Alex Burrows and Chris Higgins as trade possibilities to add picks before buying them out in advance of the June 30 deadline.

The Canucks will get a good player with the fifth pick. They covet 6-foot-3, 202-pound centre/winger Pierre-Luc Dubois of Cape Breton for obvious reasons. He had 42 goals and 99 points in 62 QMJHL games, is the top-ranked North American skater by NHL Central Scouting and would be part of an eventual succession plan for the top line.

That’s the easy part for the Canucks, even if the Edmonton Oilers muddle the process with the fourth pick. They want to acquire a top-pairing defenceman, are willing to move a top-flight winger, and like Dubois as a winger. The Oilers also know the Montreal Canadiens, who select ninth, have their eye on Dubois and could attempt to acquire the fourth pick. The trickle-down effect could be the Canucks selecting London Knights winger Matthew Tkachuk, who had 30 goals and 107 points in 57 OHL games, and impressed the Canucks with his combine draft interview.

Another possibility is the Canucks moving down the first-round order to still fill a need for scoring potential and getting a second-round pick in the process. It’s possible, but not probable. However, the slippery slope for Canucks general manager Jim Benning is to land a foundation piece and add assets. Last year, the Canucks failed to get a 2015 second-round pick — which they didn’t have — for Kevin Bieksa or Eddie Lack and they surrendered a second-rounder in this draft in the Erik Gudbranson deal.

Chicago landed a second-round 2016 pick and a 2017 third-rounder from Carolina on Wednesday. The salary-cap-challenged Blackhawks unloaded the $4.5-million US contract of buyout candidate Bryan Bickell, 30, and promising winger Teuvo Teravainen, 21, because of roster depth. It helped the Hurricanes get more skilled and closer to the cap floor. The Canucks could have tried to unload Burrows in that kind of a package, but they don’t have enough prime young assets to move, especially with their franchise mandate to get quicker and better, not older and slower.

Hockey writer BEN KUZMA looks at what the Canucks should and shouldn’t do this week.

FIVE THINGS TO DO:

1. SHUT OUT THE NOISE: When you need to be more competitive, scenarios arise. The Canucks chased Milan Lucic at the 2015 draft, but the Kings coughed up a starting goalie, prime prospect and first-round pick to the Bruins. Benning has fielded a number of calls about his fifth-overall 2016 pick and as much as he needs to add as many assets as possible, the dire need for offence is obvious. Barring bizarre developments, either Dubois or Tkachuk is going to be available. Take one. Move on.