Come For The Banter - Stay For The Disappointment
Nucks Fan Rebuild & Retool Center - Come For The Banter - Stay For The Disappointment
If figuring out the Vancouver Canucks' goaltending was tricky and their defence was obvious, then surely predicting what they'll do with their forwards this year will be a piece of cake! Right?
The wire-walk they've chosen is a mixed blessing. To fans and followers, just the acknowledgement that rebuilds exist is a breath of fresh air. The downside is now having the privilege of experiencing one firsthand.
Then there's the players themselves. From a player's perspective, the 2026-27 season is an interesting one, and it hasn't even started yet.
The fun of being an armchair general manager is building your dream team. Trades are a breeze, prospects all pan out, and all you see of the owners is their signature on your paycheque. It's a bit more frustrating in the real world, where every other team is also trying to win, few of your picks see professional games, and the owners want their money - NOW.
But some things are predictable. For instance, the Canucks defence looks pretty good and pretty set for the start of the year. The goaltending has fewer variables than some years, but a few question marks. And attendance is probably going to drop a bit this season, if everything goes according to plan.
As for the rest, well, here's our best guess.
It can be assumed that no forward is safe from being moved this year. If a good enough offer comes in, that player goes out. That being said, some are more obvious targets than others in the forward corps.
Jake DeBrusk has to lead off the list, despite the five years remaining on his contract. He said outright that a rebuild wasn't what he signed up for, and that's fair enough. But given how little motion there has been this month, it looks like he'll start the year in Vancouver. And that's fine. The Canucks need someone who can score, just so the team is worth watching. They barely broke the 200-goal mark last year, and might not hit it this one.
While it's a bit awkward, at least it's honest. DeBrusk knows the team is shopping him, and also that the better he plays, the more interest there will be. He's going to get plenty of opportunities to showcase his skills early in the year.
Drew O'Connor became a fan favourite in 2024-25, and for good reason. He earned his two-year contract honestly, and backed it up with an excellent 2025-26. His 17 goals were a career high, and he showed his versatility and ability playing both special teams. He also did it by playing with half the team. He had seven different linemates with whom he played between 60 and 85 minutes last year.
That's to be expected of a couple players in an injury-plagued, low-performing year. But O'Connor showed he could play in all sorts of circumstances with relative ease, even if he's not the name you want to see on your first line. His speed and opportunism make him an exciting player to watch, and if he has a decent year, he can get the Canucks a good return. He has a 12-team no-trade clause.
Paul Cotter is a new arrival, and if he shows up well, he can play his way off the team and onto a contender. He's got decent speed and some scoring, but mostly he'll be asked to disrupt opponents. He's a decent faceoff man, and there will be opportunities for it in Vancouver. A solid depth guy with the chance to show he can do more. A team heading to the playoffs will look for players like Cotter.
Brendan Gallagher is here for a reason. First, he wants to be here, which is great. Second, he wants ice time, which he'll get. And third, the team wants to trade him. A loving, harmonious threesome of intent is what that is. More seriously, he puts in the work, and that's a lot of what the Canucks are looking for right now.
Gallagher's a long-time veteran who has never shied away from anything on the ice, and he'll be looked to for leadership. He has a full no-move contract, but that's only to control where he'll go if he plays well enough to get multiple offers. Even with Montreal picking up half his pay, he's still not the cheapest addition, so he needs to earn the interest.
Linus Karlsson spent a lot of last year on the fourth line, but also a bunch with Elias Pettersson the Forward and Jake DeBrusk. This time around, he should get a more clearly defined role in the middle six, though he might start up top. He registered 31 points at even strength in 2025-26, leading the team. Yeah. And that was in 12:30 of average ice time.
Another player ready to take advantage of increased ice time is Max Sasson. I can really see him getting short-handed ice time specifically. His speed is a real threat, even if his hands aren't so much. If he works on breakaway scoring, he can find a niche. He'll get an opportunity, anyway.
I'm a big Liam Öhgren fan and am very curious to see where he settles in this year. Yes, the guy who scored zero points in 18 games with Minnesota before the Quinn Hughes trade. He then came to Vancouver and scored eight goals and 18 points in his 51 Canucks games! Which, okay, still isn't earth-shaking, but he also showed what kind of game he will play: a physical, trustworthy winger who can score some points in the middle six. The most likely guy to take DeBrusk's spot, or at least get first chance at it.
Aatu Räty is probably on his last shot here, and should play like it. While he's a very good faceoff man and solid short-handed centre, every player needs to get into the boxcars if they want to be an NHL regular. He's just 23 years old, so it's not like Räty's washed, but 14 points in 66 games ain't gonna cut it. Coach Malhotra likes him, but he needs to bring some of those Abbotsford numbers to Vancouver.
Marco Rossi didn't have a whole lot of opportunity to show what he can do last year. He came over from Minnesota slightly injured, and returned too soon, eager to join the new team. The spirit's there, but chill, big guy. He managed just two points in eight games before sitting down for twenty-ish. He played out the rest of the year when he returned, scoring seven goals and 20 points in the last 25 games - a perfectly good pace the team would love him to match this year.
Terrifyingly, Filip Chytil should start the year healthy and ready to go. The skilled forward played 12 games with the big club last year, and 15 the year before that when he came over from the Rangers mid-season. He has one year left on his $4.4 million deal, and boy, I hope he can spend that money happy and healthy. He has all the talent to be a 45-50 point player this year, but fans will be holding their breath every time he steps onto the ice.
A different kind of health issue is around Elias Pettersson the Forward, and no one's quite sure what it is. He's had nagging injuries for much of his career and has always been reticent to talk about them, but it shows on the ice. While I suspect most of his decline in scoring stats is mental, he's also skating a bit more gingerly and taking fewer shots to go with it. Can his scoring bounce back? Sure, he's still a very smart and skilled player, but he's not going to get a whole lot of help with this lineup.
One player who might help is also under a huge amount of pressure to perform. It's ludicrous to say a 22-year-old is in a make-or-break season, but it's not about whether Jonathan Lekkerimäki makes the NHL. It's about what kind of player he'll be when he gets there. Billed as a scorer, Lekkerimäki has only produced five goals and nine points in 37 NHL games, and a good chunk of that was with the man advantage.
Then again, his total ice has averaged just over 12 minutes per game. No offence to Sasson, but if he's your centre, you probably aren't getting a lot of scoring opportunities. This season, he may well start in the top six alongside either Pettersson or Rossi. After that, it's up to him.
Now that 19-year-olds can be assigned to the AHL, Braeden Cootes is almost certainly pencilled in there. He could still pick up a few games, but getting 18-20 minutes in a pro league is a better option than 8-10 minutes in the NHL. Other forwards recently signed - Trey Fix-Wolansky and Akil Thomas - are good cover for injuries and will get called up before Cootes.
One guy who might make the team as a defensive specialist is Ilya Safonov. The 25-year-old has never been a big scorer with AK Bars Kazan, but has very good size and is a smart player. If he doesn't make the big club, he has the option to return to Russia. What he'll contribute here, who knows? He's never played in North America, but there's no reason to think he can't learn quickly.
Of course there's Brock Boeser. Brock Boeser is eternal. Rejoice in his name - and his 25-ish goals.
The Vancouver Canucks are walking a tightrope this season. They want improvement from the kids they're going to keep, good results from veterans they want to trade, and bad results overall. But still good enough to sell tickets to 42 home games.
How are they going to pull that off? We have even more thoughts! This time, about how they're going to use their defencemen.
The Canucks defence has changed in the past year, as you probably noticed. Not everyone has left, but enough surgery's happened to make the team update their passport pics.
The team has decided their anchor is Filip Hronek. Anyone from the Detroit region can be forgiven for double-checking the name, but yes, it's legit.
Hronek has been forced into the public eye with post-game interviews after the team's captain was traded away and the big name coming back was injured. Zeev Buium wasn't going to completely satisfy the media scrum, being a new arrival and all, but you have to know Hronek didn't want the mic.
Then a funny thing happened: he started to...well, not like it, exactly, but relax into it. His usual curt replies to questions started getting laughs among the fans - especially the ones who don't particularly like the media. He didn't make any obvious mistakes, and he does know what he's talking about. His answers started getting longer, and on a few occasions he'd even answer a follow-up.
And while that was happening, he got a little more attention for his work both on the ice and on the bench. Clips of him talking over the latest play with young defenders made the between-periods shows. He became more vocal on the ice, directing traffic during play and between whistles. He's even said outright that he wants to help the young players during the rebuild.
Now, there is an obvious argument for trading Hronek away: he's their most valuable chip, and the best way to get another first-round pick. But he also has a full no-move clause for the next two years, and if he wants to stay for both of those years, frikkin' keep him. He's been on an awful team, waiting for the Red Wings to finally get out of their rebuild. It's not like he doesn't know what he's getting into.
Slightly inconvenient is that Hronek is the de facto power-play quarterback after Quinn Hughes left. And that was fine - last year. This season, they need to hand the reins over to Zeev Buium. It could happen early or late, but it needs to happen sometime this season. As good as Hronek is, and as useful as he'll be throughout his contract, Buium is the future of Vancouver's blue line.
We didn't get a good look at Buium last year, unfortunately. He came to the Canucks injured, tried to play through it, and finally took a few games off during the league's Olympic break in February. If any player from the Hughes trade felt pressure to perform, it was Buium.
Make no mistake, Buium has plenty of skill. He's not as good a skater as Hughes is, but that bar is through the roof anyway. Buium's strength is in his planning before he needs to skate. You can see it both before he attacks and when he's reacting to an attacker. He's very much a disrupt-before-the-play-starts kind of defender, and can turn that into a counterstrike very quickly.
That all being said, he also needs to be the quarterback for Vancouver's top power play. That's where he's going to make his money, given the overall lack of scoring the Canucks are probably going to suffer for the next few years. You can't really have a number one defenceman without them playing the bulk of minutes available.
It's going to come down to just how willing coach Manny Malhotra will be to turn away from his reliable veteran. You can say you're willing to sacrifice wins now for future growth, but that's really hard to put into practice. A team five years from now needs him to be strong, which has gotta hurt when you're looking for a tenth win come December.
Tom Willander was the golden boy in Jim Rutherford's plans. Or at least as much of one as was needed when you already have Quinn Hughes on the team. Willander, like Buium, is entering his second NHL season. And, like Buium, couldn't possibly live up to the hype around him. And that's fine, actually. Heck, both players may well have some regression in their second years.
Willander isn't being looked at to replace Hughes, or even to play on a top pair during his career. If he gets there, great! But if not, well, teams need good all-around players in the middle of the lineup, too.
He's not devoid of offence - he just finished a five-goal, 21-point rookie season, after all. But that's not his ticket to the NHL. Mostly what he is, or should be, is a pain. He is a constantly moving disruptor. He's a very good puck retriever when he has a player to pass it to. Ironically, he had something of a lousy year defensively, but it really should get better from here.
One thing Willander could use is some time, and Jamie Oleksiak can buy that for him. Every team needs a giant from time to time, and Oleksiak's 6'7" frame works. He is a good enough skater to cover a LOT of ground in a short amount of time, and has enough skill to justify a middle-pair position.
Again, not a player the team should look to for a lot of points, but very useful otherwise. If Willander and Oleksiak are used together, it won't be Jamie holding the puck. But it will be him holding up players hunting his partner down.
Oleksiak signed a generous deal with Vancouver in the offseason, and it shows in his modified no-trade clause. Should he serve his purpose well, the team can shop the versatile defender easily enough. But if he doesn't, they can keep him around for another go, possibly sliding him down to the third pair if needed, with little harm done. Big guys retain their value well.
Elias Pettersson the Defenceman had a rougher second season than his first. Part of that could be his enthusiasm met the reality of a long NHL season. Part could be former coach Adam Foote's Defensive Encyclopedia being a bit much to deal with. In either case, he's inked in to start on the third pair come September.
Pettersson's geared to be a classic "shut down defenceman" if such things exist anymore. He has three goals and 13 points in his 93 NHL games, so he can, in theory, get the puck to the net. But getting it to someone else first is probably a better option. He's a good enough skater to carry the puck out of his own zone, but after that he thinks a bit too much.
He's an enthusiastic hitter, but may have overplayed that last year. His 28-game introduction in 2024-25 won wide praise for his physical play, and that might have brought different expectations. If he keeps it simple, he's at his best. It could well be that some offence shows up as he ages, and that would be a nice bonus. If he grows into a second-pair guy, it's all gravy. Keeping his spot om the third is all we need.
I don't really mean to mock Luke Schenn, but he is a beloved figure in these parts somewhat beyond his ability. He is perhaps the Ur-Journeyman Tale when it comes to veteran defenders you sign to teach young blue-liners "how to play the game the right way." He's done pretty much everything, from a top-five pick to a 30-year-old AHLer and back again.
In between, he's won two Stanley Cups and has spent time with ten NHL teams. THAT'S a veteran!
More specifically, that's a veteran who's 36 years old with a LOT of miles on him. But he knows that and understands what's going on with this team. He should, as it's his third go-round with them. The team wants a veteran who is, well, him, and he enjoys the city. His second job is to be the guy younger players have to unseat if they want to reach the NHL.
Schenn is the sort of player teams like to bring in as they head into the playoffs, and he knows that, too. That's why he does have a full no-move clause, and if he decides to waive it, it'll be to the team he chooses. And fair enough, he's earned that level of respect.
About the guys who Schenn is keeping down.
Victor Mancini has good size at 6'3" and 229 lbs. He's got good speed, too, and some decent offensive instincts. Add in that he's a right-shot, and he should be everything you're looking for in an NHL prospect. But somehow, he leaves me wanting more. A touch more offensive recklessness would serve him well, I think, with a little less concern about making mistakes. He's 24 years old, so this is a big year for him. If not now, when?
Kiril Kudreyavtsev is something the opposite. He stands 5'11" and 200 lbs, and he uses all of it. He's taken his time getting to the NHL, and for good reason: seventh-round picks aren't supposed to make it this far. He's done it by being a smart player, if not a particularly quick one. He's learned to protect the puck extremely well while waiting for plays to develop, which helps. He doesn't look like he should be this effective, but he's got surprising numbers in the OHL and AHL.
Either of these players can be the next man up, and if everything goes well, they'll earn spots when veterans ahead of them are traded away. No one wants them to get their spots by default, or even worse, not get them at all.
The plan is pretty clear, as of right now. They just have to execute.
You may think we talked all about the Vancouver Canucks' goaltending a couple posts ago, but no! Well, yes, technically, we talked about the goaltenders, but we didn't talk about the goaltending. An important distinction! Knowing what ingredients you have tells you what you can cook; it doesn't tell you how.
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
The Canucks have three goaltenders, all of whom are likely to start in the NHL this season. The defence in front of them will likely have three young players, each with fewer than 100 NHL games experience. They have a new coach, one year after living through a disastrous season of the overly complicated game plan of Adam Foote. And they have, essentially, zero expectations.
Everything and anything the team plans to do relies on what happens with the Canucks and every other team in the league. If they want to trade, they need a team willing to partner up. If there's an injury, it depends on who it is. If they start winning... Okay, no. Not everything is in the realm of possibility,
But we can still look at who's here and what makes the most sense for the players and the team.
The trio starts the year all occupying a share of the crease.
According to Thatcher Demko and the Canucks, he's well on his way to recovering from his surgery many months ago. He's back on the ice, going through a "normal" offseason workout routine, though what's normal for him might not be normal for his younger self. The guy is 30, after all.
Demko says this time is different, but any player will tell you they're ready to go. It's going to be up to the coach - in consultation with Demko - to keep him to a controlled number of games. What does that mean for a starting goaltender? In most cases these days, that's 50-55 games. In Demko's case, ideally 40 healthy games. No back-to-backs, definitely. Heck, no more than two games a week would be great.
And that "40 games" is over the full season. The Canucks can get away with that because they have a perfectly decent 2A in Kevin Lankinen. Lankinen's boxcar stats looked pretty lousy, but frankly so did damn near everyone else's. He was the rule, not the exception, with Vancouver last year. Lankinen also put in 47 games one year after a 51-game season. He can, at the very least, handle a heavier workload. We just don't want him to.
Again, Vancouver has no reason to drive one of their goaltenders into the ice. Taking it easy on Demko's schedule can mean everything from the number of games to not taking him on shorter road trips at all. A two-game trip? Go with Lankinen and Nikita Tolopilo! Even if Lankinen starts both games, Tolopilo can handle the practice time with the skaters with him and manage the gate on the bench. They'll be fine.
As for Tolopilo, he is now eligible for waivers, so putting him in the minors in the first place is fraught. He has some skill, and another team could easily lift him for free. What he doesn't have is a lot of experience. He survived 21 games with Vancouver last year, though, and that's not nothing. It's a bit tough to judge just how good he was, given the chaos, but he's not as bad as his numbers.
Should Vancouver hang on to all three goalies this season with, say, a 40/30/12 split in starts, that could work out. Demko has a healthy year, with possibly increased trade interest; Lankinen still earns his time for his money; and Tolopilo will show what he can do at the NHL level WITHOUT needing a fire extinguisher in his gear.
That would be Demko, folks, not Lankinen. The Canucks are going to have a very young team this year, and having a steady hand can only help. There is some idea that if Demko comes back as his old self, he could win some games single-handedly. That's where discipline from Manny Malhotra comes in: it doesn't matter how good he is, keep Demko's starts to 40 games.
The easy way to do that, of course, would be trading him away before the season even starts. The return on that would be his cap space and nothing else, though. And there probably won't be a whole lot of takers, even at that price.
There is an argument in favour of moving Demko ASAP, assuming he agrees to waive his no-move clause. The first is his salary coming off the books, which probably won't be replaced. A bad deal might come back, but more likely it would be a numbers game, contract for contract. A second benefit could be giving Tolopilo more ice time, which is a stretch to call a benefit, and we're only at "two".
Having an experienced hand as the last line of defence is a confidence booster for young players. They are less likely to be afraid of making mistakes, assuming Malhotra is on board with playing the kids. And if he isn't, there's been a terrible misunderstanding by someone. No offence to Lankinen, but he's a good worker, while Demko can be a star.
Of course, if Demko does regain his form, then there could certainly be a market for a team desperate to prove themselves in the playoffs. Some possible trade partners are Vegas, Edmonton, New Jersey, Ottawa, maybe Florida if Jacob Markstrom has a down year. There's quite the difference between the clubs, some pushing for a good showing, others for the Stanley Cup, and others could emerge. The key to any of them is desperation, and all those teams have pressure to get results.
Should Demko put together the type of season he wants, then he might well play himself onto a contender. The plan he signed on for obviously fell apart, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he agreed to move to a contender. Again, the return might not be much, but it should be a lot more than at the start of the year.
And if he's doing all that well, then moving him away fits right in with Vancouver's long-term goals. Ty Young and Aku Koskenvuo can keep their ice in Abbotsford, and we'll see Lankinen and Tolopilo. Top- er, bottom-five finish, here we come!
Okay, moving out Tolopilo doesn't necessarily make sense, and it's still a possibility. After all, he does need to pass waivers, and getting enough time for three keepers is a pain. Grab that fifth-round pick for him before some team gets him for free, and get another team's waiver sacrifice to shuttle between Abby and Vancouver if needed.
A move like this is definitely trying to improve by inches, and if the Canucks were a contender, it could even make sense. But they aren't, and frankly, it doesn't. Unless he or his agent asked the team to make the move, it wouldn't even save them money.
The NHL continues to quietly drift in the Dog Days of Summer. Sure, there have been a couple interesting signings, with two future superstars agreeing to five-year deals. But otherwise? Not a lot going on with the stuff fans generally care about - the on-ice talent. Still, there are bits and pieces of news trickling out through our now-annual smoky haze.
Elias Pettersson the Forward appeared on the ice in Los Angeles this week, which is nice. Being on the ice in August is expected of most top-end players nowadays, but this is still pretty dang early. No surprise he's doing it away from Vancouver, because could you imagine the circus of bored hockey watchers? Sportsnet may have left town, but Canucks fans haven't.
Hopefully, he's taking his opportunity to rebuild his reputation seriously this year. It could absolutely be the perfect set of conditions for him: zero pressure for the team to succeed, all pressure on him to. He doesn't have to lead squat, he just has to put his head down and play. And no, I don't think there's much of a chance of his being traded before the season starts.
The biggest topic of conversation locally is probably still the hope of a practice facility. There was a memorandum of understanding regarding the sheet at Britannia a week ago, and it might already be dead. The problem isn't one of ability or even economics. It's about public relations.
While the former White-Collars were seen touring the facilities way back when, the announcement was still a surprise. Reaction quickly went from "Finally!" to "Oops!" when it was revealed that it would just be a facility, not an additional sheet. And that the team would be claiming prime skating time from the public currently using the ice. And that they hadn't actually considered the effect on the neighbourhood.
Oops!
Hastings Park has also been mentioned as a possible location for creating a new facility with another ice sheet the team can claim as their own. Heck, they'll probably get a lot of benefits from the city no matter where they build - and some good PR if they let the public in on their off days. Handy enough, what with it being a straight shot down Hastings. But I'd love it if they thought bigger.
Over 26 years, the Richmond Night Market has become an institution, but now they're closing up. The lease is up, and there doesn't seem to be any plans to replace it. The space has been empty for ages, and it really should get put to work for the good of the city. There's a lot more space available than an ice sheet and training room would need, should any development partners be interested...
We mentioned before the ripple effects of contracts signed by other teams. There was another one to add to the list, especially given the Canucks plans for the near future.
Ville Koivunen is not the sort of player you'd expect to sign an eight-year deal. In fact, I'd be surprised if you had heard of him, unless you were a big Jake Guentzel fan. Koivunen was one of the many players involved in the Guentzel trade, a 20-year-old centre prospect who hadn't reached North America yet.
Koivunen got an eight-game sample in 2024-25, picking up seven assists in just eight games. Great start! The next year, he played 39 NHL games and scored two goals and seven points, with a lot less average ice time. And he didn't play centre either of those years. Obviously a candidate for a maximum term, right? And $4 million per season?
This isn't the first time we've seen lengthy contracts handed out to bottom-six players. Casey Cizikas is on the final year of his six-season deal with the Islanders, and there was never an expectation of his rising through the ranks. The difference is that Cizikas signed when he was a 30-year-old free agent, and he was taking a pay cut from his previous contract.
Koivunen, on the other hand, has played all of 47 NHL games and is just 23 years old. He's put up good numbers in the AHL, but nothing that projects he'll be a star. On the other hand, he's got plenty of room to grow with a team that can see its doom approaching. This wouldn't be a bad guy to have around when Sidney Crosby and Co. are no longer there.
Should Koivunen produce like a middle-six forward during the next eight years, the Penguins can decide what to do with him then. At just $4 million, he'd be an affordable addition to a competing team, and with a guaranteed term, yet. That's a lot to pay for the fourth-line winger he was last year, but it's a perfectly reasonable amount for a middle-sixer. And in three years, it might not be all that much to pay a fourth-liner.
If he slips, or if injuries happen along the way, Koivunen has $32 million in his pocket by the time he's 31 years old. He's getting a $2 million bonus payment to kick off this year and next, just to get himself comfortable in Pittsburgh for now. It doesn't look like there's any trade protection, but even if there were, it wouldn't kick in until 2030-31. That would be well into their Crosbyless Years, so presumably mid-rebuild.
That's a pretty good deal to make for everyone involved - assuming the player doesn't think he's going to be a star. Or if he does, that he's satisfied to wait until he's 30 years old to cash in. Which, given what the salary cap might be by then, could hit a jackpot. Add an additional team or two to the league bidding for talent, and it's not an unlikely scenario.
The Canucks have quite a list of young players they will be counting on in the coming years. Whether they think of signings like this, I don't know. But the temptation is there, isn't it?
Zeev Buium wouldn't go near this, as his ceiling is as a top-pair defender. But Elias Pettersson the Defender? He might stick, he might not, but if he does, it won't be as high as Buium. I'm not entirely sold on Jonathan Lekkerimaki as a first-line producer just yet, but if he agreed to a deal like this, I'm tempted. Same with Liam Öhgren.
There's risk involved with signing any player to a long-term deal, as any Canucks fan knows. One of the larger risks in Vancouver's case is having enough room for younger players to move up when they've earned their shot. If, say, Anthony Romani continues to improve and shows up ready for the NHL in two years, it would be a bit awkward to have a bottom-six full of contracts in his way.
Still, fun to consider who might work out six (or seven, or the last chance for eight) years from now on a contract signed today.
If I told you that the biggest trade of the past two weeks was Sean Farrell for Sasha Pastujov, could you tell me which teams were involved? Or for the biggest one in the two weeks before that, moving Tyler Kopff for Zac Funk? It hasn't exactly been exciting times in the NHL of late, is what we're saying. We talked about John Marino's new contract, fer cryin' out loud!
After a fairly lively draft day and an interesting free agency opening, the league has gone awfully quiet. The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed a couple essential, if brief, deals with Cole Sillinger and Jet Greaves. The Chicago Blackhawks launched a thousand eyerolls by bringing Patrick Kane back, so that's something. Jason Robertson Watch extended from a month to a year with his $12 million deal a week ago.
Otherwise? Oof.
So let's take a page from the history books and talk about the state of Canucks' goaltending. Because it has a whole lot of diverging paths out there, and which one gets walked isn't entirely up to Vancouver.
Who is what, here?
Y'all know Thatcher Demko, but let's recap. One of the Core Players that Jim Benning, then Jim Rutherford, was banking on. Alas, recurring injuries requiring repeated surgeries have left Demko on the shelf more often than he has been on the bench. He's in year one of a new, three-season contract worth $8.5 million per and comes with a full no-move clause.
He made a name for himself in the Bubble Season of 2020, turning in a masterful series against the Vegas Golden Knights, and followed that with two very good years. There was plenty of reason to believe the goaltending portion of the team was in good hands. He had a nightmare start to 2022-23, but after missing two months with another injury, he closed out the year strong.
That rolled into 2023-24, where he played most of Vancouver's games, banking enough points before getting knocked out in March that the Canucks made the playoffs again. He came back with two games left, won his playoff game against Nashville, then was out once again.
The past two seasons have not been great, statistically or health-wise. In 2024-25, Demko didn't start until December and missed another month besides. There were flashes of brilliance - including a ludicrous comeback game against Dallas - so hope was he could build on that.
Unfortunately, this past season, he missed a week in November, played one period, then was gone for another month. He came back for four more weeks before shutting down mid-January for good. And now the 30-year-old is starting with a rebuilding team.
Teams like to be secretive about injuries, so it's a little hard to track exactly which injuries Demko has had in his career. We do know he's had at least three knee injuries; two concussions; surgery on both hips (one twice); at least one groin injury; a few "lower body injuries", which could be anything; a back injury; and COVID-19.
It may seem unfair to describe Kevin Lankinen this way, but this way also perfectly describes Kevin Lankinen. Signed late into the 2024-25 off-season when it looked like Demko wouldn't be coming back to start the year, Lankinen is a perfectly capable goalie who held the fort. He wasn't supposed to, as Arturs Silovs was supposed to split duties with Demko that year. Alas, the young goaltender stumbled badly under the weight, and Lankinen took his job.
Lankinen played well enough that he signed a five-year contract that February, and Silovs was shipped off to the Penguins. That was several months before Demko signed his deal on July 1st, which must have made for an interesting dynamic. Lankinen's deal comes with a full no-move this season, and a fifteen-team one for the next three years.
With Demko only playing 20 games in 2025-26, Lankinen once again got the lion's share of starts. His numbers slipped from the previous year, but whose didn't? He did provide a statistical highlight for the team, stopping 21 of 22 shots against him in the post-overtime skills competition. Macklin Celebrini scored against him in April, and the Canucks still won the game.
Nikita Tolopilo is a very interesting case. The 6'6" Belarusian played well enough for his experience level in the NHL last year, getting into 21 games and starting 18 of them. The team has some confidence in him, even if it is just as a backup to the backup for now. He has only played three years in North American pro hockey, and may well improve beyond his current markers.
Vancouver is in the odd circumstance of needing a third goalie who is reliably available, but the most obvious choice isn't waiver-exempt. Tolopilo is interesting enough that he will likely get plucked from waivers if the team moved him back and forth to Abbotsford. Whatever team takes him would need to put another player on waivers, and that probably won't be someone the team needs.
There is a legitimate case to be made for carrying three goaltenders this season, at least until Demko gets injured. The twist in the tale is that he's an unrestricted free agent once the 2026-27 season ends. Given the age of the team overall, is he good enough to keep, or might he bring something back if he plays well enough this season?
Should Tolopilo stay with Vancouver, it would be music to the ears of Aku Koskenvuo and Ty Young. Both goalies split time between Abbotsford and their ECHL affiliate in Kalamazoo. Koskenvuo took the NCAA route before turning pro, while Young played CHL hockey in Prince George. Both are fifth-round picks, the Finn in 2021 and the Canadian in 2022.
Jiri Patera would absolutely have the starter's role on the farm if he re-signed, which explains why he didn't. But with him and potentially Tolopilo out of the way, that clears the track for Koskenvuo and Young.
While you'd think the age difference would give him the advantage, Koskenvuo actually has less pro experience than Young. His 31 total games are well back of Young's 63, but neither one is what you could call a grizzled veteran. This could be a September signing, bringing in someone with experience who wouldn't mind playing third fiddle in the AHL. That goes double if the team manages to trade any of their top three goalies, or if Demko's season comes to an early end.
The Canucks are all too familiar with the risks involved in relying on a young goaltender too soon. And yes, I do still wish we had Michael DiPietro available, but at least he serves as a warning. Neither one of these guys should see the light of day in Vancouver this season, even if it means getting an extra body.
Goaltending is just one of many threads to follow in what's going to be a potentially brutal season. The situation could easily change between now and the end of September. But until news comes out about something other than a lack of White Collars on the administrative side of the team, it's something to ponder for now.
Three recently signed contracts all carry implications for the Vancouver Canucks in the coming years. Only one was signed with Vancouver, but you can bet the other two got their attention.
Let's start with the fun one: Connor Bedard signing on with the Chicago Blackhawks for another five years. At $15 million per year - $9.8 million in bonus money - that's probably a reasonable amount for both sides. Chicago is paying for the future, but after scoring 75 goals and 203 points in his first 219 NHL games, odds are he'll live up to it.
More interesting is that it is only for five years. Bedard has clearly taken a page from Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, both signing for shorter terms than the maximum eight seasons. McDavid handed the Edmonton Oilers an incredible discount, but only for two seasons. Matthews signed a five-year, then a four-year contract that now has two seasons remaining.
The message with all three is unmistakable. Show me progress, or I walk. And who can blame them? Matthews will be 30 when his deal expires, McDavid 31. Bedard will only be 25, but if Chicago seems to be improving to his liking, he'll likely sign another deal yet.
It looks like he told them of his intention before he signed, as they did what they could to improve the defence the instant free agency opened. Getting someone like Bowen Byram was essential, as Louis Crevier - the defenceman who went the other way - was Chicago's leading defensive scorer last year. It cost them substantially, and they doubled down by doubling Byram's paycheque with a 6 x $12.5 million deal.
They kept adding, giving Cole Smith a 3 x $3 million deal, and Ian Cole $4 million for one year. That's three pieces of the defence replaced, and fr good reason. Giving your kids some ice time is good and all, but Wyatt Kaiser and Anton Levshunov probably shouldn't have had as much as they did. Not just yet, anyway. And having a bodyguard like Jordan Greenway
The bottom line is that after five years of scraping the league floor, it's time to move up. Bedard's deal let them know that in no uncertain terms. And if they do, well, sorry Canucks fans who dreamed of his early return. That probably won't happen in 2031. Call again in 2036.
It's probably not entirely fair to call John Marino "average". He's certainly in the top half of most six-man squads in the league, and top-pair on a few. The Utah Mammoth needed him to step up before they got MacKenzie Weegar out of Calgary, and he did. But a second-pair role is probably where he fits best. Which begs the question: is that where teams should put $6.75 million?
There is a premium for the position as a right-handed defenceman, certainly. And again: he's a perfectly acceptable player. But even with an increasing salary cap, that deal seems a little optimistic. He's not a power play specialist; he hasn't scored five goals in a season since he was a rookie; and he doesn't inspire fear in the opposing forwards. I'm fine with him going out there in the last minute when we're up a goal, but probably not when we're down one.
I'm asking for a friend I happen to know who has a couple young defencemen coming up. They're looking for their second contracts, and frankly, no one's completely sure where they're going to end up as players. Zeev Buium is probably going to be an excellent offensive player; Elias Pettersson the Defenceman will probably be a solid defensive one with a bit of offensive pop. What would $6.75 million on a long-term deal look like to them?
Buium has played one NHL season, and Pettersson just 98 games over two. If the Canucks could get Buium's name on a long-term deal at anything close to Marino's numbers, then his agent is either asleep or has been told to do it. Pettersson might never reach the minutes per game Marino has, but brings very different qualities. In three years, or less, that might well be his number.
Given ownership's reluctance to pay full value right now* the odds of any player being handed a long-term deal seem remote. But if any of them want the stability of an eight-year contract, they'll have to do it before September 16th. And that might be worth waving in front of them.
The Canucks did finally get their man in Abbotsford, signing Ryan Papaioannou this week. Papaioannou has won titles in the AJHL and BCHL, and reached the conference finals in the ECHL last year. That being said, last year was his first year at the professional level. He has a typically short contract, running through 2027-28, but is probably going to get a lot of leeway for those years.
We don't know how much he'll be paid, but that's likely a reason for the short deal, too. If he succeeds with Abbotsford, he's going to want a raise or an opportunity. And fair enough, that's what the AHL is for, both with coaches and players.
The notable thing about this hiring is that apparently the OHL's Coach of the Year, Memorial Cup winner Jussi Ahokas, was interviewed and turned the job down. It had nothing to do with the opportunity, and everything to do with the money. The offer, according to sources, was below what he was making with Kitchner. Ahokas is now with Colorado's AHL squad, and Papaioannou is in Abby.
This definitely tells fans what the team's priorities are for the next few years. Ownership wants cuts, and not just the on-ice payroll. Compared to last season, the team's about $12 million below last year's cap-bumping level. If they want to lower it by another $8-10 million, then that pretty much puts the kibosh on bringing in bad salaries to juice up the return in trades.
Last time Vancouver put saving money as a top priority, the disastrous 2020-21 season was the result. Every free agent was allowed to walk after the COVID-shortened 2019-2020 season, and it showed the next year. What had been an optimistic return to the playoffs and pushing Vegas to seven games became a crash-and-burn return.
This time, the savings are being reflected in off-ice decisions. That's not a great sign, even if Alexander Edler is essentially volunteering to work with the kids. Enthusiasm isn't expertise, and while he played over 1,000 NHL games, that doesn't mean he can teach the skills that let him.
Going to be worth watching. It's one thing to want the prospects to develop, and it's another to pay for it.
*Foreshadowing!
Radio stations vanish, schedules drop, and rumours abound (kind of)!
That's a pretty up-and-down week for local Canucks - and sports - fans in and around Vancouver. We got the schedule release, which is always fun to comb through, and some actual rumours to play with. Well, one rumour. Well, more of an incidental statement. But it involved the Canucks, so it counts!
But I guess the biggest news is that the news has stopped. News 1130 was among the six radio stations that Rogers has decided to abandon, including Sportsnet 650. And much like when Bell pulled TSN 1040, they didn't bother telling their employees. Instead, workers there found their passwords non-functional or the equipment simply disconnected. A coward's retreat.
Rogers still owns FM stations in town, so they might broadcast games through Jack FM or somewhere similar. Whatever broadcast team they put together likely won't travel, recording from monitors when the team is on the road. Calgary has been completely abandoned, with broadcasts dropped in their entirety.
There has been some talk of people somehow getting together to start a sports radio station in Vancouver. It's obviously an underserved region, but the costs are HIGH. It's hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the frequency, though much less to keep them annually. The idea is to follow the lead of CHEK TV, which is North America's only employee-owned television station.
Obviously, folks are plenty angry about how employees were treated by Rogers (and Bell), but Don Taylor's hopes of a private owner seem faint. Personally, I think the CBC has an opportunity to do the funniest thing right now...
The league has released their full schedule, and there are a few points of interest for Canucks fans. They have 13 home games on a Saturday, for one. Owners who are clearly nervous about lowered gate revenues next season can relax a bit. Though in a slightly odd statement, the team's release says there will be "eight Saturday night games starting at 8:00".
Whether that means 8 PM for us locally, or it's an announcement intended to warn those areas which do not have the daylight-savings changes we do, I don't know. On the calendar, it says the usual 7:00 start time. It's not every night game, either, as 11 home games are scheduled for the 7:00 start time, with one at 4:00 (guess who that is) and an early afternoon game against Anaheim.
One change this year is the increase in the number of games from 82 to 84. Not my dream of scratching ten to get to a more livable 72, but there it is. That's causing a domino effect throughout the year: the Canucks start the season in September for the first time in team history, opening against Edmonton on the 29th. They finish April 10th, in what both teams no doubt hope is an entirely meaningless contest.
It's not much of a year for "revenge games" with the team in an acknowledged rebuild. Boo Quinn Hughes on October 25th if that's your thing, but otherwise, the only special days are when your second/least favourite team is in town.
Another effect of the extended schedule is reducing the number of pre-season games. So much the better, but if you're curious, they only have two at home: September 24th against Edmonton and the 26th against Seattle. The Oilers match could be an interesting precursor to the season opener three days later.
Speaking of Seattle...
Didja hear Shane Wright likes Vancouver? He said he did, and that's great! He wouldn't block a trade here, so obviously-
Quick intervention, here. He's on year three of his entry-level deal, and he's a right-shot centre. Wright's got no trade protection for a very in-demand position. Seattle ain't selling him cheap, and he can't force a move. Back to our regularly scheduled wishcasting!
-there's a deal to be made, right? Of course! It's just a matter of whether either side wants to make it.
Wright is a young, contract-controlled, right-handed centre who hasn't yet broken through. He was a fourth-overall pick in 2022* and got a couple eight-game dry runs before joining the team full-time in 2025-26. He had a very good rookie season, slipping back statistically in the boxcars a bit in his second year. Under the hood, though, he slightly outperformed his teammates at even strength.
Wright is clearly a little frustrated, limited to bottom-six minutes, but he has only been in the league for two years. A bit of patience from him now could pay dividends later. On the other hand, Matty Beniers and Chandler Stephenson are definitely ahead of him to start 2026-27, and it's hard to improve your offence from the third line.
The pressure on Seattle is to start making the playoffs regularly now, after just one appearance in five years. They have taken big swings at free agents, both in the market and with offer sheets, but haven't had a taker yet. Using Wright as a trade chip to bring in a more reliable veteran is a bit of a last-resort move, but one they might feel they have to make. And the NBA returning soon isn't helping.
Jake DeBrusk is a good hockey player.
DeBrusk is a consistent scorer, but only if you look at the year's end. He's going to score around 25 goals, though they might be six in one week, nothing for a month, seven in another week. He did mention that he doesn't want to go through a rebuild at thirty years old, and that's understandable. It's not what he signed on for when he accepted a seven-year, $5.5 million per deal.
He's a very good power-play producer, much to everyone's surprise. His 5-on-5 numbers were a nightmare last season, but whose weren't for the Canucks? He works great down low, but more to Seattle's liking, he can work with speed, too, and can do it from the second line. And he has five years remaining on what is a very reasonable contract. As a bonus, he's also said he wants to stay in the West, and you can't get much further West than Seattle.
Now, if there is a deal to be had involving these two players, Vancouver will need to give more up. Neither one is a real play driver, but a solid addition to one. DeBrusk has proven himself to a greater degree than Wright has, but by the same coin, Wright is six years younger. Add his positional premium, and DeBrusk isn't enough by a long shot. He'd provide the Kraken with a top-six scorer under contract for another five years when they need a star.
At first glance, it might seem like an awkward fit for the Canucks as well. They've fortified their centre position recently, and Wright would be starting again in the bottom six. That being said, one of the players above him is Filip Chytil, so it could be a matter of waiting a month for the opportunity to present itself. Or maybe moving Chytil to the wing, which sounds better.
Folks might hate me for saying it, but getting a young player is one of the reasons a team collects draft picks. Vancouver has two second-round picks next year, neither one theirs, and I'd be fine with them including one in a package for Wright.
I know, I know: trading a second-round pick for a younger, some would say "doubted" player can cause PTSD in this market. But not all second-round draft picks are the same: the ones we have are from San Jose and Dallas. San Jose can make the playoffs next season, putting their spot in the early-50s at best. The Stars' pick could easily be in the 60s. We're getting close to single-digit percentages whether a player drafted there will hit 200 NHL games, never mind one that scores 25 goals a season.
It's not a slam dunk for either team, but DeBrusk is expendable for Vancouver, and Wright might take too long for Seattle. The risk is heavier on Vancouver's side, where the younger player might not get beyond what we've seen, and the draft pick might strike gold. But that's the nature of being a rebuilding team, and I don't think the risk is unbearable.
If both Braeden Cootes and Caleb Malhotra work out as NHL centres, having Wright already here lets the team move other players. And if one of them doesn't, for whatever reason, he's a safety net. That seems worth the deal to me.
For Seattle, if they don't move up as they should, DeBrusk is still a tradable asset come the deadline, and they'll have a second-round pick plus what he brings back. Or maybe he's enough to get them past that playoff line, and they keep him - plus the second-round pick.
*Cue death glare
A half-dozen signings, a good-sized trade, and then - no offence to Matthew Steinberg - silence around the talent on the team. And that's fine, because lord knows there was enough to do off the ice as well. After taking some time off, let's look at the team and around the division.
The Vancouver Canucks needed coaches, both in Vancouver proper and for the AHL squad. They've rounded out their NHL roster with three-ish Abbotsford promotions and a former AHL head coach joining Malhotra on the big club.
Jordan Smith spent the past two seasons as an assistant on the bench in Abby, so his move is one of leagues, if not titles. Andrew Shaw (not the NHLer) moves from being Abbotsford's video coach to assisting Vancouver's Ian Beckenstein, so it's a promotion and demotion at the same time. I don't think he'll complain.
Jason Krog has been working with players in Abbotsford and Vancouver as a skills and skating coach, and is moving up to bench duties with Malhotra. He had a long professional career, mostly as an AHL All-Star but including four games with the Canucks. All three of these coaches were with Abbotsford for their Calder Cup win in 2024-25.
Ryan Mougenel is an interesting hire, as he was named AHL Coach of the Year in 2025-26. He's been the head coach of the Providence Bruins for the past five seasons, and an assistant there the previous two. The Bruins finished top-three in their division for every one of those years, but couldn't get past the division semi-finals in any of them. Well, he won't have to worry about the playoffs any time soon with his new job, anyway.
There have certainly been some interesting developments outside the Canucks.
The biggest is undoubtedly the offer sheet signed by Leo Carlsson and subsequently matched by the Anaheim Ducks. 'Sfunny how a player widely known as "The Little Ball of Hate" is a general manager that players and agents agree lives up to his nickname. Pat Verbeek and his staff developed a reputation for absolutely grinding any player who crossed his path come contract time. That engendered some resentment, it seems, and suddenly his star didn't want to go through it.
Daniel Briere is living up to his - or at least Philadelphia's - reputation, too. They are a team that has never been afraid of being hated by the rest of the league, and they'll drop offer sheets on stars if they think they can get away with it. It may not be the most effective approach - step up, St. Louis - but it's certainly fun to watch. And now a 21-year-old is being paid $18 million a season for the next five years, ending with him as an unrestricted free agent. You have to wonder if that's Philly's way of encouraging commissioner Gary Bettman's departure.
Cutter Gautier is still waiting for his contract, but Pavel Mintyukov had his on the table and signed VERY soon after Carlsson was resolved. Gautier had a 41-goal season in his third year, and whatever Anaheim decides to offer will be remembered at their next negotiation. Now, he's not a centre like Carlsson is, and isn't eligible for an offer sheet, but he's still a vital cog for a team that wants to improve this year.
The Ducks have $9 million in cap space, but their defence could use more than Nick Jensen to shore up their ranks. Jackson LaCombe has been a delightful surprise, but he's only on one side of the ice. It's definitely Anaheim's weak point. However, they might choose not to shore it up just yet, especially if the options are looking bad for a simple reason: they're in the Pacific Division.
The Pacific Division last season was a fine argument for eliminating the "pity point". The Los Angeles Kings managed twenty [20] overtime and shootout losses to squeeze into the final wild card spot. That meant the team with five fewer regulation wins than San Jose, six fewer than Nashville, and eleven fewer than St. Louis got in while the rest waited. That actually worked out okay for the Sharks, but still!
That the Sharks finished the season four points away from the playoffs and still won the first overall pick shows how weak the Pacific Division was last year. Anaheim and LA would have both missed the playoffs if the top-16 teams leaguewide played. Philadelphia had the fewest points of the Eastern playoff teams at 98, a mark no team in the Pacific reached.
San Jose certainly wants to get in this year, with their wild overpays on Jacob Trouba and Mason Marchment and trade for Darnell Nurse. They're going to be a very interesting team to watch again this year, at least. They can absolutely push into the top-three conversation.
Anaheim, of course, wants to stay in the playoffs now that they've finally made it back. Edmonton has the room to make a move or two with Nurse off the books. Interesting gambles in net, so maybe their eye turns to a bit more scoring depth up front.
And LA is... Okay, to be frank, I have no frikkin' clue what the Kings are doing this year. They made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth, and only because the Pacific was so weak. It wasn't that long ago that they were considered to have one of the best prospect pools in the league. Unfortunately for them, either the players haven't panned out as hoped (Quinton Byfield), or the injury bug hit (Alex Turcotte), or they were moved on (Brock Faber). It's like they looked at their pool in 2020 and said, "Right! We're making a big push in five or six years!" and are determined to fit the timeline, reality be damned.
Seattle, of course, will want to get in there, too. They made big pitches to Jason Robertson and Artemi Panarin, so they're willing to take a swing. They have the money and the will, and there is plenty of time before the season gets underway yet.
Vegas, the supposed Cream of the Crop, didn't even hit 40 wins last year and still won the division. Their big signing so far was Rasmus Andersson, who is a very good player, but...that can't be it, right? That can't be all they're doing? Then again, they did just make the Stanley Cup Final, so maybe that is. A full year with Mitch Marner could do them wonders.
That pretty much leaves Calgary and Vancouver as teams that aren't all that bothered with making the playoffs in the Pacific. And outside Vegas and Edmonton, the rest of the division may be trying, but they don't look all that good yet. Sure, the Flames want to show their fans signs of progress as they gear up for the new arena, but that's probably going to be an incremental improvement. If the Canucks aren't careful, they could risk a wild-card spot by just playing better than last year!
Okay, probably not. But if they find a system that suits the team, they might hit 85 points, getting them well clear of the league basement, which they do NOT want to do just yet. Start the climb next season; let this one be another bottom-five finish.
The rule changes allow teams to send one of their 19-year-olds to the AHL. I have no problem if the Canucks decide to let Braeden Cootes cook for a year in Abbotsford. Heck, if they want Tom Willander to get top-pair minutes, he can go, too. Zeev Buium is probably here to stay, but otherwise, keeping the kids away from what's going to be a hard year? Livable.
Besides, if the kids are suddenly going to find their feet and take off? Let them do it where they can't risk Vancouver's draft position. For one more year, anyway.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and while I was rather skeptical of the Sedin twins/Ryan Johnson hiring from the outset, I’m prepared now to be wrong.
In fact, some of the moves Johnson made in the last few days has put me in the uncomfortable position of feeling vaguely optimistic, which as a long-term Canucks fan invariably means I am failing to insulate myself from the inevitable disappointment that follows.
More than anything, I am heartened that the Vancouver Canucks do, indeed, appear to have fully embraced a rebuild.
Firstly, a wee while back, I listed the eight things I thought the team needed to do in order to move forward. In summary:
So, five out of eight, with bonus points for booting Jim Rutherford to pasture and moving Marcus Pettersson.
On Wednesday, Thursday rendered some opinions on recent moves, so I’m going to go another direction and make the declaration that the best move made July 1 that benefits the Canucks was one the Canucks had nothing to do with.
Hands up if you figured that the Edmonton Oilers would be able to unload the oppressive Darnell Nurse contract onto some other team dumb enough to overpay large bills for a second pair left-shot D-man. Yet the Oilers not only managed to unload Nurse to the Sharks, but a) gathered two prospects in return and more importantly b) didn’t have to retain salary.
To reflect on the Nurse saga for a moment, the Oilers signed a staggering $9.25 million annual deal, for a left-shot D-man who logged solid minutes but never really delivered the kind of numbers one would expect for a $9.25 million-per-year contract. Nurse was supposed to be an offensive threat, first-pair, lead-your-team kinda guy and never really was. Nurse wasn’t bad, but his efforts just could never match the salary, which led to all sorts of discontent with the fan base. Let me know when this sounds familiar, hmm?
The Nurse deal cracks open the window of potentiality to suggest – tantalizingly, perhaps – that at some point in the near future, some team might be willing to eat EP40’s contract and overpay for a defensively capable (when he doesn’t fall down) second-line centre who will probably chip in 70-80 points a year, but comes with baggage courtesy of a he-ain’t-worth-that $11.6 million price tag. The similarities are apparent.
It’s also somewhat refreshing to hear the new brass say, in fairly blunt terms, that Pettersson (the floppy forward) has not put in the summer work that a $11.6-million-per-year player should to meet the potential suggested by said contract.
My read at this moment is that the Canucks are going to give EP 40 one more chance to turn his failing career around, one more year to show something of the 100-point-per-year guy he once was. It is more than obvious that the Canucks had a woeful culture problem, and frankly, it’s also more than obvious that EP 40 is part of that problem. Now, I suspect, he’s going to have one year to change, to show that he hasn’t simply become the Canucks’ Darnell Nurse. But the Nurse deal suggests that if the right calls are mode, Johnson can move Pettersson to someone else without being utterly fleeced in the process.
The Hockey Gods have not been kind to Vancouver in the past, but the Montreal Canadiens gave Vancouver a prime prize in the form of Brendan Gallagher. Frankly, when I first read the details of the deal I had to pause for a moment and confirm with a secondary source because the idea of Montreal trading Gallagher for future considerations and retaining half his salary seemed absurd. Gallagher seems the kind of pepper-pot, never-stop guy that will do everything Conor Garland did on the energy-and-effort side of the equation.
Folks in the media have called the deal “free,” but I’m placing a lot of stock in the “future considerations” part of the piece, because it suggests that Johnson has made a quiet pledge to pick up the phone and call Montreal first if an asset feels like moving. Put a pin in that, because my spidey sense is tingling with a “let’s see if someone in Canuck colours moves to Montreal at or near the deadline if Montreal is in a strong playoff position at that time” kind of vibe. Think “hey, your goaltender is injured/not performing, but we have one we can flog you,” or – dare to dream – “we’ve got an overpaid but really good defensive second-line centre for that playoff run who is waiving his no-trade clause.”
Hands up if you were stunned at Marcus Pettersson being traded, because that came out of the blue. The fact Johnson peddled that for a 2030 first-rounder (which essentially means that Pettersson retained his value despite having a sucky year under Foote’s catastrophe of a “system”) tells me that the management is really thinking about the future. The player that pick will become is barely in puberty at this moment, and unless said pick is of the “can’t miss, plays at 19” class, won’t be in the lineup until the mid 2030s. That’s forward-thinking with vengeance.
Moving Nils Hoglander was good. Signing credible character athletes to short-term contracts that do not have full trade protection is a thankful sign that Johnson will not repeat the mistakes of the previous administrations. They didn’t hold on to Joseph. I trust Evander Kane won’t be involved in any future discussions, other than “good riddance to bad rubbish.”
Is there merit in re-signing Derek Forbort? The Jamie Oleksiak deal makes Forbort expendable, so probably not.
When will the team move Drew O'Connor?
Is Max Sasson a deadline trade chip?
Can EP40 be stripped of his alternate captaincy?
That was a more interesting opening of the free agent market than I expected, gotta say. But between that and the start of the Vancouver Canucks opening development camp, the future is here for all to see.
After a straightforward draft day, including what was officially Ryan Johnson's first trade as the Vancouver Canucks general manager, little was expected today. And for the most part, it lived up to those expectations. A quiet start had the team picking up a couple AHL players in Trey Fix-Wolanski and Akil Thomas, adding to the farm's depth. Luke Schenn and Paul Cotter shore up the NHL team on one-year deals, and Jamie Oleksiak won a two-year deal for a very specific reason...
The big deal of the day for Vancouver was clearly moving Marcus Pettersson to the New York Rangers for a first-round pick. It's top-ten protected, but that's fine. It's still a LOT more than anyone expected Pettersson to return. The trick is who's going to be around to use it, since it doesn't happen for another four years.
Akil Thomas was a second-round pick back in 2018, 51st overall. He was a high-skilled guy who could fight for his ice, and pulled decent numbers in the AHL, but hasn't managed to break through into the bigs. He had a fine playoff run last year, but he is a veteran AHLer. That's not a bad thing, and having a championship-level AHL team when the NHL team is stumbling makes it a good place to grow prospects.
The same can be said of Fix-Wolanski, though the road he took to get to where he is today is radically different from Thomas'. The 5'7" Fix-Wolanski was drafted in the same year as Thomas, but in the seventh round, 204th overall. Built like a fire plug, he racks up points and penalty minutes in the junior circuit. If you think Vancouver is too depressing to watch, you might want to take a trip to Abbotsford. Add these guys to Braden Cootes finding his pro game, and they should be worth the drive.
Paul Cotter might not be a player you're all too familiar with, and for good reason. Cotter's a solid NHLer, but a fourth-line one. He's got great speed and good size, but indifferent hands. Think a slightly less points-productive Kiefer Sherwood. He's not going to take a lot of ice from the kids coming up unless Coach Malhotra decides to put him on special teams. Is just over $2 million a bit much for a fourth-line veteran? Probably not, after this season. That cap has gone up, baby!
Veteran and three-time Canuck Luke Schenn, you know. The 36-year-old has been in the league since he was 19, and not all have been good. But it could be argued that the best of those years happened in Vancouver, riding shotgun with a young Quinn Hughes. He is the embodiment of Been There, Done That and Here's How. He loves the city, loves the team, and knows perfectly well what he's getting into. Even if he's scratched, you know he's going to practice hard against the kids.
Got Mass? Jamie Oleksiak, brother of seven-time Olympic medalist Penny Oleksiak, is a physical specimen. He stands 6'7" and weighs 250 lbs, increasing Vancouver's average size all on his own. He's spent the last five seasons in Seattle, spending a lot of time on the penalty kill there. That's going to let the younger players get what time they earn, instead of being forced into the role out of desperation.
Oleksiak has a two-year deal, front-loaded with a $1 million signing bonus in 2027, which is very tradeable. He has a 12-team no-trade list, but that leaves more than half the league to choose from. His cap hit is $5 million per year, but the actual cash outlay in year two is just $3.5 million. If a player comes up and forces the team's hand, they can find a place Oleksiak will be happy with. But until then, he's a solid player for the role.
Speaking of finding a spot on the defence, Marcus Pettersson gets moved out after just one year of his six-year contract. He's most comfortable as a middle pair, shutdown defender, but the Canucks was not a place to be comfortable last year. Pettersson played over 21 minutes a game, and he's just not what the team needs right now.
Some people are pretending he was awful, but that's simply not the case. His game doesn't show up in the boxcars the next day, but he was the best Canuck at shot suppression with a variety of defensive partners. That's valuable - just not here, not now.
The amazing thing is that he brought back a first-round pick, which is far more than expected. Even better, it's a first-round pick in 2030. Why that's a good thing is that the team is planning further ahead than the next three years. In three years, Vancouver should be planning to leave the league's basement. Yes, expect a bottom-five finish for a few seasons yet - if everything goes right.
At the end of the 2028-29 season, they will have an additional first-round pick one year away. That's as good as cash-in-hand for any deals they want to swing, assuming they haven't moved it between now and then. Or they can keep it, given that it belongs to the Rangers, a wildly unpredictable team. It's top-ten protected, which is a bit hilarious, but their next year might be even worse; you never know.
I expect at least two more veteran forwards to be moved (Jake DeBrusk, obviously, and...Drew O'Connor? Elias Pettersson? Someone.) before training camp. But even if they stop here, that's not a bad turnover from twelve months ago. Evander Kane, Conor Garland, Kiefer Sherwood, and Nils Höglander are all gone up front; Marcus Pettersson, Tyler Myers, and, of course, Quinn Hughes have left the defence.
More on-ice changes will happen between now and the next step, whenever they take it. But if this is the team they start the 2026-27 season with, it's a pretty good start.
