The bad news is Quinn Hughes scored. The boxcar stats from Sunday's game against the Flames are bad enough, but the instant you look at the scoresheet, you know. Hughes rushing in to score late in a 5-1 game isn't a good sign. That he does it end-to-end with an assist from Kevin Lankinen is as bad as it gets.
I've mentioned before that one of the worst signs for the Canucks is when Hughes tries to do it all himself. He doesn't do that accidentally; he does it because he doesn't think he has a choice. And since we're talking about one of the highest hockey-IQ players in the league, that's worth paying attention to.
Beautiful goal. Terrible indicator.
Back when we did a preview of the season, we noted that the other teams in the division had shored themselves up. Vancouver's margins to succeed were smaller than ever, but certainly not impossible. The biggest danger was the thinness of talent at the top.
Vancouver has more top-end talent than enough of these teams to make the playoffs. But the game requires more than talent. The Canucks can have one or two things go wrong and still make it, so long as those things going wrong aren't one of three players. So we're ending up with Schrödinger's Playoffs, either making it or not, and we won't know which until we look.
So how did that go?
Okay, that wasn't exactly a difficult prediction. And even as easy as it was, I still got some of it wrong. The three players were, of course, Thatcher Demko, Quinn Hughes, and Elias Pettersson the Forward(tm). There have been mixed results, but that hasn't been where the most damage has been done.
Demko's injury is what it is, and no point going over that again. Hughes has missed substantial time - five complete games, parts of others - but that hasn't stopped him from leading the team in scoring again. Pettersson took a bit to get going, but he's been fine, even after being told he not only has to be a superstar scorer but also the only checking centre the Canucks have.
That third one's the indicator. Filip Chytil doesn't want to retire, but good grief, he should. We know you get paid a LOT, but there's a life after hockey, Filip. Another shock was Teddy Blueger playing in just two games, never to be seen again. The same can be said of Derek Forbort, but at least we only expected 60-ish games from him. But his absence is felt on the league's worst penalty kill.
One thing we aren't going to do is blame Pius Suter for getting paid. His two-year, $4.125 million per is an awful lot for a 40-point, middle-six centre. But boy, wouldn't that have been a better use of the money than signing winger Evander Kane?
Instead, what we get is the Jim Benning Era packed into two months, with increased desperation leading to increasingly desperate moves. Giving a younger player a shot is the kind of thing a team on the way up does, not one trying to stay afloat. Bringing in a guy who was cut from the frikkin' Maple Leafs to play as the second-line centre is pure desperation.
The pressure of keeping the best player in Vancouver Canucks history happy doesn't help, of course. But they haven't performed well under that pressure, either. Hack-comic-talking-about-airline-food levels of flopsweat, here.
Winning teams take risks, sure. But those risks are closer to betting on red at the roulette table, not praying #35 will somehow come through for you.
There was a risk in promoting Adam Foote to head coach. I think he'll be fine, but this is a team with so little margin for error that everything they did was a risk. The other option was Manny Malhotra, who is also untested at the NHL level, so it's not like they were playing it safe either way. I also don't think the fault lies with Foote, and really hope the team doesn't make him the fall guy.
This is about team construction. That goes right to Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin, with plenty of blame left over for team owner Francesco Aquilini.
Personally, I hate how this management team seems to negotiate. Obviously, I'm not in the room, and I haven't talked to either players or staff. My judgment is entirely based on what we all can see in public, and to me, that doesn't look good.
Right from the treatment of Bruce Boudreau to taking their players for granted, there has been an arrogance and recklessness at the top. I don't blame J.T. Miller for not getting along with Pettersson - nor do I blame Pettersson - but choosing him and completely ignoring Bo Horvat was alarming. Publicly insulting Brock Boeser after his 40-goal season, then leaving him to hang in negotiations, was bizarre.
When they kept Kevin Lankinen waiting, and waiting, and waiting, before finally signing him in late September to his first deal with the Canucks is typical of how they work, apparently. If you want to play in Vancouver, hey, great! We'll get back to you on that! We're going to play the field a little more before we get married, okay, sweetie?
The end result has been a team that feels like it's been forced on management instead of built by them. Rutherford seems frustrated that he can't simply offer to bury a player in the AHL if they don't sign. He and Allvin were surprised that the rising cap let teams keep their players, but forgot they could do that, too.
It was quite the weekend for Vancouver sports. The Goldeneyes kicked off their existence with an overtime win against their expansion rivals on Friday. The Whitecaps played one of the greatest games in Vancouver sports history, with an absolute rollercoaster of a game to stay alive in the MLS playoffs on Saturday.
The Canucks played a solid game against a good Dallas Stars squad, even though they lost. Then got stomped by one of the worst teams in the league, who had played in another city the night before. It, uh, it was a comedown.
The Canucks players have put in a lot of hard work. They really have. But on Sunday, they were outworked by what is now a higher-skilled team. Lankinen had an off night, and that wasn't nearly enough to cover for the mistakes made in front of him.
The return dates for Vancouver's missing players have been pushed back, with Nils Höglander looking like he'll be on the outside edge of ten weeks, Forbort being a complete mystery, and Blueger and Demko both strangely being here-then-gone. Chytil, of course, is anyone's guess, given how concussions play out.
So what's left for Vancouver? Will there be an effort to salvage the season, which in this case means asking some players to please waive their no-move clauses? Will there be a change in management or coaching? Will Aquilini - the owner who has openly defied every opportunity to rebuild - finally talk about rebuilding? At this point, who frikkin' knows?
Looking forward to the next Goldeneyes game, though. And can't wait for the MLS Conference Final!
The Vancouver Canucks and David Kämpf agreed to terms on a one-year, $1.1 million deal. Is he worth it?
There was plenty of talk before the 2025-26 season started about finding centres for the team. With Pius Suter pricing himself out of the market (despite Jim Rutherford's retroactive claims) and the VERY questionable health of Filip Chytil, more was needed. It wasn't a secret. Heck, one of the more famous quotes being replayed now is from Rutherford himself:
“It'll be expensive, but it'll also be very expensive not to get one. We're going to be open to do whatever it takes.”
Nothing like being your own self-fulfilling prophet.
Two names that came up in the idle speculation were Lukas Reichel and David Kämpf. Both were rejected for various reasons, but mostly because they weren't top-six centres. Vancouver wasn't great lower in the lineup, but the addition really needed to be at the top. They weren't going to move the needle if Chytil got injured.
Life moves fast on ya some days.
Lukas Reichel hasn't worked out, unfortunately, but was an experiment worth trying. A young guy who played some centre, even if he was used more on the wing. Even without the points yet, he does bring plenty of speed that much of the team doesn't have. In less desperate times, his lack of scoring wouldn't carry as much weight.
So in comes the next "other option" from Summer: David Kämpf. He hasn't played an NHL game this season, and only four in the AHL with a single assist to show for it. He's probably the team's *deep breath* second-line centre whenever he gets into the lineup. He was suspended on November 2nd for not reporting to the Marlies, so he may need to get up to speed before joining the club. I'll be a bit surprised if he gets ice time in Florida.
Okay. I tend towards a much more optimistic view of the Canucks than many in this market because I find pessimism boring. I freely admit there have been days this season where that has been more difficult than others. But today isn't one of those days. Here's why.
Kämpf has spent a lot of time there, both in Chicago and Toronto. He is a faceoff guy and a defensive specialist, which is very welcome on the team with the worst PK in the league. There are some small differences in coaching styles around the league, but penalty kills are pretty much about what you give up. It won't take him long to pick up the subtleties.
Seriously, anything has to be better than the results they're getting now. Are there EBUG penalty killers?
Kämpf is, fortunately, closer to Aatu Räty's size than Lukas Reichel's. He stands 6'2" and plays at around 195 pounds - it's always a grain of salt with NHL measurements, but that beats Reichel by 25 pounds. If the new guy is going to go up against the opponent's best, he's going to have a lot to stand up to. This really highlights the other side of bringing Kämpf in now: helping Elias Pettersson the Forward(tm).
Many fans have been critical of Pettersson the Forward's results so far this season, and fair enough. While he has five points in his past four games, his point totals really need to hit point-per-game levels for him to earn his team-leading contract. I've written before about what I think he will be, and I stand by it. But he needs help out there right now, and I think Kämpf can provide it.
Pettersson the Forward(tm) is taking the vast majority of Vancouver's faceoffs right now. Nearly half of those are in the defensive end of the ice. According to Hockey Reference, he's at his worst Corsi of his career - and it's still 51.8%. As sweet as his short-handed goal was against Carolina, I'd rather he play fewer minutes a man down. Let Kämpf take some of the hards off his plate.
Some of this is going to be self-interest, obviously. But plenty of other teams were interested in Kämpf's services after Toronto cut him. Not enough to lose assets for him at $2.4 million, but at less than half that, and for free? That's a sweet deal!
Why he chose Vancouver, we'll never really know. But there are a few safe guesses.
First, he can resurrect his career. Kämpf hit a low point last season, scoring just five times with 13 points in 59 games. Even a defensive specialist needs to contribute a bit more to the bottom line than that. Getting sent to the AHL when he still had two years on his contract was a wake-up call, and he didn't much like hearing it. So why is Vancouver the right choice?
The Canucks are desperately short-staffed at centre, right now and in overall depth. Players will be coming back at some point, but even when they do, Kämpf has a good chance of keeping his spot. Kudos to the work Max Sasson has put in, but both he and Reichel are more likely wingers in the NHL. That's not a bad thing at all, but if Teddy Blueger and (deo volente) Filip Chytil return, Kämpf will have spent weeks making his case.
Like so many desperate moves, this one doesn't really raise the ceiling for the team. But right now, that's okay. What we're looking at right now is probably the team's floor, and he does raise that.
While one or two players still don't seem to have gotten the memo *cough*Evander Kane*cough* the Canucks are working their asses off out there. The effort isn't missing, but the talent is. That's just what happens when the top guys on a thin team are out of the lineup. If this is a low as it gets, that's not a bad base to launch from when the talent gets back.
Jonathan Lekkerimäki will play 35 minutes a night* in Abbotsford for a few games before returning to Vancouver. Nils Höglander is out of his walking boot. Blueger is skating, though with a non-contact jersey at the last practice before this roadie. Derek Forbort, speaking of the penalty kill, is scheduled to be back in another two weeks, but "undisclosed" injuries are always a mystery.
Right now, the high-concern injuries are to Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko, but there isn't much Kämpf can do there. We'll see how Jiří Patera does, but even he is taking the place of the injured Nikita Tolopilo.
Can David Kämpf help keep the Canucks afloat until reinforcements arrive? In three words:
He can't hurt.
*Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but we'll see. They're missing a lot of players right now, too.
Eleven games remain for the Vancouver Canucks between now and November 27th. Writing this up before the Red Wings play in Anaheim tonight, Vancouver sits two points out of a playoff spot. According to modern mythology, closing that two-point gap before American Thanksgiving will mean everything to their playoff chances.
Really?
Ever since the theory was popularized by Elliotte Friedman, stories about NHL teams and their playoff odds have been tied to the late November holiday. And it's not an unreasonable thing: in the past twenty years, of the 272 teams to be in a playoff spot, 209 kept it at the finish. That's well over 75%, which is a substantial relationship - but not as important as it sounds.
It would be a surprise if what we were talking about was a random number generator picking which 16 of 32 teams got in. But it isn't, obviously enough. By the time late November hits, the season is nearly two months old, and teams have played over 20 games each. They'll have played against a variety of teams from each conference. It's a good sample size to draw from. If you're good enough to be in the top half of the league after 20-ish games, you probably deserve it.
The assumption is that the teams that get in or drop out are very close to the cutoff line. One or two points out is well within the margin of error with another sixty games to go. Last season, though, two Canadian teams rocketed from eighth and tenth to snag the wild card spots in the East. In the West, the Blues had an incredible run to snag the final wild card slot, inching out the Flames.
Much has been made of the fact that the Canucks have used 28 skaters in just a dozen games this season. Long and short of it, that's not a great sign. Again, using last season's risers and fallers as our examples, there seems to be some correlation.
Ottawa: 26 skaters playing 10 or more games
Montreal: 24 skaters playing 10 or more games
St Louis: 25 skaters playing 10 or more games
Vancouver, one of the teams that dropped out of a playoff spot, had 31 skaters playing 10 or more games. When they made their surprise playoff run in 2023-24, the Canucks used just 24. Boston, another faller, had 31. The Rangers, 29.
At a quick glance, it looks like injuries play a substantial role in a team's success. Even if it isn't a star player injured, losing enough middle-six or second-pair players will hurt, too. Calling up replacements from the AHL to fill NHLers' skates is a drop in talent, after all. Otherwise, they would have started the season with the big club.
But if we look again at the 2024-25 Rangers - random example - two of their skaters who "missed" a lot of games are J.T. Miller and Filip Chytil. Those are, as we well remember, two players who were traded for each other. The dysfunction of the team led to each of them playing half(-ish) a season in Manhattan, not injuries.
At the end of the season, being a bad team can cause a larger-than-usual number of skaters, rather than the reverse. Failure was already happening, so new players were brought up or traded for, either in an effort to get the team moving or in acceptance of a miserable year. That's not the case when you're only a dozen games in, though.
The Abbotsford Canucks are having a rough time of it. They currently sit dead last in the 10-team Pacific Division with just two wins and a shootout loss after nine games. They've used ten rookies this year, and are missing their top line from last season. Actually, they're missing their top line, three of their top defenders, and a handful of other forwards from last year's team.
There is some turnover for a Calder-winning team, as free agents get better offers elsewhere and successful players get promoted. But players don't age out like they do in junior or college competition, so there is some stability there. Or, there usually is, anyway. Abbotsford has suffered injuries to Jett Woo and Guillaume Brisebois, devastating their blue line. But Victor Mancini, Tom Willander, and Kiril Kudryavtsev are all with Vancouver right now, too.
Sure, Jonathan Lekkeimäki is injured, which hurts them. But their parent club also promoted four of their top forwards and keeps stealing others out of necessity. How is the parent club doing with injuries? Ask Abbotsford.
Vancouver losing Chytil and Teddy Blueger for unknown lengths of time prompted the "sure, why not?" acquisition of Lukas Reichel, but that's not enough. I like him fine, as he gives the team some speed and a bit of skill, but Chytil is the better player - when he plays. As for the rest, well, let's just say there aren't normally four waiver-exempt defencemen on any NHL squad.
It's not looking good right now. The Canucks are currently two points and four teams back of a playoff spot. Their next eleven games are split more or less evenly, with five on the road and six at home. And those teams look plenty tough, so getting six wins from them with this beat-up club to stay at .500 will be a challenge. But it's not entirely bleak.
Players are going to start trickling back to the club over the next month. Expecting them to be at full speed right away is a lot to ask, but there isn't much choice. Chytil remains the Canucks' biggest challenge, given his unique circumstance. He may not play again, possibly for the season, possibly ever.
But Blueger will return, as will Conor Garland, Nils Höglander, Lekkerimäki, Quinn Hughes, Derek Forbort... Other players will get injured in this compressed schedule year, but by the end of November, we will be past the worst of it. Well, until January's roadie madness, but even a slight easing of the schedule will give the Canucks some time to recover.
Coach Adam Foote has so far resisted the temptation to overplay Thatcher Demko. If he can keep that discipline, and the rest of the team can keep afloat, there can be better times ahead. We can hope.
Three losses in a row, and Canucks fans need to hear it. There is no reset button for the season, and the same goes for a full team rebuild. This isn't bad news - or at least it isn't as of October 26th, 2025.
Things could have gone better for new head coach Adam Foote. Four wins in the team's first nine games is less than fans were hoping, but not too much of a surprise. But the number of wins isn't what's holding attention right now. It's Kiefer Sherwood being the team's leading goal scorer. It's Kevin Lankinen with an .873 save percentage in four games.
It's also the perfect fit for Hallowe'en: five players on the injured reserve list, and that's after Pierre-Olivier Joseph returned. Everyone knew going into the year that the Canucks were a thin team, especially at centre. Filip Chytil has the skill to be a B-tier centre on the second line, if hardly a defensive stalwart. Having Teddy Blueger behind him helps there.
We know how that's gone. Both are out, with an emergency trade for part-time centre Lukas Reichel getting airdropped into position
The penalty kill without Pius Suter has allowed ten goals in their most recent eight games. The PK has been a big strength for Vancouver in recent years, but it's slipped this season. They've gone from third overall in 2024-25 to the bottom third in the league so far in 2025-26. Some of this may be in coaching a different system, but the talent available makes the difference, too.
To be fair, this is where a lot of Lankinen's bad stats emerge. He's allowed six goals against on 19 shots, far lower than his usual average. When that happens to a goalie, cast an eye on what plays are being allowed by the team in front of him. It's a stat that will probably return to something closer to normal as the year continues.
Vancouver's power play is once again middling. There have been several games where it could have reversed momentum for them, but fizzled instead. That Quinn Hughes hasn't been his usual world-beating self doesn't help, there. Or anywhere else, for that matter. If he doesn't get his feet back under himself soon,
Moving forward *ahem*, the front lines haven't quite meshed yet. They just feel a little...off. The Calder Trophy line - more on them later - has been the Canucks' most consistent, which is great for them, alarming for Vancouver. Conor Garland and Elias Pettersson the Forward(tm) have started finding some chemistry together, but it's been a long time coming. Overall, finding goals has been hard this season. We knew it was going to be tight, and it has been.
Vancouver's big move in the offseason, Evander Kane, has been slow and inconsistent. Given that he missed the entirety of last regular season, this might just be getting used to the game again when they aren't live-or-die. There have been some good plays, but not a good game yet. And Drew O'Connor may have been a healthy scratch by now if the team weren't in such desperate straits up front.
It's desperate enough that Abbotsford's entire top line of Arshdeep Bains, Max Sasson, and Linus Karlsson has been promoted. Aaty Räty was likely making the team, with Nils Åman keeping his spot as a "tweener", but the others were not likely playing seven in ten games outside of an emergency.
On the other hand, they have been together for more ice time than any other line Vancouver's used. Occasionally, Sasson has had the chance to use his speed higher in the lineup, but the trio has worked well together. It's understandable that Foote tends to keep them as a unit, but it is just a ten-minute unit. They've been a happy surprise, but they aren't going to carry the team.
Chytil has shown his talents and creativity and scoring ability. Lord knows, the Canucks need his speed and ability to carry the puck, but we may have seen the last of him after taking a hard hit in Washington. Best of luck to him, and we'll have to wait to see how well he heals.
But there have been other forwards taking up some of the slack. Brock Boeser is back to his goal-scoring ways, and Garland is leading the team in points. And new addition Reichel has been putting in the work, even if he hasn't had the time to practice with the team yet.
On the defence, while Hughes hasn't been his usual brilliant self, Filip Hronek has kept his play strong. Marcus Pettersson continues to be stalwart, and Tyler Myers is doing his usual "No, I'm better than a third-pair guy" thing that he does every year. The reliance on so many young players hasn't backfired - and that's a win.
Thatcher Demko has been brilliant again so far this season. His recovery has kept the team afloat as everyone has tried to catch up.
This isn't a team that's collapsing. It's one that's keeping afloat in this tightly scheduled season with the Olympic break coming up. Every team is going to have issues with injuries this year, and Vancouver's schedule is heavy early. It hurts not to have downtime, especially when you need to incorporate new players into the team. But that's going to happen to every team.
Now, when we say it's a heavy schedule early, we mean it. They play a game every two days, on the road or at home, between October 16th and November 5th. That's 12 games in 21 days with two road trips, and neither of those to the short-hop of New York. The first month of this season is just survival. It's been tough, but so far they have.
Now, November 5th is a long ways off yet, and we don't know what's happening with Chytil. What they have might not be enough to keep them afloat ten games from now. But reinforcements are coming in Blueger, Nils Höglander, and Jonathan Lekkerimäki up front and Derek Forbort on the blue line.
Trading when you're desperate never gets the best return - and every team in the league thinks Vancouver is desperate this season. Indeed, until Quinn Hughes gives a definite answer, they probably are. And we know he won't give the team an answer until much later in the season, possibly not until this season is done.
Could the Vancouver Canucks decide to fold on the year and go for a rebuild? Sure, they could, if the team wins just a handful of games between now and January. But they will need to play far worse than they have been before that happens.
And they also should see who this team actually is.
The Vancouver Canucks are going to open the season at home against a tired Calgary Flames team. Not saying it's a "must win", but other teams' travel is one of the few advantages being coastally-based gives. So they better.
But in among the expectations for the coming season, something is always going to surprise. What is it that will make fans and players alike blink twice at the stats pages by the time all the hardware is handed out? I pestered a couple of my bitter rivals coworkers for answers.
Yeah, I'm gaming it because I'm the one writing it up. I'll put them in what I think is least to most shocking if it happens. We're not going to bother with the impossible - "Fans convince the Aquilinis to sell!" - but any of these would be a surprise.
Did I mention I cheated? Because I asked his opinion last week, well before the mini-clinic Braeden Cootes and Jonathan Lekkerimäki put on against Edmonton. The kids showed they belonged, even if one's 18 years old, and even if it's briefly.
The magic of ten games is that's when his entry level contract burns a year, so is looked on as a hard line for NHL teams. I don't know how important that is anymore, though. A bigger line to me is when he's no longer considered a rookie going into next year, a 25-game limit.
The other barrier to his being sent down is that he can't go to the AHL, but would have to return to the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL. That's a huge jump, so even if it's close the Canucks might be reluctant to send him back. It's worth talking about.
Off the deep end quick, then. This season is going to be an interesting watch for a lot of reasons, not least of which is whatever system rookie coach Adam Foote puts in place. He consulted - a LOT - with his players over the Summer, and that had to include asking them what they wanted to see.
It looks like they're pressing for offence, led by the blue line. Not a bad decision, given where the talent lies, but it's risky. Demko and Lankinen are good at breakaways, but there's only so many a team wants to give up. If it doesn't work quickly, Foote might change his mind back to a tight, controlled game.
For the record, Vancouver had no wins with a 5-goal gap last year.
This one's going to be really tough. It means either the second wild card was handed a gimmie at around 90 points compared to Vancouver's 100-ish, or that the Canucks finished the year with 105+. Not impossible, but the weaker teams in the West have stocked up a bit, and we probably won't see the level of underperformance that we did last season.
The obvious choice here is Elias Pettersson returning to form. No one else on the team is really "that kind of guy" to suddenly produce at a triple-digit pace. If Foote's system works as intended, then more players will have a chance at more points, but that'll be spread out.
If Pettersson makes it to 100 points, then everything is going perfectly. Things can still go just fine and he'll finish the year at 80-85 instead, and that's far more likely.
Okay, this is more in the "boy, I hope not" category than the "what a shock" one. It's a condensed schedule with an Olympic break, and we all know what Thatcher Demko's injury history is. If he's playing this much, it means Lankinen has been injured, Nikita Tolopilo tanked, and the race is close in February. Oof.
I'm going way out of the box with this one, but mostly because I want more people to notice Kirill Kudryavtsev. He is... disturbingly stable out there, and not just on his skates.
Have you ever heard of the 2003 movie The Cooler? William H. Macy plays a guy who is employed by a casino because whenever he's at a table, whoever else is there has a streak of bad luck. He doesn't win, but that's not why he gets a salary. He makes sure other people lose.
That's Kudryavtsev. When he's on the ice, nothing happens. Shots for, shots against, chances anywhere just dry up. It's kind of hilarious, but also a really underrated skill, especially for a sub-six-footer.
Now, for him to come to Vancouver, a lot of dominos would have to fall. With Jett Woo and Guillaume Brisebois both out long-term, Abbotsford need a stable top pair. That's probably going to be Tom Willander and recently-recalled Victor Mancini.
For Kudryavtsev to get the call, they have to need a stable player, not the swashbuckling style of those two. I'm anticipating a trade from Vancouver's blue line fairly early in the year, moving him up in the depth chart. And once he's here, I think the coaching staff will want him to stay.
So, what do you think? Too wild? Not wild enough? Let us know!
I hate this. I mistrust productive preseasons and don't care for kids being dropped into the NHL in their draft years. Vancouver's previous first-round draft picks likely won't make the team this year. This year's pick just happened to be exactly what the Canucks need, positionally speaking, which brings the Devil's Candy to mind. Desperation makes it easy to overlook flaws.
So what's going on with Braeden Cootes?
Braeden Cootes has earned his spot; let's not pretend otherwise, here. He's had some protected time on the ice in his three games so far, which is reasonable for an 18-year-old. But you can't protect a player when you're on the road and have few other options. It was a typical pre-season road game with just a few NHL veterans as the home team dressed two of the best in the world.
His line in Edmonton was with Kiefer Sherwood and Drew O'Connor. If you saw that during the season, it would be a fourth line. Here, it was their second most frequent combination. Cootes himself pulled almost 17 minutes in the 3-4 loss, a two-minute increase over his previous two games. The key may be why other players haven't managed to stick: he's not playing scared.
His second goal of the preseason was a lucky bounce off a defender, but his first was a lucky bounce off him. Is that better or worse? Answer: they all count. Cootes is getting wither the puck or himself into the right spots to score, and that's not even his best feature. Seeing him step right up to angle Leon Draisaitl away from the net, or going to the boards to fight for the puck is a delight.
It's not completely fair to use a first-round pick as a comparison to players who were drafted much later, or even not at all. But where Cootes is now is so much farther along than where Danila Klimovich or Nils Åman or Arshdeep Bains were in their first training camps. He isn't bothering to think about not making mistakes because he's doing what he needs to do.
That AHL championship win has helped so many of Vancouver's prospects, no doubt. There is a lot of pressure coming up the ranks right now, and that's fantastic to see. The confidence that Bains, Linus Karlsson, and Max Sasson played with last game is what they needed. Any of them could start with the NHL club this season, with Bains probably having an edge there.
Cootes didn't need that. His Seattle Thunderbirds have not been good, with several veterans graduating in his second year. That's the same year he was named captain of the team as a 17-year-old. That in itself speaks volumes about what he's bringing alongside his skills. His skill set gives him a subtle advantage over, say, Jonathan Lekkerimäki. He's ten pounds heavier, and what he does with it matters.
Braeden Cootes has been put on a simple regimen. Play well enough in this game, get to play in the next one. That's fine for the preseason and all, but when the season starts, the consequences of not being able to keep up are far higher. The pressure that Vancouver has put upon itself to not just make the playoffs this year but to "show promise" for the future is through the roof.
Can they afford to have a player who hasn't played a single professional game on the team? It's a tougher call than you might think.
On one hand, there is a lot of depth in that bottom six right now. The Canucks have loads of players who can fill those spaces, many of whom have NHL experience. It could easily be argued that they are better than Cootes right now - or will be better by season's start. But will they be better in two or three months?
As we've said before, Cootes can start on a fourth line. He has appropriate skills for the position. If the team wants him to ba a "two-way player" then there's little harm in it. He'll not only play against the best in the world, he'll also practice with them and be coached by them. Even if he only plays ten or twelve minutes a night, everything around him being at this level is still there.
Now, the tough part is accepting that if he is used this way, he might only get 20 points or so in his first year. In this season, that just might be how he helps the team the most. If he has low point totals _and_ he's a healthy scratch, they can still send him down to Seattle at any time. This ain't a mysterious yellow wood, here. We can switch trails whenever we want.
On the other hand, Cootes is looked upon as the leader of a rebuilding Thunderbirds squad. He could absolutely gain experience as The Man relied on to score every night. In the WHL he'll be relied on to do everything for his team, including being a physical presence. He could get twice the ice time in Seattle that he would in Vancouver.
But if he did that, it would be against WHL players on a WHL team. His top priority wouldn't be learning how to angle Leon Draisaitl away from the net, that's for sure. It would be to rack up points for a team that's probably going to have difficulty scoring, and let the rest sort itself.
This is why sports is the ultimate Reality TV. Any plan the team comes up with might work, but we're not going to know until it resolves.
"We need to convince Hughes to stay with Vancouver!" Yeah, okay. I'll do this quickly.
As amazing as his vision, his skating, and his passing are, Quinn Hughes' single best feature is his brain. He thinks the game incredibly well, which is what was so disturbing last season. Watching him realize the best play he had was shooting from the point because of his disfunctional forwards was just ugly.
The best way to keep Quinn Hughes in Vancouver is not treating him like an idiot.
Want to make a trade to improve the team this season? He's perfectly aware of what you're giving up to do it. Losing draft picks is one thing; losing players, another. If you're bringing in a UFA at the expense of a potential future scorer, you better be ready to re-sign him. And they had better contribute. Don't rush a bad deal and think he'll be happy about it.
The Vancouver Canucks have a lot riding on this season, but when haven't they? There is a unique aspect to a yo-yo team, expected to get good results but stumbling instead. Improving by 26 points, then falling by 19 the next season, is one hell of an impact. It leaves psychic damage. That kind of thing makes a fan want to curl up with a book and a bottle and stare at the fireplace instead of cheer.
Screw that! The season's kicking off October 9th, pre-season literally next Sunday. Find a feed, subscribe to a network, switch on the radio and LET'S GO!
After a year of compounding disasters, things just have to get better, right? Sure. Probably. A disturbing amount of this game is luck-dependent, and teams mitigate against it as best they can. Using the resources you have in the best way possible, preparing but not over-preparing, and managing workloads and workouts. All that's part of it, split between the players, coaches, and management.
That all being said, for all we know, fans clutching their lucky charms and lighting incense at their Trevor Linden shrine might make all the difference. But what should they ask for? We're here to help! In descending order of likelihood, five distinct wishes for the 2025-26 season.
Vancouver's (Eleven-point-)Six Million Dollar Man* is back in town. There is a lot of concern about how his scoring didn't just drop, but plummet. Sure, injuries played their part, but his goal scoring and his point production were half his career average. And they weren't all that great through the last quarter of 2023-24, either.
It's not like he abandoned the team, though. He was still defensively responsible, with him, Brock Boeser, and Jake DeBrusk putting up a modest expected goals against per 60 minutes. But that isn't really what Elias Pettersson is on the team for, is it? He was on the ice, and his numbers were fine for a second-line centre - touch of irony there. But Vancouver needs more.
They'll get it, too. Yes, there are plenty of jokes about him putting on 6 kg because he got married. I did much the same, with a far less modest 15 kg in one year. Did you know that when you get married, sometimes your spouse likes having food around? Like, ALL THE TIME and not just once a week? Weird.
Anyway, the odds of Pettersson suddenly turning fat are zero. Zip. None. He's going to be 27 years old this season, and he was embarrassed by last year's results. He has something to prove, and I, for one, would be uninterested in standing in his way. I think his drop in play was mental. Again, some injury bumps and bruises are part of the game, but that doesn't explain the lack of aggression that killed his numbers.
I think his mind is in the right place now, and it will show early and often. The trick is finding who will work best with him.
Odds: 9/10
The last time Evander Kane was in his contract season, he scored 22 goals and 49 points in 56 games. The time before, he impressed San Jose with nine goals and 14 points in just 17 games, to go with 25 minutes in penalties. Before that? His second contract was signed on the back of a 30-goal, 57-point season. The other years are a bit of a mixed bag.
He is well-known for antics not only on the ice but in the dressing room. That's not great. Bringing in a player famous for discipline problems is an odd choice for a high-stakes season. But his lack of headlines in recent years has eased some of those fears. Troubles off the ice include assault accusations from sexual partners, a very complicated relationship with his former wife, and a gambling addiction while with the Sharks.
These all seem to be in the past now, as his time in Edmonton was relatively calm. Clearly, Canucks management is hoping that streak continues with his hometown team. And, of course, he has another end-of-contract season. He doesn't need to hit 50 goals or anything, but 25 with his usual truculence on the ice and a lack of drama off it would be a win.
Uh, no one tell him I said this, okay?
Odds: 8/10
The odds of this one coming true are improved just because there are so dang many of them. There aren't a huge number of spaces available to the promotable rank-and-file, but there are some. There still may be a trade or a free agent signing between now and training camp, but if not? It's not unreasonable to say there are two or three spaces among the forwards and one regular spot on the defence.
Since we last looked at the offence, Dakota Joshua was moved to the Toronto Maple Leafs. That opened up a space on the wing, where Vancouver has a decent amount of talent. They want talent down the centre, but right now we'll take what we can get. I don't think we're too far off in pencilling in Aatu Räty at 3C and leaving Teddy Blueger behind him to anchor the fourth.
If Räty is one young gun, Nils Åman, Linus Karlsson, Arshdeep Bains, and Max Sasson are looking to make their mark, too. Each of these guys has advantages, but they're young-ish, not young. For a young guy up front, it's Jonathan Lekkerimaki. However, he's not a player to start on the fourth line to work his way up. If he's not in the top six, then let him cook in the minors a bit longer.
The defence, on the other hand, has options. We can confidently pencil Elias Pettersson in to start the year. Beyond him, Tom Willander has made it clear he wants to be in the NHL now, not later. That's going to be a tough call, and if he makes it, it'll more likely be as a mid-season replacement. He's had a good showing in Boston and internationally, but didn't really build on the previous year.
But there's also (more than one young prospect! Amazing!) Victor Mancini. Mancini showed well in his NHL tryout last year, split between the Rangers and Vancouver. He's got very good size, though he's not much of a hitter. He skates well enough to get his mass into position and get the puck up when he has it. Like Willander, he will probably start in the AHL with expectations of dominance, possibly lining up with Jett Woo in the top pair.
If two of these guys can break through as solid, contributing regulars on the squad, then the team gets all that much deeper.
Odds: 7/10
Okay, yes, we're going to mention injuries a few times in this list. For good reason, too: the team's most important players each missed a dozen games or more. Thatcher Demko has played more than 50 games in a season twice and was brilliant in both of them. The rest of the time? He didn't play 50 games because he couldn't play 50 games.
In an ideal world, one in which GM Patrik Allvin has signed the team on to, Demko splits his time with Kevin Lankinen. Lankinen doesn't get overworked and let any sloppiness get into his game; Demko doesn't overstress any of his, well, anything. Lankinen is a perfectly good 1B, though a better heavy-use backup.
There are a couple guys in Abbotsford who should be able to step in if needed between Nikita Tolopilo and Jiri Patera. Ty Young might get a look or two, but if so, it better be because he's blowing people's doors off in Abby.
Bottom line is that when Demko is on his game, he's a top-five goaltender. That would be real nice to have available come the playoffs.
Odds: 6/10
Okay, hear me out. I know the team was second last in the entire league last year for shots on net. Their 24.5 per game was still one full shot more than the Chicago Blackhawks managed, and they finished... Ah, right. Let's not use them as an example.
Unlike the Blackhawks, the Canucks were also very good at limiting shots against last season, finishing seventh in the league. That level of discipline isn't likely to vanish, especially with the transition from Rick Tocchet to Adam Foote behind the bench. Foote played his entire NHL career as a defensive specialist and was responsible for the defence under Tocchet.
That being said...
He has the talent here to push the game up. No offence to Derek Forbort or Pierre-Olivier Joseph, but there's no offence to Derek Forbort or Pierre-Olivier Joseph. But the top two pairs on this club are more than capable of trying for mid-ice stops, catching opponents in the neutral zone. All four are strong skaters, and it could be worth the defensive risk for more offensive chances.
Heck, if either Mancini or Willander do play well enough to make the team, that can give the Canucks a pleasant surprise in the third pair. Getting the puck out of your end is one thing. Stopping it from getting there in the first place is another. But that's also asking a rookie coach to take a chance in a very high-pressure season.
Odds: 3/10
Right, now let's drop the dang puck! But let me grab my bottle first, just in case I need to celebrate.
*Whose bionic abilities include being able to run in boot heels. Man, the '70s were weird.
Last season, the Pacific Division only sent three teams into the playoffs, with five going to the Central. It was a close, with the Calgary Flames tying the St. Louis Blues. The Blues went on their wildly improbable run and beat the Flames by the narrowest of margins. The Minnesota Wild finished only one point higher.
It's not just that the Vancouver Canucks ended the season six points back. Three teams were all ahead by that six or seven - and the Utah Mammoths were only one back of Vancouver themselves. It seems unlikely that the Canucks will make any major moves between now and the start of the year. If they want to make the playoffs, the only guarantee is getting into the top three of the Pacific. Can they?
Starting at the top:
Mitch Marner brings a lot of firepower with him. The sign-and-trade gave Vegas the opportunity to lock him up for eight years, but cost them a very good centre in Nicholas Roy. "Very good" is a relative term, of course. Roy is a bottom-six centre, and moving him to Toronto means Alex Pietrangelo's $8.8 million can go onto the long-term injured reserve list and make the team salary cap compliant.
Roy wasn't the only player the Golden Knights lost, moving out long-time defender Nicolas Hague in exchange for Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon. Hague had dropped to the third pair last year, and replacing him with the $3 million cheaper Lauzon doesn't hurt much. Hague is better offensively, but that's not what they're missing. Sissons replacing Roy is a much steeper drop.
Adin Hill being backed up by Akira Schmid is a perfectly decent pairing. And that's the weak point. The forwards are extremely dangerous, and their play style gives their goaltenders plenty of support. This is not going to be an easy team to catch.
The Kings have apparently decided that if they reached 105 points last year, they don't need to change anything this year. Someone should have introduced them to the 2023-24 Canucks.
Not entirely true, perhaps, but signing Corey Perry and Joel Armia isn't scaring anyone. For the most part, it looks like they are hoping for continued growth from Quinten Byfield and Alex Laferriere. It's not an outrageous gamble, but sooner or later Anže Kopitar is going to actually age. We just don't know when, but I suspect someone will find a painting in his attic one day.
The Kings spread their ice time pretty evenly among their top three lines, which limits their top-end talent. On the other hand, the opposing coach needs to decide who to try to stop. There are rumours of some players not liking the team's playing style, especially after their third straight first-round exit. But if they win, those complaints will vanish.
That style - pulling the forwards back to support their defence - is used for a reason. How bad is their defence? They lost Vladimir Gavrikov, their top defenceman, and traded away Jordan Spence. They filled those spots with... Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin? Oof.
If Drew Doughty is healthy all year, 22-year-old Brandt Clarke leaps forward, and Michael Anderson and Joel Edmundson tighten up their games, and Dumoulin and Cecei aren't forced into second-pair roles, they can be decent. Putting question marks on all six of your starting defencemen isn't a great sign.
Darcy Kuemper was excellent last season, though again behind Jim Hiller's defence-first style. Veteran Anton Forsberg is a new face backing him up, and having Pheonix Copely and Erik Portillo in reserve is good enough to work.
Very good forwards, good goaltending, and a lot of hope in between.
Not a lot changed here, either. And why should it? The Oilers reached the Stanley Cup Final two years running. That's worth a lot. The biggest issue with a team like Edmonton is that it is very top-heavy. Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid are not going to be underpaid, which means a limited amount of money left over for everyone else.
That shows in their ice time. Four forwards averaged 19 minutes or more, and no others passed the 15-minute mark. Victor Arvidsson left, and Andrew Mangiapane is coming in. Mangiapane is fine, but is he the solution for a reliable finisher to go with Draisaitl? Because it sure ain't Curtis Lazar.
The forwards are pretty much a known factor. McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman are going to do their thing. Beyond them, the most important player on the ice might be Mattias Ekholm. Evan Bouchard needs the stable Ekholm beside him as a safeguard. Bouchard is a very good offensive defenceman, but boy howdy, does he forget his job on defence.
That leaves very little for the goaltending. And it shows.
Now, I'm not going to jump on Stuart Skinner, here. He isn't as bad as his reputation suggests, but the Oilers' play style does him zero favours. He and Calvin Pickard are the likely pair going into the season, because they cost the team less than $4 million combined. There isn't much cap room to improve, so they did the next best thing and changed the goaltending coach.
If we're going to talk cheap goaltenders, Calgary has no goaltender making a million dollars. Dustin Wolf proved himself last season, coming second in Calder Trophy voting. Hard to tell how much of a risk it is to rely on him this season, but they certainly want a veteran. The Flames are sitting on $15 million in cap space right now, and they won't need that much to sign Connor Zary.
They could use some of that space on the defence. It's open speculation that Rasmus Andersson is getting moved at some point this year, and that's going to hurt. Frankly, the 19-year-old Zayne Parekh should probably be a coin flip to get 20 games this season.
Up front, getting Morgan Frost re-signed was needed, because there just isn't much else there. Jonathan Huberdeau getting some of his mojo back is nice, but Nazem Kadri as your top centre speaks volumes. They need Zary to step up to finish anywhere close to a playoff spot this season.
If anything, this is a team to watch out for. Perhaps their least surprising move was changing Greg Cronin for Joel Quinneville behind the bench. The team improved by 21 points between his first and second years, but there was also a rebellion in the ranks. Anaheim's been out of the playoffs for a long time now, and they need a push before fan interest vanishes.
They made some big moves, too. Stalwart John Gibson is gone from between the pipes, leaving the net to Lukáš Dostál. Behind him is probably Ville Husso, though Petr Mrázek will make his case. Who knows - maybe Edmonton will offer to take one of the two in some expressed wishful thinking.
Centre of the Future(tm) Trevor Zegras was also shipped out, bringing draft picks and Ryan Poeling back from Philadelphia. He was saying some of the right things under Cronin, but is an excellent example of a team not quite knowing how to treat a young star. Let him be free and feed his creativity? Put clamps on so he learns defence and structure to go with it? Neither team more player seemed to be having much fun.
Poeling has been finding some scoring touch with the Flyers, but he's not the player Zegras is. But maybe him, Chris Kreider, and Mikael Granlund can fill in the blanks. Sure, Kreider and Granlund are older, but they have plenty of youth coming around, too. Leo Carlson proved he's already at an NHL level, and if they can get Mason McTavish's name on paper, then their centre depth looks solid.
On defence, the name on everyone's lips was "Who?" As in "Who the hell is Jason LaCombe?" They brought in Jacob Trouba in case Radko Gudas got injured, and they need someone to buy the beer. That's going to be interesting to watch.
We want the day when both Seattle and Vancouver are good teams. We really do. But they aren't going to be the reason the Canucks miss the playoffs just yet.
Andre Burakovsky is out for cap space, which they still have. Frédérick Gaudreau is a nice pickup for cheap as a bottom-six centre. Ryan Lindgren is fine as a middle-pair defenceman. But most of this year isn't going to be about anyone brought in. Though getting Matt Murray in case Phillip Grubauer has another disastrous year isn't a bad net.
They want - need - their young forwards to all take another step. Matty Beniers, Shane Wright, and Kaapo Kakko are talented guys, as befits their relative draft positions. But one of them needs a real breakout year, and not just for now, but for the future. Otherwise, this is a team loaded with middle-six guys, middle-pair defence, and a 1B netminder in Joey Daccord.
Here's to hoping we can get a good hate on with our neighbours!
Last, but not... Well, probably not least. The San Jose Sharks finished nine points back of Chicago and sixteen back of Nashville. There is a strange juxtaposition here, though, highlighted by those cities. San Jose had fun. Yes, it was a terrible end result, but the fans were warned well beforehand, and the future was visible on the ice.
Two of their star kids led the team in scoring, but you could make an argument that their MVP was Tyler Toffoli. The Sharks did everything a "tanking" team should: lots of one-year deals, signing veterans to trade them, testing a LOT of their AHL players, and playing their youth. And in the middle of it all, Toffoli was out there with Macklin Celebrini and William Eklund and Will Smith, keeping the kids on an even keel.
They had a massive amount of turnover and are clearly aiming for at least one more year of entertaining, if not completely successful, hockey. I don't know if anyone in the league likes scoring more than Adam Gaudette. Jeff Skinner's career is on life support after FINALLY getting a taste of playoff hockey and deciding it was overrated. Ryan Reaves is, well, Ryan Reaves. Will Philip Kurashev help? Hey, why not?
The defence looks more interesting, too. Grabbing Nick Leddy off waivers is an easy decision when you can afford it - and these guys can afford a LOT. Dmitry Orlov is a serious pick-up, even at 34 years old. John Klingberg is looking to rebuild his value so he isn't best known as an agent's horror story for recalcitrant signings.
In net, five goaltenders got into eight or more games, and I don't blame them one bit. This year, stability should be the rule. Yaroslav Askarov is an excellent prospect, and getting backed up by/splitting time with Alex Nedeljkovic will give the Sharks a chance most nights.
Vancouver has more top-end talent than enough of these teams to make the playoffs. But the game requires more than talent. The Canucks can have one or two things go wrong and still make it, so long as those things going wrong aren't one of three players. So we're ending up with Schrödinger's Playoffs, either making it or not, and we won't know which until we look.
I suspect the team will add a player, specifically at centre, before the season is done, but probably not before it starts. They have a nice chunk of cap space right now, and they'll let that accrue until the trade deadline looms. Not at the deadline, of course, because this is still Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin. But maybe in late January.
As for the rest, Anaheim can take Calgary's spot, and Edmonton can take LA's. Heck, if it is a good year for the Canucks, they could well bump the Kings to fourth. But the top stays at the top and the bottom stays there. It's gonna be interesting.
Thomas Drance got a brief interview with Calder Cup-winning coach Manny Malhotra recently, published in The Athletic.* Malhotra was on the (very) short list of replacement head coaches when Tocchet left, but remains the top dog in Abbotsford for now.
The interview brought to mind the huge differences between the NHL and their closest league, the AHL. As static as the Vancouver Canucks have been, their affiliate must change. That's simply the nature of the feeder league, and it's true in every sport. They, like Vancouver, aren't quite in their final form. But general manager Ryan Johnson needs to wait for Vancouver's final decisions before he can make his own.
The Abbotsford Canucks won the franchise's first-ever championship since the Dallas Black Hawks won the Central Hockey League's Adams Cup in 1979. Their head coach was John Muckler, and more than a few Canucks appeared. Stan Smyl played the only three games of his minor-league career there.
Can Vancouver get a new Stan Smyl out of last year's batch in Abby? It's not as unlikely as you might think. Maybe not a 13-year career guy, but a long-term, rock-steady player? There are a surprising number of options.
Linus Karlsson and Max Sasson are name-dropped specifically by Malhotra as guys who got their call-up and came back with the same energy that earned it. That attitude of knowing what they can do and knowing it gets rewarded is essential for AHL players. These are two very different guys: Sasson carries the puck with speed, and Karlsson gets his points in front of the net. How they play is the similarity.
Sasson's skating made him stand out among the AHL sampler set last year. He's a lot more productive in the AHL, sure, but he's also getting first-line ice there. The same can be said of Karlsson's more, ah, "methodical" skating and play. But they play the same game in Abbotsford as they did in Vancouver, even if it's for fewer minutes.
When Malhotra talks about what success means in Abbotsford, it's exactly what you want to hear. Winning games is important, especially in the playoffs, when players aren't collecting a paycheque. A winning atmosphere is something players can carry with them the rest of their careers. But that isn't all.
The goal, which they make very clear to the players, is for them to graduate to the NHL. That ambition can best be realized with their parent club, sure, but if it's with another team, so be it. Play well enough to have your value recognized, and someone else will come calling. That's what happened with Artūrs Šilovs. Sammy Blais is getting another NHL shot in Montreal. Heck, John Stevens is extending his career in Finland.
And it's all because each individual has bought in. That means mostly playing like the team in Vancouver does, but with some flexibility for the different talent available. It's why you might see a top goal scorer like Danila Klimovich stay down, but low-scoring defenceman Elias Pettersson move up. It's not just blindly taking the most talented player, but who fits best for what Vancouver needs.
Aatu Räty has likely graduated already. If he's not pencilled in for a bottom-six centre spot, it's because they used ink. If anyone is getting the "next Steamer" vibe, at least Räry has the provenance. He knows how to put points on the board, worked hard to get where he is, and is only 22.
The most interesting player in Abbotsford, as far as I'm concerned, is Arshdeep Bains. He is a furiously hard worker, and he's reached the AHL through sheer determination. Overagers in the CHL don't often translate into NHL regulars, but he's doing everything he can to get there. The problem is, while he's a creative and adventurous player in Abbotsford, in Vancouver, he plays scared.
Not physically, of course. He wouldn't have lasted three minutes for Tocchet if he avoided contact, never mind 13 games. His first NHL goal - and only point - came from him charging the net for a rebound. While Vancouver doesn't expect brilliance from a call-up, they do need more results than that. And Bains has the talent to provide them, but is second-guessing himself on the regular.
Watching him in the AHL is fun. He works the boards, goes in on the forecheck, and is a very good passer. He'll send linemates in with spin-o-rama passes or go between the legs of opponents when they're mucking in the corner. Those kinda vanish with Vancouver, where he focuses more on not making mistakes.
The bad news is that we probably won't see Malhotra ever coach in Vancouver again. Ideally, anyway. Adam Foote has the job, and presumably, he's safe for the year unless we're all thinking Gavin McKenna thoughts in December.
It's difficult to shake off the "professional assistant coach" label when it's applied, and that was one reason why Malhotra took the job with Abbotsford. Being an assistant coach as your first job? Of course, that just makes sense. The third time you're an assistant coach in the NHL? That label gets sticky. The only promotion he wants now is to a head coaching job in the NHL.
Has he earned it? Working in Vancouver's favour is that last season was Malhotra's first as a head coach anywhere. Exciting as that is, there's not much of a track record there. Hitting a bullseye on your first throw could be skill. Or not. Teams are going to see a lot more throws before they take a chance with the flagship of their $2 billion franchise.
Malhotra has one more year plus an option right now. If he gets an offer from another team, the Canucks can block his move if they want. But if they do that, Foote should be looking over his shoulder.
*Apologies for the New York Times subscription. I only read it for the sports articles, I swear!
The Vancouver Canucks play their first game of the preseason on September 21st, one month away. What the team will look like is a bit uncertain, but only because some free agents and AHL regulars will get their shot. What's going to happen between now and Penicton?
Lo, these many years ago, training camp was used for players to wrap up their Summer jobs. They'd leave the garage/farm/grocery store, sharpen their skates, and head back to the rink to prepare for the season. There was some extra beer to work off and a whole lot of cardio to catch up on. A few might have jogged every couple of days or lifted weights now and then, but work started in camp.
Yeah, there was a reason why the Russians did so well against Canada in the Summit Series. Fifty years ago, most NHLers didn't even start training until they showed up for camp in mid-September. Some of the young and eager kids were there to fight for jobs, but the established veterans? They got a lot of leeway about when they started the season.
Things are a little different now. Players from 18 different nations played in the NHL last season, compared to 95% being from one. So, for the folks who think it's somehow easier now compared to 50 years ago? No. Just no. There may be twice as many teams, but there are tens of millions more people in population bases trying to reach the big money.
Speaking of which, some of them will be arriving in town soon. They're not quite in game shape, but they're close. Some added mass, some speed, and some* are just trying to fight off Father Time and earn a paycheque into their 40s.
But that all is the players' objectives. They can control themselves, but most things involving the team are beyond their ability to control. The other half of the equation has been working all Summer long, too, and hopefully to greater effect.
There was a plan. We're sure that there was a plan, and that plan got tossed out the window when J.T. Miller finally agreed that he should be traded. And no, a rebuild was never an option. You don't hire Jim Rutherford and tell him to start your team over. That does make this team a bit hard to predict, though we'll take a crack.
The first thing to do with predictions is to try to see what the goals of the management are. Obviously, the ultimate goal is a Stanley Cup win, but losing Miller changed the timeline they had been working toward. Which leaves... what? Let's pack some unseemly speculation in here!
There is some chatter about keeping Quinn Hughes happy so he'll stay in town. That's odd, but it's what happens when you have a lot of time to kill in a hockey-mad town with far too many interested people. Hughes, of course, has never mentioned any interest in moving out of town. He keeps saying how much he wants to bring the Stanley Cup to Vancouver. But boredom prevails, so here we are.
Whichever direction Vancouver's management decides to go, they will want Hughes to be happy. Fortunately, he's not an idiot, so he knows there is more than one way to win in this league. And if you think it's whatever last year's winner did, stop it. That's already outdated, and they have the best team doing it. Competing against them is a lost cause, so find something else.
It boils down to two choices: winning sooner or winning later.
In this case, "later" means when Hughes will be 28, and the bulk of the scoring will come from guys in their 30s. If they're lucky, Nils Höglander is a reliable secondary scorer, if he's still in town. Now, that's not deadly, exactly, but it is a bit hopeful. The veterans will be backed up by a few up-and-comers and new additions, but none of them will be expected to carry the team.
"Sooner," on the other hand, is going to be much harder to pull off. Going from being a possible playoff team to a certainty doesn't just mean increasing their points this season. They will need to look like a team that's ready to challenge by the end of the season. Good luck there, mate.
Okay, everyone, relax. They aren't going to tank and hope to recover in three seasons. This plan means improving gradually between now and the start of 2028-29. We can't predict how trades are going to happen, but some are undoubtedly going to appear. There will be a decent amount of turnover from year to year, probably including from the top of the lineup.
That being said, the team would let some of the younger, cheaper guys coming up from Abbotsford fill in spaces. Maybe three forwards and a couple defencemen will be on the team as regulars, if not stars. Tom Willander and Johnathan Lekkerimaki should be in their second(-ish) seasons, Aatu Räty could be established in the middle six. One of the other guys in their mid-20s in the mix, too. Josh Bloom, Max Sasson, or Arshdeep Bains finding consistency.
Beyond the skaters, there has to be hope that the goaltending sticks. It would be quite a surprise for Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen to continue in tandem three years from now. One will have taken the reins by then - or the worst will have happened with Demko losing his spot to injury.
There will be trades galore, and probably one with some major talent moving. There are a lot of no-move clauses to negotiate, but mostly those exist to ensure players can choose their destinations. (See Also: J.T. Miller) If something comes along and knocks them off their feet, sure, they'll go for it. And we all know Rutherford loves his phone calls.
But for the most part, a plan with this kind of time range means the team is confident in their prospects and likes the age range of their most skilled players. Ironically, not pushing for immediate success shows confidence.
This is a lot more fun, so long as you don't actually care about the team. Otherwise, it's frikkin nerve-wracking.
This is where BIG swings happen. Expect one of their favourite prospects to get moved out and high draft picks to vanish into the mist. The Minnesota Wild weren't impressed with getting the 15th overall pick in return for a player they didn't trust in the playoffs. The prices don't go down from there.
The team seems to have cooled on bringing in Jack Roslovic, and beyond him, the free agent centre pool is limited. That's being polite about it. So trades are the order of the day, and that means waiting for the right day. Don't expect a big deal to happen before camp, or even this calendar year.
Rutherford and Patrik Allvin don't like to wait for deadlines, and with the Olympic break coming in February, that seems like as good a time as any to make deals. The season resumes on the 24th with the trade deadline about two weeks later. The league should have some idea where they stand, if any team wants to fail further or take a veteran off Vancouver's hands.
Even if Filip Chytil is completely healthy and Räty steps up, the Canucks will still want security at centre. Very little can happen to convince them otherwise. A trade will happen, and it will hurt. We're talking the first and second round picks, Willander, Elias Pettersson (the defenceman), and even new arrival Braeden Cootes will be options.
Probably not until more than half the season is over. If the team is getting surprising results - in either direction - that could change things. Getting off to a hot start could buy them time, where dragging means a body swap by December first.
Any moves before the season starts would be a bit of a surprise. Unless a team suddenly reverses course, the offers have already been made and rejected. No one is likely to emerge as a hero in training camp, either, but that's not what it's for.
The team wants to succeed. Whichever direction they choose, they're going to say they want success now. They'll tell their intent by their actions.
*Wily veterans. All veterans are wily.
