The Canucks are adding some veteran depth in goal as training camp gets closer, bringing Chris Driedger in on a professional tryout agreement.
Vancouver announced the PTO on Thursday, giving the club another experienced option while Thatcher Demko’s status remains unsettled. Driedger, 32, has played in 67 NHL games across stops with the Seattle Kraken, Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators. He spent the 2025-26 season in the KHL with Chelyabinsk Traktor, where he finished with a sub-.900 save percentage in 23 starts.
For the Canucks, the move offers flexibility. Driedger gives them an insurance policy if Demko’s absence stretches into camp and the preseason, and it also buys time as the team weighs its goaltending setup. Vancouver may be best positioned to keep three goalies this season because of Demko’s durability and rehabilitation concerns, plus the fact that projected third-string netminder Nikita Tolopilo would need to clear waivers.
That waiver wrinkle matters. By bringing Driedger in on a PTO, Vancouver can still put Tolopilo on waivers at the earliest point in camp, when teams are usually least likely to make a claim. If Tolopilo does get taken, the Canucks would at least have clarity in net, and they’d have top waiver priority throughout camp if they want to replace or upgrade him.
In other words, Driedger gives Vancouver room to sort things out without being forced into a decision too early.
The Canucks also confirmed a front-office addition on the amateur scouting side, hiring Kitimat, B.C., native Sean Finn.
Finn is 46 and has spent much of the last decade in player development roles with several KHL teams, including Yaroslavl Lokomotiv and most recently Kunlun Red Star. The move fits into first-year general manager Ryan Johnson’s broader overhaul of Vancouver’s front office this summer, with notable changes already made on both the amateur and professional scouting fronts.
Finn’s hiring is especially interesting with the 2027 NHL Draft in view. That class of Russian-born prospects is considered strong, led by power winger Nazar Privalov, and Corey Pronman’s initial 2027 NHL Mock Draft highlighted that 2009 birth year group as one that NHL amateur scouts view as loaded.
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Canucks Just Added Goalie Insurance As Demko Questions Keep Lingering
Training camp brought another layer of insurance for the crease, as the Canucks added veteran goaltender Chris Driedger on a professional tryout contract. The move fits the reality of where Vancouver stands right now: Kevin Lankinen and Nikita Tolopilo are in the mix, but Thatcher Demkos return remains the bigger question hanging over the position.
Driedger arrives with experience that gives the club another steady option to evaluate, including a career NHL save percentage of .917 and more recent stops in the AHL and KHL. For a team that has spent plenty of time managing uncertainty in goal, the tryout is less about headlines than it is about making sure there is enough depth in place before camp decisions start to tighten. [Read more 🡒]