The Vancouver Canucks have a handful of individual checkpoints worth tracking heading into 2026-27, and three names stand out: Filip Hronek, Brock Boeser and Thatcher Demko.
Hronek is the easiest place to start because the milestones are lined up right in front of him. Entering his fourth full season with Vancouver, the defenseman has 48 goals, 239 assists and 287 points in 533 games. He put up eight goals and 49 points in 82 games last season, and with the NHL moving to an 84-game schedule this year, there’s a real chance he gets to 10 goals and 50 points for the first time.
He is also closing in on a few career markers. Hronek needs just two goals to reach 50, 11 assists to get to 250 and 13 points to hit 300.
The 28-year-old could realistically knock out all three this season. His career high in goals is nine, which he reached in both 2019-20 and 2022-23, but he was already at eight last season.
On the assist and points side, he had 41 and 49 in 2025-26, so those marks could fall by the end of November.
Boeser sits in a different kind of spot. He enters the season with 226 goals, 256 assists and 482 points in 629 games after finishing 2025-26 with 22 goals and 48 points in 75 games. If he gets into the 80-to-83 game range, he has a shot to land another 25-goal, 50-point season like he did in 2024-25.
His linemates are worth watching too. The question is whether he’ll be with Marco Rossi and Liam Ohgren again, or whether he could end up alongside Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson. That’s one of the bigger things to monitor in training camp, the preseason and the early part of the season under head coach Manny Malhotra.
As for the milestones, Boeser needs 24 goals to reach 250 for his career. He scored 22 last season and 25 the year before, so that number is within reach if he stays healthy and plays at least 80 games. He is also 18 points away from 500, which looks very attainable given he’s finished with 25 and 26 points over the last two seasons.
The tougher climb is assists. Boeser has 256 and needs 44 more to get to 300.
His career high is 37, set in 2022-23, and he followed that with 33 the next season before dropping to 25 and 26 in the last two years. Hitting 300 assists would require a massive year as a playmaker.
Demko’s story is simpler and more urgent: stay on the ice. He has played only 43 regular-season games over the last two seasons, and Vancouver is hoping for 35 to 40 starts from him as the No. 1 goalie.
The milestones are there if he can get healthy. Demko has appeared in 262 games and started 256 of them, so 38 more games would get him to 300 for his career.
He also needs 16 wins to reach 150, sitting at 134 right now. Both of those marks would likely already be behind him if not for the injuries that have slowed him down.
This season is also the first year of his three-year, $25.50 million deal, which makes the stakes even clearer for both sides. The hope is that Demko can get back to the top-10 goalie level he has shown before and give Vancouver a strong start to the extension.
From 2021-22 through 2023-24, Demko proved he can be an elite netminder. If his health cooperates, 2026-27 could end up being a big year for him and for the Canucks.
In Other News...
Canucks Prospects Are Creating A Roster Crunch Vancouver Can't Ignore
The Canucks youth movement is starting to come with a catch. As the organization leans harder into prospects and young depth, the roster picture is getting tighter, because several players are moving toward the point where they can no longer be tucked safely away without waiver exposure. For a team trying to stay competitive while developing its next wave, that is the sort of detail that can quickly turn a promising pipeline into a difficult numbers game.
Victor Mancini, Elias Pettersson, Liam Ohgren and Zeev Buium are among the names expected to lose waiver exemption in the seasons ahead, depending on how many NHL games they play and where they stand contractually. Others, including Tom Willander and Jonathan Lekkerimaki, still have some breathing room for now, but the list of interesting future decisions keeps growing, with Kirill Kudryavtsev and Ilya Safonov also worth tracking as waiver-eligible options down the road. For Vancouver, the challenge is no longer just finding talent, it is finding enough room to keep it. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Facing A Make Or Break Year With Three Prospects
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What makes the situation more pressing is the clock. Each player will need to take another step soon to keep Vancouver interested enough to offer an entry-level deal, and none of the three has made the choice easy based on current performance. Gardner, Perkins and Celebrini all bring different backgrounds and skill sets, but the common thread is the same: the Canucks have to decide whether the upside is worth waiting on, or whether this is another prospect cycle that fades without ever reaching Abbotsford, let alone Vancouver. [Read more 🡒]
Luke Schenn Returns As Canucks Try To Steady Their Young Blue Line
Luke Schenn is back in Vancouver for a third stint, and the Canucks are leaning on a familiar face to help steady a blue line that is still taking shape. The veteran defenseman signed a one-year deal and is expected to fill a depth role while bringing the kind of quiet reliability and penalty-kill work that has long made him useful to contending teams and rebuilding ones alike.
For the Canucks, the appeal goes beyond minutes on the ice. Schenns previous run with the club included a strong defensive pairing and a noticeable offensive bounce in the 2022-23 season, but this return is more about guidance than production. Vancouver wants its younger defenders to keep growing, and Schenn gives them a seasoned presence in the room while the organization sorts out how the rest of the back end will settle in. [Read more 🡒]