The Vancouver Canucks’ first full month of the 2026-27 season was rough in the standings, no doubt about it. They finished October at 2-12-1 and spent part of the month buried in a 10-game losing streak. But even in a stretch like that, a few players gave the fan base something to hang onto.
At the top of that list is Elias Pettersson, who closed the month as the team’s most productive player and the clear first star. He heads into November leading Vancouver in assists with 12, points with 16, power-play goals with four, faceoff wins with 152 and takeaways with six.
He’s also third on the club in hits with 36 and leads all forwards with 21 blocked shots. That kind of all-around line is why he’s already in the conversation for the Selke Trophy and why a bounce-back season is starting to take shape.
He’s on pace for 84 points, which would be his first 80-point campaign since 2023-24.
Pettersson’s impact hasn’t been limited to the stat sheet. He’s looked sharper, more confident and more willing to try things in the offensive zone that hadn’t been part of his game in recent seasons.
One of the best examples came against the San Jose Sharks, when he lost the puck, fought it back through effort and skill, slipped through a couple of Sharks and set up Drew O’Connor to score on Yaroslav Askarov. For a player who has been under a microscope since his first 100-point season, this was the kind of month the Canucks have been waiting for.
Jonathan Lekkerimaki was right there behind him. The 2022 first-round pick entered the season with questions around his development and his recovery from major shoulder surgery, but he answered both with a strong October.
In 16 games, he has six goals and 13 points, which puts him just three points behind Pettersson for the team lead. He’s also been remarkably steady, with his longest point drought lasting only two games.
On pace for 32 goals and 69 points, he’s starting to look like the top-six finisher Vancouver hoped for when it took him 15th overall.
His best night came Oct. 27 against the Anaheim Ducks, when he scored twice on Lukas Dostal and both goals came in almost the same fashion. Lekkerimaki set up at the top of the left faceoff circle, cradled the puck and snapped it up and over the glove each time.
He also drew the overtime penalty that led to Filip Hronek’s game-winner and picked up the assist on the goal, giving him his first three-point night. The shot has always been the calling card, and October gave a pretty clear reminder of why people have talked about him as a future 30-goal scorer.
Brock Boeser rounds out the three stars after a month that started slowly but finished with real momentum. He had just one goal and three points in his first six games, but since Oct. 13 against the New York Islanders, he has piled up nine points in nine games, including three goals in his last four. That leaves him with five goals and 13 points in 16 games, with all but one of those points coming in October.
Boeser’s value went beyond scoring, too. He was one of the team’s strongest voices during the month, and his blunt postgame comments after the 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings stood out. That was the game where Vancouver was held to zero shots in the second period, and since then the Canucks have played tighter, more competitive hockey, including a dramatic comeback that ended the losing streak.
“I feel like I’m truthful on how it was going and what needs to happen to get out of it,” Boeser said. “And I think we’ve been a lot better playing a lot better hockey as of late, and more and more of the hockey that we know how to play.
But, you know, we still have those little mistakes. It’s costing us.
But definitely have our attitudes have been a lot better”
Jake DeBrusk said the comments haven’t caused problems inside the room.
“I think for him, and just us all in general … it’s got to be us in the room,” DeBrusk said. “It’s our group.
Whatever comments or the way you feel or whatever, like it’s open. We have to go through it together.
So sometimes there’s tough conversations, sometimes there’s tough things that are being said, where people (outside the team) take it completely different than what it’s intended. But inside the room, we know what’s going on.
So as long as we’re together, I think then it’s a safe space for anyone to speak.”
For a team that only won twice in October, the record still looks ugly. But the progress from Pettersson, Lekkerimaki and Boeser gives Vancouver something real to build on. All three finished the month with double-digit point totals, and that’s enough to make November a little easier to watch as the Canucks head into 13 games, most of them away from Rogers Arena.
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