After a season that went off the rails, the Canucks are staring at the kind of year where almost anything positive would count as progress.
That’s especially true for a handful of veterans whose value has taken a hit. If any of them can find their game again, it would do more than just help Vancouver stay afloat. It would also give the club more to work with if it decides to move pieces down the line.
Here are seven Canucks who could rebuild their trade stock next season.
Elias Pettersson is still the biggest name on the list, and maybe the biggest question mark too. His 2025-26 line - 74 games, 15 goals, 36 assists and 51 points - doesn’t scream comeback, but he’s only 27, and that matters.
The belief in a rebound has faded over the last 2.5 seasons, yet the talent hasn’t disappeared. Pettersson will have to put in the work, as various people in Canucks management have suggested over the years, and Manny Malhotra could be the one who unlocks Petey’s potential.
Brock Boeser sits right behind him as another player who could change the conversation quickly. He finished with 75 games, 22 goals, 26 assists and 48 points in 2025-26, but there’s a longer track record here.
Boeser has averaged 24 goals and 55 points per 82 games in four of his last five seasons, with his 40-goal, 73-point run in 2023-24 standing out as the exception. If there’s a reason to think he can bounce back, it’s his chemistry with Marco Rossi.
In Boeser’s final 24 games last season, he scored 10 goals and totaled 23 points while skating with the new Canucks centre.
Jake DeBrusk’s season had a very specific profile, and not a flattering one. His 2025-26 numbers were 81 games, 23 goals, 19 assists and 42 points, but 19 of those goals came on the power play.
At five-on-five, he managed only three goals. The shooting luck wasn’t there either: he scored three times on 121 five-on-five shots, which came out to a 2.48 per cent shooting percentage.
Among 350 forwards with at least 50 five-on-five shots, that was the lowest in the league.
Filip Chytil is the wild card in the group. He played just 12 games in 2025-26, putting up three goals and no assists, but the appeal is obvious if he can ever get a real stretch of health. The 26-year-old has shown flashes of brilliance in Vancouver, and if he rebounds, his trade value would rise fast because he’s a pending unrestricted free agent.
Brendan Gallagher also has a chance to re-enter the trade conversation. He put up 77 games, seven goals, 16 assists and 23 points last season, and he has already made it clear how he feels about Vancouver by expressing his desire to play here.
Still, if he gets going again, a player with his edge and mentality would probably want another crack at winning a Stanley Cup. At 34, he’s the kind of veteran who could interest a team if the Canucks decide to move a pending UFA.
Thatcher Demko remains one of the most intriguing names on the board. In 20 games last season, he went 8-10-1 with a 2.95 GAA and a .895 SV%.
When he’s healthy, there aren’t many goalies with his talent. The problem is obvious: health has been a massive issue, and he’s played just 22.7 per cent of Canucks games since suffering an injury in March of 2024.
He needs a long healthy run before any trade talk really makes sense, but if he does put together a strong stretch, teams could be willing to take the gamble. A deal next season could resemble the John Gibson trade from 2025, when the former Anaheim goaltender brought the Ducks a second-round pick, fourth-round pick and Petr Mrazek.
Kevin Lankinen rounds out the group, and his 2025-26 season was rough from start to finish. The good will he built in his first year in Vancouver largely vanished, and while the team’s defensive structure didn’t help him, he also couldn’t bail the Canucks out the way he did before.
Even so, goalie desperation is always real around the league. If Tristan Jarry can bring back a second-round pick, Lankinen could still end up drawing a similar return if the right team comes calling.
In Other News...
Canucks Face A Real Braeden Cootes Development Dilemma
Braeden Cootes is already at the heart of one of the Canucks more interesting development questions heading into next season. The 2025 first-rounder signed his entry-level deal in July and has only a brief NHL sample to his name, but his work in junior has kept the conversation moving fast. For Vancouver, the issue is less about whether Cootes has long-term upside and more about how quickly the organization should push him after a summer of important contract business.
The Canucks have enough center depth that they do not need to rush him, yet the path becomes less simple when a young player starts looking ready before the team wants to make a permanent commitment. Starting the 2026-27 season in the NHL would give Cootes a chance to learn on the fly, while the AHL could offer a steadier runway if the club decides his game still needs more refinement. However Vancouver handles it, the decision will say plenty about how it views his timeline and how much patience it is willing to exercise. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Face A Telling Scoring Bet Up Front
The Canucks scoring picture up front has a familiar kind of uncertainty attached to it, with Jake DeBrusk and Drew OConnor sitting on very different goal benchmarks as camp and the season approach. DeBrusk brings the more established track record, along with power-play value that can push a winger toward a big number when the usage is right, while OConnor is coming off a role that suggests a more modest scoring ceiling but still enough opportunity to matter in Vancouvers forward mix.
What makes the comparison more interesting is how much both players paths could be shaped by what happens off the ice as much as on it. DeBrusks place in the lineup and his trade status remain part of the conversation, and OConnors contract situation could make him just as relevant to future roster decisions as to the present one. For a team trying to sort out where the goals will come from, the bet up front is as much about stability as it is about production. [Read more 🡒]
Max Sasson Has A Bigger Canucks Role To Earn Under Malhotra
Max Sasson has finally settled into life as a full-time NHL player after spending the early part of his pro career bouncing between the AHL and the Canucks. At 25, he carved out a regular spot last season and showed why the organization has kept investing in him, bringing speed and the kind of offensive push that can tilt shifts in Vancouvers favor.
The next step is less about proving he belongs and more about proving he can handle more responsibility under the new coaching staff. Sasson still has parts of his game to clean up, especially in areas that can decide whether a player stays in the lineup every night, but the opportunity is there for him to expand his role if he keeps rounding out the details. [Read more 🡒]