The Vancouver Canucks have set their opening night group for the 2026-27 season, and the roster brings together established pieces, offseason additions, and a couple of camp surprises.
The club will carry 13 forwards, eight defencemen, and two goaltenders into the opener. Up front, the list includes Arshdeep Bains, Brock Boeser, Paul Cotter, Jake DeBrusk, Brendan Gallagher, Linus Karlsson, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Drew O’Connor, Liam Öhgren, Elias Pettersson, Aatu Räty, Marco Rossi, and Max Sasson.
On the back end, the Canucks are going with Guillaume Brisebois, Zeev Buium, Filip Hronek, Victor Mancini, Jamie Oleksiak, Elias Pettersson, Luke Schenn, and Tom Willander. In goal, Kevin Lankinen and Leevi Meriläinen will start the year.
Filip Chytil and Thatcher Demko will open the season on injured reserve. Chytil hurt his shoulder in the first period of his first preseason game against the Edmonton Oilers, while Demko is still working back from the hip surgery he underwent in January. Mackenzie MacEachern, Akil Thomas, and Jack Thompson will begin the season on injured, non-roster.
Every one of Vancouver’s offseason additions - Paul Cotter, Brendan Gallagher, Jamie Oleksiak, and Luke Schenn - made the cut for opening night.
The biggest roster wins may belong to a pair of players who were expected to start with AHL Abbotsford. Arshdeep Bains and Guillaume Brisebois both earned spots after strong camps and preseasons.
Bains appeared in three of Vancouver’s four preseason games and made an impact early. In the opener on the road against the Seattle Kraken, he skated with Braeden Cootes, scored on the power play, added an assist, and put three shots on goal across 18:59 of ice time.
The Surrey, BC native followed that up with another goal late in the third period against the Calgary Flames when he and Cootes were back together. In the preseason finale, he moved lower in the lineup and was held off the scoresheet for the first time this preseason.
Brisebois also dressed for three preseason contests. Even though the Canucks lost all three of those games, he finished even and put two shots on goal across an average of 16:20 of ice time. For the longest-tenured player in the organization, making the roster is a meaningful nod from the team.
Monday morning’s practice at UBC gave a look at how things were lining up the day before the opener. The forward combinations were Bains - Pettersson - Lekkerimäki; Öhgren - Rossi - Boeser; O’Connor - Sasson - Karlsson; and Cotter - Räty - Gallagher. The defensive pairings were Buium - Hronek, Oleksiak - Willander, and Pettersson - Schenn, with Lankinen and Meriläinen in goal.
Jake DeBrusk missed practice with a lower-body injury and is questionable for his season debut. Bains filled in on the top line with Pettersson and Lekkerimäki, likely serving as a placeholder for DeBrusk. Brisebois and Mancini worked as extras and formed the team’s fourth defensive pair in practice.
Canucks hockey is back tomorrow night on the road against the Edmonton Oilers at 7 PM PST.
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