The Vancouver Canucks are staring at a long 2026-27 season, but there’s still a case to be made for optimism. After finishing with the worst record in the NHL in 2025-26, the club didn’t swing for any major win-now additions, and that fits the reality of where this roster stands. With Quinn Hughes gone, the Canucks have also lost the player who drove most of their success when he was in Vancouver.
That said, the picture looks clearer than it has in a while.
For one, the Canucks finally appear to have committed to a rebuild. In the past, the organization resisted going all-in on that path, a stance that ultimately helped push team legend Trevor Linden away from his role as president of hockey operations. This time, the front office led by Daniel and Henrik Sedin and Ryan Johnson seems to understand that rebuilding is the only real route forward.
That won’t make the immediate future any easier. The Canucks are likely headed for another season of rough nights and a lot of losses, and maybe even fewer wins than last year.
But that’s also how a lot of contenders are built in the NHL. Teams like the Florida Panthers, Edmonton Oilers, and Colorado Avalanche reached their current positions by landing blue-chip talent through lottery picks.
If Vancouver ends up with another high draft selection next season, and that looks very likely, the team could be looking at a chance to add another major building block.
There’s also a new voice behind the bench. Manny Malhotra arrives as head coach with the kind of profile that often appeals to teams looking to reset the tone. He brings the game sense of a player who built his career on being smart and reliable, and he also has AHL success on his résumé, much like recent coaches such as Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery, Colorado’s Jared Bednar, and Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper before him.
Just as important, Malhotra may be the right person to help reshape the room. Max Sasson talked about the winning atmosphere in Abbotsford and how different it felt from the big-league club.
He said that in Abbotsford “you want to go in there with a smile and a comfortability of being able to be yourself, and having people around you that want you to succeed, and you want them to succeed.” Sasson added that he began to feel some of that same energy in Vancouver near the end of last season, and Malhotra’s job will be to keep that moving in the right direction.
The blue line gives the Canucks one of their more interesting paths forward. The roster overall may look thin, but the defense group has a mix that could end up being better than expected.
Zeev Buium and Filip Hronek are projected to anchor the top pair, and Buium looks like the best bet to become the team’s breakout player in 2026-27. His offensive skill set stands out, and a bigger role on the power play and top pairing should help him produce more.
Hronek brings dependability and the ability to handle tough minutes, even if the underlying numbers don’t always love him.
There’s also intrigue with the two Swedish defenders, Tom Willander and Elias Pettersson. Neither is being projected as a long-term top-pairing staple, but Willander has real offensive ability, while Pettersson looks like the kind of steady, physical presence teams can trust in his own end.
Then there are the veterans who can help stabilize things. Luke Schenn, back for his third stint with the Canucks, brings grit and leadership to a young group. Jamie Oleksiak adds another layer of experience and size on the back end, giving Vancouver a physical look similar to what Tyler Myers once provided.
Up front, the names most fans already know are Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Jake DeBrusk, along with prospects Caleb Malhotra and Braeden Cootes. But the more interesting part of the attack may be the players who aren’t always in the spotlight.
Jonathan Lekkerimaki has dealt with health issues, but he should be ready for training camp, and if he can stay healthy, he has the kind of skill that can hurt teams. Liam Ohgren, who came over from Minnesota in the Hughes trade, profiles as a sturdy winger who could settle in as one of the better middle-six scorers on the roster for years. Marco Rossi, also part of that trade, has already flashed high-end scoring ability at the NHL level, including a 24-goal, 60-point season, and he’s still only 24.
Aatu Raty is another name worth watching closely. In his final season in Abbotsford under Malhotra, he was close to a point per game, and the year before that he put up 52 points in 72 games. He was once seen as a possible first-overall pick in the 2021 Draft before sliding to the second round, and Malhotra may be the coach best positioned to pull more of that upside out of him.
No one is pretending this team is close to a playoff push. That would be a major stretch.
But the Canucks have at least settled on a direction, and that means the season can be about development, not denial. There’s a path here, even if it’s a slow one.
It may not be a great time to be a Canucks fan. But it might not be a hopeless one, either.
In Other News...
Canucks Are Losing A Familiar Part Of The Rogers Arena Experience
A familiar game-night presence around Rogers Arena is moving on. Tom Fleming, the Canucks in-house DJ, announced on Instagram that he will not be back for next season after five years with the organization, ending a run that became part of the buildings regular rhythm for fans coming through the doors.
Fleming originally earned the job in 2021 through a competition and has since carved out a broader path in music, including a residency in Bali, Indonesia, where he has been performing during the offseason. His time behind the console overlapped with multiple coaching changes and the clubs close call in the 2023-24 Western Conference Finals, which made his departure feel like the latest shift in a stretch of constant change around the team. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Make A Quiet Move That Could Matter In 2027
The Canucks have quietly added another name to their front office, hiring Sean Finn as an amateur scout with an eye toward the international talent pipeline. Finn brings a long background in player development across the Russian hockey landscape, including work with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, Avangard Omsk and Kunlun Red Star, which gives Vancouver another set of eyes in a market that often requires more than just standard viewings and reports.
For a team always trying to stay ahead in the draft, the move looks aimed well beyond the next season. Finns experience is expected to help the Canucks evaluate Russian prospects for the 2027 NHL Draft, a long-range investment that reflects how much of todays roster building happens years before a player ever puts on an NHL sweater. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Fans Wont Ignore This Dylan Larkin Trade Buzz
Trade chatter around Dylan Larkin is starting to look like more than offseason noise, and it lands in a season where a handful of big names are already being cast as possible movers. The discussion has spread well beyond Detroit, with Elias Pettersson, Kirill Marchenko, Ryan OReilly and Connor Hellebuyck all getting mention as players who could find themselves in the mix during the 2026-27 window, a reminder of how quickly the NHL rumor mill can turn established stars into hypothetical trade pieces.
For Vancouver, Petterssons inclusion is the part that naturally grabs attention, even if the whole exercise remains speculative. The Canucks have lived with constant scrutiny around their core, and any list of prominent trade candidates is going to invite questions about fit, leverage and timing, but for now it is still just that - a list, not a transaction. The bigger takeaway is how many teams are being pulled into the same kind of long-range roster debate, with interest reported in some cases but no actual deal anywhere in sight. [Read more 🡒]