Happy Canada Day, Canucks fans - and welcome to the start of a very different kind of July 1 in Vancouver.
This is the first free agency day under a new regime, with Daniel and Henrik Sedin now serving as co-presidents, Ryan Johnson installed as GM and Manny Malhotra taking over behind the bench. The Canucks are coming off a dead-last finish in 2025-26, and they enter the day with roster holes to fill on a rebuilding team and about $22 million in cap space, according to CapWages.
The front office has already gotten to work. On Monday, Vancouver sent Nils Höglander to the Nashville Predators for a third-round pick in 2029, then added Vancouver native Brendan Gallagher from the Canadiens for future considerations after he spent the last 14 season in La Belle Province.
That setup makes the Canucks’ approach pretty clear. This is not a summer for headline-chasing.
The focus is depth, cheap veterans and younger players who can fit a rebuild. Don’t expect Vancouver to jump into the mix for names like Anders Lee, Mason Marchment or Rasmus Andersson.
With Teddy Blueger also testing the market, there’s a middle-six opening that has to be addressed for the second straight year.
The market is moving fast already, though, and Vancouver has watched a few possible targets come off the board. One of the Canucks’ biggest targets is gone after Ian Cole chose Chicago, and the Blackhawks paid a steep price to get him at nearly $5 million for one season. Rick Dhaliwal reported that the Canucks made an offer, but Cole went elsewhere.
Elsewhere around the league, Mason Marchment is off the board and headed back to the Pacific Division with the Sharks, who are adding a veteran middle-six piece to their young core. The Kraken also drew attention for bridging Mackie Samoskevich, a move that doesn’t make much sense given how hard they’re already working just to build a competitive roster.
There have also been some familiar names finding new homes. Ilya Mikheyev is headed to Tampa Bay, while former Canuck Nikita Zadorov is also moving on. Vancouver’s old winger Kyle Burroughs has a new deal as well, and Noah Juulsen is staying put on a two-year contract with a $1.1 million AAV.
On the bigger end of the market, the Golden Knights made a major swing by bringing in Rasmus Andersson. He hasn’t fully hit the level expected since being traded to Vegas from Calgary, and he struggled during the team’s run to the Final, but Vegas is clearly betting that was just a bump in the road.
The market opened at 9:00, and the first major news was a player staying home. Demidov signed an eight-year contract, one of the last deals of that length before the maximum term for returning players drops to seven years.
For Montreal, locking him up was a key step with its Cup contention window just starting to open. The next challenge is finding the outside help needed to compete with the Hurricanes and teams like them.
Before that, the day had already started with trades taking center stage. At 8:30, the Stars were the first team to make room, doing what they needed to do to clear space for a Jason Robertson extension.
In Other News...
Canucks Make Another Depth Move That Could Affect More Than Abbotsford
The Canucks added another bit of organizational depth by signing forward Matthew Stienburg to a one-year, two-way contract, a move that gives Vancouver another player to shuffle between the NHL and AHL as the summer roster takes shape. Drafted by the Avalanche in 2019, Stienburg has already spent time in both leagues, and his deal is set up to keep him in the mix without locking the club into anything long term.
Stienburgs path has included a brief NHL look in Colorado and a season interrupted by a shoulder injury, which makes this more than just a paper transaction for Vancouvers development staff. Hell be battling for ice time in the organization next season, and with the Canucks still sorting out how their depth chart will look, his fit could end up mattering in Abbotsford and beyond. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Just Made A Goalie Move Canucks Fans Can't Ignore
A goalie move in Edmonton is the kind of thing that gets noticed quickly in Vancouver, especially when it comes with the sort of contract structure that signals both upside and caution. The Oilers have added a veteran with championship experience on a one-year deal, and the setup includes a modest base salary, performance bonuses and a no-move clause that gives the player meaningful control over where this goes next.
For Canucks fans, the real intrigue is less about the headline itself and more about what it suggests the Oilers are preparing for in net. Around the league, some analysts are already reading this as a sign Edmonton may not be done managing its crease, with the age and injury history attached to the move leaving open the possibility of a crowded goalie picture. There is still plenty to sort through, but it is already the sort of transaction that can shift how a division rival plans its summer. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks First Round Pick Takes A New Path That Fans Keep Debating
Aleksei Malhotras route to his next stop has already made him one of the more closely watched young names in the Canucks pipeline. Two seasons ago he was with the Chilliwack Chiefs in the BCHL, then he jumped to the OHLs Brantford Bulldogs and found another level offensively, putting together a much bigger scoring season and backing it up again in the playoffs.
Now Malhotra has said he will take the NCAA path this fall at Boston University, where hell be part of a lineup that already includes Canucks prospects Aiden Celebrini and Niklas Aaram-Olsen. The move also fits the wider ripple effect of the NCAAs new scholarship rules for major junior players, a change that helped steer his decision toward Brantford in the first place and left plenty of debate around what the better development track should have been all along. [Read more 🡒]