The Vancouver Canucks’ California swing this week gave them one win, one loss, and a sharper look at the kind of haul a real rebuild demands.
On the ice, it was a short trip with plenty of bite. Bigger picture, it was a reminder that getting from “rebuilding” to actually being good means piling up a lot more than one or two promising names.
That’s the part teams always want to gloss over: losing is the easy portion. The hard part is stacking enough young talent, then staying patient long enough for it to matter.
Just look at the Ducks. The Canucks would love to come out of a rebuild with players like Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson, and Beckett Sennecke.
That’s the kind of core every team dreams about. And yet Anaheim is still only a coin flip to make the playoffs this season.
Why? Because even with that group in place, the Ducks still need more around them to become a team that wins consistently.
They still own all of their upcoming first-round draft picks and three second-round picks in 2027, and they’ve got another big piece coming after selecting Roger McQueen 10th overall in the 2026 NHL Draft. The issue is that Anaheim appears to have handled the timing of its young talent differently than it should have, and now it is leaning on a rising salary cap to help smooth things over in the years ahead.
Even then, nothing is guaranteed.
The Sharks offered the more eye-catching example on this trip.
On Thursday night, Macklin Celebrini had a relatively quiet outing by his standards against his hometown team. That didn’t stop San Jose from finding offense elsewhere.
Will Smith, the Sharks’ 2023 fourth overall pick, scored twice and helped power the comeback win. Michael Misa, the 2025 second overall pick, was held off the scoresheet and has not exactly torn out of the gate this season.
Ivar Stenberg, the 2026 second overall pick, also finished pointless. San Jose still won anyway.
That’s the whole point. Even with four straight drafts spent selecting in the top five, and even with Celebrini giving them a true cornerstone at first overall, the Sharks are still not done building.
They made that clear this past offseason by choosing to get worse in the present and trade William Eklund to the Ottawa Senators for the ninth overall pick in this summer’s draft. That move gave them three first-round picks, and they used that ammo to add highly touted defence prospects Keaton Verhoeff and Ryan Lin, along with Stenberg at No. 2 overall.
For the Canucks, that’s the uncomfortable lesson staring them in the face. If they want to avoid cycling back into the middle of the pack, they need the patience to keep adding talent years from now, not just now. Otherwise, they risk landing in that familiar no-man’s-land: good enough to hover around a wild card race, not good enough to matter much beyond it.
Ryan Johnson and the Sedins have said the right things, and so far their actions have backed it up. Trading Marcus Pettersson for a first-round pick stands out as their best rebuilding move to this point. But there are still calls to make on a few players over 24, and those decisions will tell us more about where this is headed.
For now, the message is patience. That’s what a lot of this fan base has wanted for a long time.
The brutal part is that patience still doesn’t promise a Stanley Cup. It might not even guarantee a perennial top-10 team. There’s no foolproof version of this, and no draft slot that eliminates the risk of a miss.
What is clear is that the Canucks’ old approach - quick fixes, partial resets, and constant retools instead of enduring the painful stretch for real - was never going to get them where they wanted to go.
This road trip didn’t change that. If anything, it underscored it. The path forward is going to require more losing, more time, and more future assets if the Canucks are going to turn this rebuild into something that actually sticks.
In Other News...
Canucks Let A Winnable Game Slip Away In One Brutal Period
For two periods, the Canucks looked in control against the Sharks, riding a tidy defensive effort and a couple of timely finishes into a 2-0 lead. Elias Pettersson opened the scoring after Jamie Oleksiak made a strong play in the defensive end, and Liam hgren added another in the second period while Leevi Merilinen kept things quiet with several important saves.
Merilinens best work came while Vancouver was killing penalties, where he turned aside multiple looks that could have shifted the game earlier. The night still carried a jolt, though, when Brock Boeser left after taking a shot off his foot, forcing Arshdeep Bains onto the first line and adding another layer of uncertainty to a game the Canucks already let get away in a rough third period. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Suddenly Have A New Lineup Question Up Front
The Canucks made a quick adjustment up front Monday, recalling Jacob Quillan from AHL Abbotsford as they sorted through another injury-related shuffle. Quillan arrived in the organization a few weeks ago in the Aatu Rty deal from the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he has opened his Abbotsford stint well enough to put himself on the radar for a call-up.
Filip Chytil was also moved to injured reserve with an upper-body injury, adding another layer of uncertainty to Vancouvers forward group. Chytil has been dealing with injuries, and while he is eligible to return next Thursday, the Canucks now have to navigate the meantime with a fresh look at their depth options. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks May Like This Young Winger More Than His Trade Cost
Ivan Miroshnichenko is the kind of young winger who can intrigue a team looking for upside, and the Canucks have reportedly been among the clubs with interest. The 20-year-old has not yet carved out a full-time NHL role with Washington, but his blend of youth and pedigree makes him a player worth tracking for a Vancouver team always weighing present need against future value.
The challenge, of course, is the price tag. Washington is believed to be asking for at least a first-round pick, which turns a potential buy-low swing into a much bigger decision for Vancouvers front office. If the Canucks are serious, they will have to decide whether Miroshnichenkos long-term promise is worth paying for before he has fully established himself at the NHL level. [Read more 🡒]