The NHL’s PTO season is already getting busy, and one familiar name from the Canucks’ recent past is on the move.
Carson Soucy has signed a professional tryout contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets, giving him a shot to earn his way back into an NHL deal. Soucy, who turned 32 in July, is coming off a 2025-26 season in which he played 76 games, his highest total since 2022-23 with the Seattle Kraken, when he appeared in 78.
That’s a far cry from where things stood when he arrived in Vancouver. Soucy signed a three-year deal with the Canucks on day one of 2023 NHL free agency and was a reliable second-pair defender in 2023-24, trusted against top lines in both the regular season and playoffs. But his game dropped off sharply the following year, and Vancouver moved him at the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline, sending him to the New York Rangers for a third-round pick.
The rest of the ride kept bouncing. Soucy played 46 games with the Rangers last season before being traded again, this time to the New York Islanders, for another third-round pick.
Now he heads to Blue Jackets camp with the goal of landing an NHL contract or, at the very least, securing a spot in the organization on a two-way deal. Through it all, he remains a veteran of 441 NHL games.
While Soucy is trying to claw his way back into a full-time role, the Buffalo Sabres are making a very different kind of move: betting big on a young player they believe is ready to stick.
On Monday morning, Buffalo signed 22-year-old winger Noah Ostlund to a six-year contract worth $6.6 million annually. Ostlund was the 16th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, one spot after the Canucks took Jonathan Lekkerimäki at 15th overall.
Ostlund just finished his rookie NHL season with 11 goals and 16 assists in 60 games. He also spent 45 games with the Rochester Americans in 2024-25, where he put up 19 goals and 17 assists as a 20-year-old. In the playoffs, he played three games for Buffalo and recorded a goal and an assist.
All told, Ostlund has 68 NHL games on his résumé with 11 goals and 16 assists. It’s a clear show of faith from the Sabres, who are hoping this is the kind of contract that looks like a bargain before long.
In Other News...
Former Canuck Pushes Back On J.T. Miller Blame Narrative
During a recent podcast appearance, former Canuck Nikita Zadorov offered a different version of the J.T. Miller story than the one that has followed Vancouver through much of the public conversation around the team. Zadorov spoke positively about Miller as a teammate, describing him as competitive and team-oriented, and said the reports of a feud with Elias Pettersson had been exaggerated.
Zadorov also made clear he was not around for the later stretch of the Canucks reported locker-room drama, which makes his perspective limited to what he saw firsthand. Even so, his comments added another layer to a narrative that has often been driven by social media and outside noise, which he said tended to blow the situation out of proportion. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Could Land An Overlooked Difference-Maker Before Opening Night
The waiver wire is about to become one of the Canucks first real roster-building tools for the new season, and Vancouver is planning to be aggressive when it opens on Sept. 17. General manager Ryan Johnson said the club intends to use its top priority position to add players who fit the teams vision and can provide real value, which keeps the door open for a move that could matter before opening night.
It is a path the organization has used before, with waiver claims such as Martin Gelinas, Brian Glynn and Kyle Wellwood turning into notable depth additions in different eras. Whether this years opportunity produces a similar kind of overlooked difference-maker remains to be seen, but the Canucks are clearly treating the market as more than just a roster afterthought. [Read more 🡒]
Bo Horvats Islanders Rise Still Says Plenty About Vancouvers Choice
Brock Boeser has spent much of camp talking about the Canucks effort to put last season behind them and open a cleaner chapter, and his message has been simple enough: progress has to come from the players in the room. He pointed to improvement and leadership as the real drivers of a turnaround, which fits a Vancouver team still trying to settle into a more stable identity after a difficult stretch.
Boeser also took a moment to revisit one of the franchises defining recent decisions, praising former teammate Bo Horvat for the work ethic and professionalism that have helped make him captain of the New York Islanders. It was a reminder that the Canucks 2023 trade of Horvat is still part of the backdrop here, not just as a roster move, but as one of the choices that continues to shape how Vancouver talks about where it is headed. [Read more 🡒]