The Canucks may be in a rebuild, but that doesn’t mean next season comes with a free pass. A few players are still staring at a real proving ground, and the margin for error is thin. For four guys in particular, this is the year to show they belong in Vancouver’s long-term picture.
Aatu Räty might be the clearest case of opportunity meeting expectation. Teddy Blueger is gone in free agency, Manny Malhotra already knows the 23-year-old Finn from their Abbotsford days, and Räty enters the season healthy with a full summer to prepare.
That’s a clean runway. He produced four goals and 14 points in 66 games last season, and that number has to climb if he’s going to stick as a regular.
His face-off work is already a real weapon - among the best in the business - and the Canucks need that skill to translate into meaningful puck possession and, eventually, production. Räty also comes off a strong showing with Finland at the IIHF World Championship in May, where he helped them win gold.
Add in the fact that it’s a contract year, and the message is simple: either he puts it together now, or Vancouver has to decide what kind of place he has in the organization.
Victor Mancini is in a different spot, but the pressure is just as real. The Canucks gave the 24-year-old defenceman a two-year extension worth a million dollars per season, so there’s some security there.
What he doesn’t have is a locked-in NHL role. The tools are obvious, especially for a big right-shot blueliner, but the consistency hasn’t followed.
Questions still hang over his decision-making and how well he reads the game at the highest level. Right now he looks like the seventh defenceman on the depth chart, which means nothing is guaranteed on opening night.
When Mancini gets in, the assignment is pretty clear: use the size, play a heavy defensive game, kill penalties, and stop chasing flash. The Canucks were outscored 21-9 at 5-on-5 in his minutes last season, and his possession numbers were among the worst on a last-place team.
By next year, he’ll be 25 and out of prospect territory. This season will say a lot about whether he gets more chances in Vancouver or has to look elsewhere.
Nikita Tolopilo is fighting a different battle entirely. The 26-year-old Belarusian has only 23 NHL games on his résumé, with 21 of them coming last season.
That was his chance to show he could handle the league, and there were flashes where he looked like a capable NHL goalie. But there were also stretches where head coach Adam Foote wanted more consistency and never seemed fully comfortable giving him a longer run, even with Thatcher Demko out.
Next season figures to be tougher. Demko is expected to be healthy and ready to take the crease, and Kevin Lankinen is under contract long term, which leaves Tolopilo third on the depth chart.
He also requires waivers, which makes the roster math tricky. The Canucks could try to sneak him through to the minors or carry three goalies.
Either way, his path is narrow. Six wins, a 3.61 GAA and a .881 save percentage won’t be enough if he wants to become a real NHL option.
He needs to take what he learned last season and arrive at camp ready to force the issue.
Jonathan Lekkerimäki isn’t quite at the same make-or-break stage, but he’s close enough to matter. He turned 22 on Friday, and the Canucks need to give their 2022 first-rounder every chance to show what he can do.
That means top-six minutes, power-play time and a little patience with the mistakes that come with young offensive talent. This is a last-place team in the early stages of a rebuild.
If there isn’t room for one of the organization’s best scoring prospects now, it’s fair to ask when there ever will be. The Canucks don’t need to turn him into a defensive machine and strip away what makes him dangerous.
They need to let him shoot, let him work the one-timer on the power play and give him chances to decide games. Coming off shoulder surgery, Lekkerimäki also has to prove he’s fully recovered and ready for the grind of a full NHL season.
He still has a real chance to become a major part of the rebuild. But if the same questions are still hanging over him a year from now, then something has gone terribly wrong.
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Former Canucks Captain Quinn Hughes Just Turned Up In Another Spotlight
Quinn Hughes has been hard to miss this summer, even away from the rink. The former Canucks captain has surfaced in some very public places, first alongside his brother Jack at the FIFA World Cup Final and then on stage with country music star Morgan Wallen during a concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a reminder that Hughes remains one of hockeys more recognizable names even as his career has moved into a new chapter.
For Vancouver fans, the more relevant part is where that chapter has taken him. Hughes is now a key piece for the Minnesota Wild and helped the United States to Olympic gold, keeping his profile high well beyond his Canucks years. The only real question left hanging is where all of that momentum eventually leads next, since his future contract situation is still a storyline worth watching. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Still Have One Roster Problem This Retool Didnt Solve
The Rangers spent the offseason trying to patch holes and reshape a roster that still feels like it is missing a true centerpiece down the middle. Their second defense pair has been remade, but the bigger question is up front, where the top-six has not looked as dangerous since the trade deadline and the club still seems to be searching for a long-term answer at No. 1 center.
Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller can help bridge the gap for now, but the expectation is that the search for a true franchise pivot will continue over the next few years. Even some of the younger pieces have left evaluators wanting more consistency, which is why the Rangers retool can feel more like a reset of the margins than a solution to the core problem. [Read more 🡒]