Marco Rossi’s first run with the Vancouver Canucks ended up looking a lot better once he got past the rough opening stretch.
The center arrived in Vancouver as part of the trade for Quinn Hughes back in December, after being on the Canucks’ radar for a while. He had already put up 13 points in 17 games with the Minnesota Wild, then missed nearly a month with an injury before the move. By the time he landed in Vancouver, he still wasn’t fully over it.
That showed early. Rossi’s first couple of weeks with the Canucks were slow, and he managed just a goal and an assist in his first eight games. In early January, he was labeled week-to-week and didn’t get back into the lineup until after the Olympic break.
Once he returned, the story changed. Rossi finished the 2025-26 season with eight goals and 14 assists in 33 games for Vancouver, good for the seventh-most points among active Canucks this season. He also finished second on the team in points after the Olympic break with 20 in 25 games, trailing only Brock Boeser, who had 23.
The bigger question now is where Rossi fits as Vancouver keeps reshaping its roster. He has two years left on a three-year deal that carries a $5 million average annual value, and he’ll still be a restricted free agent when that contract ends.
He’s also set to turn 25 before the start of the 2026-27 season, which puts him a little older than the type of player Vancouver seems to be targeting in its rebuild. Even so, Rossi has said he’s willing to learn and grow with the group.
By the end of the year, the Canucks got a much clearer look at the player they thought they were adding: a small, crafty center who can handle a second-line role. The slow start dulled the first impression, but once he had time to recover properly, Rossi looked far more like a fit.
For his 33 games in Vancouver, Rossi gets a B+.
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Canucks Salary Push Could Put More Than Depth At Risk
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Canucks Are Taking A Massive Risk Behind Manny Malhotra
The Canucks have built a coaching staff that looks more like a leap of faith than a conventional NHL bench, with Manny Malhotra stepping in as head coach and Ryan Mougenel, Jordan Smith and Jason Krog joining him as assistants. Every one of them is new to NHL coaching at this level, even if they bring plenty of experience from lower leagues, which leaves Vancouver leaning heavily on a group that has not yet had to navigate the day-to-day pressure of an NHL season together.
Malhotra is the lone member of the staff with NHL coaching experience, and that puts a lot of weight on the structure around him. The club does still have some continuity in goaltending coach Marko Torenius and video coach Ian Beckenstein, both of whom have NHL backgrounds, but the bigger question is whether Vancouver is betting on upside, a tighter budget, or both as it tries to build something sustainable behind a first-time head coach. [Read more 🡒]