The Vancouver Canucks have a handful of players heading into 2026-27 who are running out of runway. For some, the next step is about locking down a role. For others, it’s about proving they belong at all.
That kind of pressure isn’t new in hockey. Last season offered a couple of clean examples inside the organization.
Linus Karlsson made the team out of camp, then started the year as a healthy scratch. In a contract year, that can go one of two ways. Karlsson chose the right one, breaking out and finishing as the Canucks’ leader in even-strength scoring before landing a two-year extension worth $2.4 million per season.
Vitali Kravtsov had the opposite path. He returned to Vancouver for a second stint, but it fizzled quickly. He was sent to the AHL and soon after went back to Russia.
Now the focus shifts to seven Canucks players who are staring at their own now-or-never seasons.
Jonathan Lekkerimäki is at the top of that list. Last preseason, he looked ready to turn a corner, scoring a couple of goals in camp and showing some chemistry with Braeden Cootes.
The 5-foot-11 winger even scored in the season opener. Then an injury in the Canucks’ sixth game of the year knocked him off track.
He missed a chunk of time, came back, and was then shut down for the season in February. Entering his draft-plus-five season, and with waivers looming next year, he doesn’t have to begin with the big club - but he does have to show he belongs in the NHL.
Aatu Räty is in a different kind of test. He closed 2024-25 with five goals and seven points in 12 games, which raised the bar.
Last season, though, the 6-foot-2 centre looked a little slow defensively at times and finished with four goals and 14 points over 66 games. He’s got the work ethic and drive to stick, and he also led all Canucks forwards with 11 five-on-five points back in early December.
If Filip Chytil isn’t ready to play, Räty has a straightforward opening as Vancouver’s third-line centre.
Victor Mancini also needs a sharper showing. The 6-foot-5 defenceman flashed real promise in his Canucks debut in 2024-25, then became a top-pairing, all-situation presence for Abbotsford during its Calder Cup championship run.
Last season at the NHL level, though, things got messy. The next question is whether a calmer setting, plus the Manny Maholtra coaching bump, can bring out a cleaner version of his game.
In goal, Nikita Tolopilo made some progress even if the numbers don’t jump off the page. He went 6-11-2 with a 3.61 GAA and an .881 save percentage, and the Canucks’ environment in front of him made the job harder than the stat line suggests. He outplayed backup Kevin Lankinen last season, and now he has to show he’s good enough to hold down a full-time roster spot.
Arshdeep Bains is in a tough spot too. He was electric for Abbotsford during the championship run, which made his NHL struggles stand out even more.
His first game defensively was strong, but that was as good as it got. No one is projecting him into the roster picture, and he has already cleared waivers.
Still, he’s 25 and in a contract year, so the clock is ticking if he wants to prove he can be an everyday NHL player.
There’s also Ilya Safonov, Ryan Johnson’s first signing as Canucks GM. The KHL centre put up 16 goals and 17 assists for 33 points in 66 games last season.
He brings size, faceoff ability and a defence-first approach, and his puck-hounding style could fit with Manny Malhotra. But there’s a familiar catch with Russian players in this spot: if the NHL path doesn’t look promising quickly, they often head back home.
Jack Thompson is the long shot, but not the kind you ignore. The Canucks got him from the San Jose Sharks for Jett Woo at the trade deadline, and he made an immediate impact in Abbotsford, putting up 13 points in 14 games.
For the season, he had 56 AHL games with six goals and 19 assists for 25 points. Thompson is a year removed from 31 NHL games, but he spent all of last season in the minors.
If he’s going to make a real push for a spot, 2026-27 feels like the moment.
In Other News...
Canucks Prospects Are Creating A Roster Crunch Vancouver Can't Ignore
The Canucks youth movement is starting to come with a catch. As the organization leans harder into prospects and young depth, the roster picture is getting tighter, because several players are moving toward the point where they can no longer be tucked safely away without waiver exposure. For a team trying to stay competitive while developing its next wave, that is the sort of detail that can quickly turn a promising pipeline into a difficult numbers game.
Victor Mancini, Elias Pettersson, Liam Ohgren and Zeev Buium are among the names expected to lose waiver exemption in the seasons ahead, depending on how many NHL games they play and where they stand contractually. Others, including Tom Willander and Jonathan Lekkerimaki, still have some breathing room for now, but the list of interesting future decisions keeps growing, with Kirill Kudryavtsev and Ilya Safonov also worth tracking as waiver-eligible options down the road. For Vancouver, the challenge is no longer just finding talent, it is finding enough room to keep it. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Facing A Make Or Break Year With Three Prospects
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What makes the situation more pressing is the clock. Each player will need to take another step soon to keep Vancouver interested enough to offer an entry-level deal, and none of the three has made the choice easy based on current performance. Gardner, Perkins and Celebrini all bring different backgrounds and skill sets, but the common thread is the same: the Canucks have to decide whether the upside is worth waiting on, or whether this is another prospect cycle that fades without ever reaching Abbotsford, let alone Vancouver. [Read more 🡒]
Luke Schenn Returns As Canucks Try To Steady Their Young Blue Line
Luke Schenn is back in Vancouver for a third stint, and the Canucks are leaning on a familiar face to help steady a blue line that is still taking shape. The veteran defenseman signed a one-year deal and is expected to fill a depth role while bringing the kind of quiet reliability and penalty-kill work that has long made him useful to contending teams and rebuilding ones alike.
For the Canucks, the appeal goes beyond minutes on the ice. Schenns previous run with the club included a strong defensive pairing and a noticeable offensive bounce in the 2022-23 season, but this return is more about guidance than production. Vancouver wants its younger defenders to keep growing, and Schenn gives them a seasoned presence in the room while the organization sorts out how the rest of the back end will settle in. [Read more 🡒]