Ty Mueller keeps climbing because he keeps doing the unglamorous stuff right.
At 23, the Abbotsford Canucks center is the oldest player in this series and one of only two prospects here who has already seen NHL ice. For a former fourth-round pick taken 105th overall in 2023, that alone makes his path look like a win.
Mueller arrived in Abbotsford in 2024-25 and wasted no time making himself useful to then-head coach Manny Malhotra. He began in a bottom-six center spot, then earned more responsibility as his two-way game kept showing up shift after shift. By the end of that first season, he had put up 12 goals and 27 assists for 39 points in 62 games, enough to get a two-game look with Vancouver.
His value really showed in the playoffs. With Aatu Räty sidelined by injury, Mueller handled the second-line center job and was trusted in the kinds of moments coaches lean on their best defensive centers for: late-game protection, penalty killing, and tough defensive assignments. Malhotra, who was a faceoff ace as a player, kept turning to Mueller in the dot, which says plenty about the trust he earned.
Last season, with Max Sasson and Räty moving on to the NHL, Mueller was pushed into Abbotsford’s top center role. The offensive numbers mattered, but the bigger shift was how often the puck ran through him.
He went from being more of a supporting piece to one of the team’s top offensive options, and that extra volume helped him sharpen the playmaking side of his game. He also became more of a shooter, and the power play brought out another layer of his offense.
He doubled his previous goal total with the man advantage, and his quick release gave goalies problems.
That growth carried over when Vancouver called him up again in 2025-26. In his earlier NHL stint, Mueller was used in a more sheltered role.
This time, he brought some of that Abbotsford confidence with him. He picked up his first NHL assist on Curtis Douglas’ first NHL goal, then scored in Edmonton with friends and family in the building.
The appeal with Mueller is pretty straightforward. He may not be flashy, but he gets the job done. Since his rookie season in Abbotsford, he’s stood out for the way he handles the defensive side of the game, and that’s why there’s real belief he can become a full-time bottom-six NHLer.
The ceiling here is a third-line defensive center who can kill penalties. A fourth-line center job in Vancouver also feels within reach. The floor is solid too: even if the NHL path gets crowded, there’s confidence he can stay at his current level as a top-six American League forward.
The timing is the tricky part. Mueller is still young enough to keep pushing for a bottom-six role in Vancouver, but he’s not alone in the pipeline.
Braeden Cootes could be ahead of him in Abbotsford if he doesn’t make the NHL roster out of camp, Riley Patterson took a big step offensively this season, and Caleb Malhotra and Brooks Rogowski are also ahead of him in the system. What helps Mueller is that his only pro head coach, Manny Malhotra, is now behind the Vancouver bench.
If he’s going to turn those two NHL games into something more, he’ll need meaningful run at the NHL level this season.
In Other News...
Canucks Suddenly Have A Contract Question Fans Cant Ignore
Linus Karlsson and Max Sasson have become the kind of cost-controlled depth pieces every front office hopes to uncover, and their contracts are starting to look even better as their roles grow. Karlsson has given the Canucks real scoring punch for a player on a modest deal, while Sasson has carved out a useful NHL lane despite being projected more as a lower-line contributor, giving Vancouver value in places where teams usually have to spend to find it.
Filip Hronek belongs in that same conversation for a different reason. His deal looks sensible in a market that keeps pushing defensemen higher and higher, and his importance to the Canucks has only increased as his responsibilities have expanded. With the club trying to keep its blue line steady and competitive, the bigger question is how long this kind of value can last before the next contract conversation changes the picture. [Read more 🡒]
Two Young Canucks Suddenly Carry Bigger Pressure Than Fans Realize
The Canucks are spending this season in evaluation mode, and that puts a couple of younger names under a brighter spotlight than usual. For Vancouver, the point is not just finding out who can survive an NHL shift or two, but which players can grow into real pieces of the next version of the roster. Nikita Tolopilo and Victor Mancini fit neatly into that conversation, each arriving with a different path but the same basic demand: show the staff they can be trusted more often.
Tolopilos challenge is straightforward enough, even if the margin for error is thin. He has to convince the organization he can be more than a depth option in goal and give the club a reason to keep extending his NHL look. Mancini, meanwhile, comes with a bit more breathing room after his two-year extension, but the expectation is still rising. Vancouver wants to see cleaner puck decisions, steadier work in its own end and a better answer when the matchups get tougher, because the next step for both players is tied directly to how quickly they can handle real responsibility. [Read more 🡒]
The Canucks Numbers Trivia That Will Have Fans Arguing Again
A little jersey-number churn is coming to Vancouver, and it has the kind of trivia appeal that Canucks fans can debate for days. Marco Rossi is among the newcomers changing things up, while Zeev Buium, Filip Chytil and Jonathan Lekkerimki are also set to settle into new numbers for the upcoming season, adding another layer to a franchise history that has always been full of odd little number connections and one-off wearers.
The fun part for number nerds is the contrast between the familiar and the untouched. Some digits in Canucks history have been recycled often enough to feel tied to the teams past, while others have barely been seen at all, and a handful have never appeared on a Vancouver sweater. That mix of old references and fresh choices is exactly what keeps this sort of offseason housekeeping from feeling routine, especially when a few of the new arrivals are picking numbers that already carry some franchise baggage. [Read more 🡒]