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Canucks summer faceoff: Which is more likely – Lankinen 20 wins or Räty 30 points?

Jeff Paterson — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 20:00:34 GMT

For the third straight year, we are conducting a late-summer thought exercise. This is the final article in a five-piece series where we present a pair of options and ask you which is more likely to occur. Without the benefit of a crystal ball, of course, it’s impossible to know how things will go for the Vancouver Canucks this season. So we will present cases for both scenarios, and we’re looking for your gut reaction to which one is more likely to happen by season’s end.

Which is more likely to happen: Kevin Lankinen wins 20 games, or Aatu Räty collects 30 points?

Kevin Lankinen

Like many of his teammates from last season, Lankinen needs a bounce-back season. He won just 11 of his 43 starts last season while posting a 3.70 GAA, an .875 save percentage and dealing with a family matter that forced him to take a brief leave from the team last November. The likeable Finn struggled behind a brutal defensive environment, but rather than being the last line of defence and bailing out the team in front of him, he seemed to lose his way. He can be better, and he needs to be. But how much game action will he see? Much of that depends on Thatcher Demko’s health and readiness. If Demko makes a full recovery from hip surgery and is an option, he certainly slots in ahead of Lankinen on the team’s depth chart. But Demko’s health is far from certain, which could mean more opportunities for Lankinen, who won 25 of his 49 starts two years ago in his first season in Vancouver. The team as a whole won just 25 times last season, so does the math add up for Lankinen to get to 20 wins on his own in 2026-27? There is probably a path for that to happen, but a lot of things would have to fall Lankinen’s way.

Aatu Räty

It’s hard to put offensive projections on Räty. But if he’s going to be the Canucks third line centre, there has to be some expectations of a bottom line. His four goals and 14 points in 66 games last season certainly underwhelmed. Now, there are other areas where Räty can and has to contribute to the hockey club – faceoffs and penalty killing immediately spring to mind. But can the 23-year-old Finn show any kind of consistency to his offensive game this season? He had 40 points in just 43 games in Abbotsford two seasons ago and 52 points on the farm the year before that. So there has been an offensive spark at the American Hockey League level. Can Räty produce in the NHL while rounding out the other areas of his game? The 30-point threshold seems within reach, but then again, only five forwards on the team cracked the 30-point mark last season, and this team could struggle to generate offence as a group.

Which is more likely to happen?

If Kevin Lankinen wins 20 games this season, it’s probably a case of ‘good for him and bad for Thatcher Demko.’ Because it seems the only route to 20 victories for Lankinen is if Demko gets injured again and can’t play. I could see a world where they each win 15 games, helping the Canucks reach the 30-win mark overall. But 20 for Lankinen on his own feels like a long shot. It could happen, but I doubt it will. As for Räty, should the Canucks expect 10 goals and 20 assists? That feels like a reasonable target, especially if he gets the opportunities he’s looking for under Manny Malhotra. He’ll need help from his wingers, but he’ll need to do his part to help them, too.

Verdict

While it won’t be easy, I think Aatu Räty has a better chance of getting to 30 points than Kevin Lankinen does of reaching 20 wins. It’s going to be a struggle for the Canucks again this season, and team victories could very well be in short supply. That will keep the goaltending win totals down, too. But when it comes to skaters, there’s no reason that Räty can’t level up individually and prove his worth moving forward. He should have a terrific opportunity to be an every-night player, and it’s up to him to make the most of it.

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31 days, 31 questions: How much will familiarity matter for new Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra?

Elijah Ford — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 18:00:32 GMT

Welcome to a new series here at CanucksArmy, where over the month of August we’ll ask a new question each day about the Vancouver Canucks. We’re calling it “31 days, 31 questions”. Today, we’re examining how much familiarity will matter for new Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra.

We here at CanucksArmy have covered our “goals and expectations” series for each player for the upcoming 2026-27 season. In those pieces, the familiarity between new Vancouver Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra and many players on Vancouver’s upcoming roster has often been mentioned as a positive for their development.

Malhotra has already coached players such as Linus Karlsson, Max Sasson and Jonathan Lekkerimäki to some of the best hockey of their careers during his time with Vancouver’s farm team. Writers and fans alike are optimistic the Canucks’ new bench boss will be able to get the most out of Vancouver’s budding up-and-comers.

This tends to be the sentiment across sports when talking about familiarity between a player and coach. Typically, when a player has previous experience working with a coach or another person in a high-ranking position, the transition to their leadership style is often more seamless than it would be for someone who has yet to make a first impression. But is this actually the case in the NHL, or is it simply a narrative that has become accepted knowledge?

Malhotra is far from the first head coach to be promoted directly from the AHL to the NHL bench. In fact, over the past five years alone, there have been eight cases of this happening, either as interim or full-time hires. Let’s look back at those examples to find out how Malhotra might impact his former players during his first year and how that may affect his overall tenure in Vancouver.

The most prominent case study is likely former Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe. Like Malhotra, Keefe was the head coach of a Canadian organization’s AHL team for multiple years before being promoted to the NHL. He also directly tutored Malhotra, who spent four years under Keefe as an assistant coach in Toronto. Malhotra has often said that his time in Toronto, and Keefe specifically, influenced his coaching philosophy with the Canucks.

Keefe came in having coached several Maple Leafs during his time with the Marlies, including William Nylander. Nylander’s points-per-game rate increased to 0.93 under Keefe from 0.74 under Mike Babcock the year Keefe took over mid-season. However, because Nylander was already a premier prospect entering his early prime, it is difficult to determine how much of that improvement can actually be attributed to his former coach.

A better insight comes from players who weren’t necessarily expected to become high-end NHLers. The most prominent name in that group is current Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman. Hyman was a fifth-round pick in the 2010 draft, coming out of a Tier II Ontario Junior Hockey League. He played four years of college hockey before turning pro with the Toronto Marlies under Keefe in 2015. Keefe quickly recognized a niche Hyman could carve out for himself in the professional game.

“After a few games we started calling him Shaq Hyman,” Keefe said. “He got to the paint more and better than anybody.”

Keefe used this to his advantage, playing Hyman netfront on the power play and putting him on a line with players such as Nylander who could get the puck to the middle of the ice. As the season continued, Keefe noticed even more potential in Hyman’s game, specifically his growing confidence with the puck.

“The thing that’s really impressed me is just the poise that he’s showing with the puck,” Keefe said. “He’s making plays himself, he’s not just, you know, winning puck battles, letting the others come in to clean it up, but he’s getting them the puck and actually moving into good spots.”

That newly instilled confidence helped propel Hyman to the NHL after only one season in the minors. He started slowly in his first year but progressively found his game under then-Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock.

When Babcock was fired in November 2019 and Keefe was brought in, Hyman’s game hit another level. Hyman was a solid producer under Babcock, averaging just under half a point per game on a blossoming young team. Under Keefe, he scored 0.76 points per game as he became an invaluable piece of the Maple Leafs’ top six, averaging the third-most minutes among Maple Leafs forwards during his time under Keefe.

“I had Sheldon before, he was my first pro coach when I started with the Marlies. So it was nice to see a familiar face,” Hyman said. “He’s an outstanding coach, I’ve learned a lot from him, he is a great communicator.”

A similar story can be found with current New York Islanders forward Pierre Engvall. Engvall was a seventh-round pick by the Maple Leafs in the 2014 draft. He spent a few years in Sweden before joining the Marlies in 2018, where Keefe quickly saw his potential.

“There’s so much to work with there,” Keefe remembered thinking. “When a guy with that physical package arrives, you’re pretty excited about him and you want to make him important.”

Engvall became a key component of Keefe’s Calder Cup-winning team in 2018, killing penalties and winning faceoffs in critical moments. A few years later, his NHL potential was realized when Keefe was brought on with the Maple Leafs. Though Engvall actually made his NHL debut in Mike Babcock’s final game behind the Leafs’ bench, it was Keefe, knowing him so well from their time together with the Marlies, who immediately used him on the penalty kill. Engvall scored his first NHL goal short-handed in Keefe’s debut and eventually made his way up the lineup. He scored six goals in his first 21 NHL games, giving the Maple Leafs a much-needed spark during an awful slump early in the year.

“I think when Keefe came in, he knew what I could do in the AHL and he believed that I could do it in the NHL, too,” Engvall said. “After first game there, I got my goal and I think from then I understand, like, what I did in the AHL maybe I can do in the NHL. I felt like he believed in me but also he could tell me I needed to play better. We had a pretty good relationship.”

Both examples illustrate the potential value of familiarity. Keefe already knew Hyman and Engvall’s best attributes, which allowed him to trust them with specific roles and put them in situations where they could succeed.

Another former head coach of a Canadian team who followed a similar path to Malhotra is Jay Woodcroft, formerly of the Edmonton Oilers. Before being named Edmonton’s bench boss, Woodcroft spent three seasons as the head coach of the Oilers’ AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors. There, he coached players such as Evan Bouchard, Stuart Skinner and Ryan McLeod before they took the NHL leap. Bouchard was likely the biggest beneficiary of that familiarity.

When Woodcroft took over the Oilers, Bouchard was a fringe third-pairing defenceman with offensive upside. By the time Woodcroft left Edmonton, Bouchard was a point-per-game defenceman, contending for the Norris Trophy while quarterbacking one of the NHL’s best power plays. Woodcroft identified Bouchard’s unique skill set early in his AHL tenure.

“I think he has a natural poise about him,” Woodcroft said. “He’s a confident young man.”

Woodcroft was brought in halfway through the 2021-22 season after the Oilers got off to a slow start that left them barely above .500. In his first season with Edmonton, Woodcroft went 26-9-3, good enough to finish second in the Pacific Division. At the team’s end-of-season press conference, Woodcroft was asked how his familiarity with some of the roster from his time in Bakersfield helped ease his transition to the NHL.

“That’s an example of how your experience with that player allows you to make some informed decisions,” Woodcroft said. “For me, with those players, I not only have shared experience with them, but they have shared experience with me … it definitely helps speed up the process.”

That may be the biggest advantage of familiarity: not necessarily guaranteeing better player development, but allowing a coach to make more informed decisions faster.

That does not mean, however, that previous experience guarantees success. We don’t have to look very far into the past to see an example of a coach who had a path similar to Malhotra and did not enjoy much success in the NHL.

After coaching the Seattle Kraken’s AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, to back-to-back Calder Cup final appearances, Dan Bylsma was promoted to the NHL bench in 2024. The Kraken hoped his experience with Seattle’s young core would help them take another step after a disappointing .500 season the year before. His relationship with former fourth-overall pick Shane Wright was specifically a factor behind his hiring.

Although Wright put up respectable numbers during Bylsma’s time with the team, he had a roller-coaster season, going from a healthy scratch to a bottom-six forward to a top-six forward seemingly night-to-night. Ultimately, the team finished with a worse record than it had the year before, and Bylsma was fired after only one season.

Overall, Canucks fans should be optimistic that Manny’s experience with many current Vancouver Canucks will prove beneficial, especially early in his tenure. A lot of training camp and early-season evaluation is spent understanding specific player tendencies and figuring out how best to deploy their talents. Malhotra should have a significant head start in that department.

It also stands to reason that he will be able to support his former players from an intangible perspective, as he should already have insight into what makes them tick and how to get the best out of them over the course of an 84-game season. That optimism, however, should not be mistaken for certainty that Malhotra will be a successful NHL coach because of his prior experience.

Of the eight coaches who were hired directly from the AHL over the past five years, three lasted one season or less. NHL head coaching is one of the most volatile jobs in the world. The old saying, “They hire you so they can fire you,” remains true today.

With that said, considering the praise heaped on Malhotra by every former player who has been asked about the hire, along with his history of player development, fans are right to be hopeful that he can be the coach to lead the Canucks through the testing times of a rebuild and potentially into playoff contention.

One could argue the gold standard of coaching right now is Jon Cooper, who was the head coach of Tampa Bay’s AHL affiliate before being hired in the NHL. When Cooper was brought in, the Lightning had missed the playoffs in back-to-back years and were below .500 the season prior. Within three years of Cooper’s hiring, the Lightning were in the Stanley Cup Final.

Those kinds of expectations would be wildly unfair to Malhotra at the Canucks’ current stage of team building. Still, one can wonder whether Malhotra, combined with Vancouver’s drastic offseason culture shift, can help propel the Canucks into an era of success similar to what the Lightning have enjoyed for the past decade.

Familiarity should allow Malhotra a quicker start behind the bench than most, but the Canucks are in a marathon right now, not a sprint. How Malhotra sustains the development of the Canucks’ young pieces, including players he hasn’t coached yet, will ultimately determine the length and legacy of his coaching tenure in Vancouver.

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Projecting who the Canucks might protect (and might lose) in a 2029 Expansion Draft

Stephan Roget — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 17:00:41 GMT

Those reading the tea leaves have long predicted that another round of NHL expansion is forthcoming, and that was a fairly easy prediction to make when said tea leaves read “$2 billion expansion fees.” That’s almost too much money to leave on the table, and it seems that the NHL will not, in fact, be leaving it on the table.

Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly declared during the NHL’s European Media Tour that not only was the league expanding soon, but that it had already decided on a ‘where’ and a ‘when.’ The where is somewhere in Texas, either Houston or Austin, and the when is the 2029-2030 season. Which means that the next Expansion Draft is likely coming in the year 2029. That’s probably sooner than most would have predicted.

It’s soon enough that most NHL teams can start to project and plan toward where their roster will be at the time. In saying that, it’s definitely tougher to project for a rebuilding team, and especially a rebuilding team that is just at the beginning of its rebuild, like the Vancouver Canucks.

But we’re going to give it a shot all the same.

Assuming the NHL uses the same expansion model it used for Vegas and Seattle, the Canucks will have two protection options. The first is an option to protect seven forwards, three defenders, and one goalie from their roster. The second is an option to protect eight skaters (either forwards or defenders) and one goalie.

Only players who have completed three or more professional seasons must be protected (professional meaning, more or less, NHL or AHL, with some exceptions); those with less experience are exempt. Unless they choose to waive them or have a special expansion clause written in, all players with no-movement clauses must be protected.

Goaltending

Since any protection scheme can only include a maximum of one goaltender, it makes the most sense to start there. Unfortunately, it’s the position where we have the least current information.

Had the Expansion Draft come earlier, the Canucks would have had to protect Thatcher Demko due to his NMC. But his three-year extension concludes with the 2028-29 season, and thus he will be a free agent by the time the draft rolls around. It’s possible that the Canucks have extended him again in the interim, but who can really say where Demko’s career will be at this point? For now, suffice it to say they won’t be forced to protect Demko.

The same goes for Kevin Lankinen, who will still be under contract until 2030 himself, but who loses his own NMC after this coming season when it converts to a 15-team no-trade clause. Lankinen might still be around, but he won’t require a protection slot.

So who will? If Nikita Tolopilo is still around at that point, it probably means his career has progressed to that of an NHL regular, so he’s probably the easiest answer. But then again, he could be departing the organization as soon as this preseason.

The team’s top two goalie prospects, Aleksei Medvedev and the just-drafted Dmitri Ivchenko, are guaranteed to not be eligible for selection. Even if either of them were to start their time in the AHL this season, which is highly unlikely, AHL games do not count as a professional season for 18- or 19-year-olds, at least as it pertains to expansion eligibility. So, it’s impossible for either to accumulate three professional seasons before 2029.

So, if Tolopilo’s gone by then, it might be down to whichever of Ty Young or Aku Koskenvuo is still around and has progressed most by that point. Both have already started their professional career counters, and thus will be eligible.

Alternatively, the Canucks’ goaltending protectee could be someone they’ve acquired between now and 2029.

In any case, this is the position the Canucks have to worry about the least in expansion.

Defence

From the position they need to worry the least about, to the position they need to worry the most about.

Defence is often the toughest spot for protection, because teams are allowed only three slots or have to start sacrificing multiple forwards to protect more. The Canucks already look likely to need more than three slots.

First and foremost is their trio of young NHL defenders: Zeev Buium, Tom Willander, and Elias Pettersson. The team would sure like all three to still be with the team and be playing important roles by 2029, and they’re probably the three leading candidates for protection.

But then there’s also Filip Hronek, who is under contract to 2032. Hronek’s NMC does convert to an M-NTC in the summer of 2028, one year before expansion, and so it’s possible – some might even say probable – that he’s traded before the draft, and thus does not need to be protected. But if he’s still on the roster, he’s not someone who could be freely exposed.

Luke Schenn and Jamie Oleksiak will have seen their contracts expire and will likely have moved on by now. But several others in the organizational depth chart will be eligible for selection, including some with potentially big futures in Kirill Kudryavtsev, Victor Mancini, and Sawyer Mynio.

Depending on how some of these names progress, the Canucks could have some very difficult blueline-related decisions on their hands come 2029. If they wanted, for example, to protect all six of Buium, Willander, Pettersson, Hronek, Kudryavtsev, and Mancini, that would only leave two slots left for forwards, and that’s probably not workable.

They’re a long way off from past days of being able to burn a protection slot on the likes of Olli Juolevi.

Forwards

At this point, we can almost predict that the Canucks will choose the “eight skaters” model instead of the “seven forwards, three defenders” model. For one, because of the litany of expansion-eligible D we listed in the last section. For another, because there just aren’t that many forwards they’ll need or want to protect.

There is only one forward on the roster they’ll need to protect – if they’re still with the team by then, that is – and that’s the other Elias Pettersson. His NMC runs through the entire eight-year term of his contract.

Brock Boeser, thankfully, sees his NMC turn into an M-NTC in that same summer of 2029. The wording of the last set of expansion rules specified that only “continuing” NMCs required protection, so that would leave Boeser free to be exposed.

Jake DeBrusk’s own NMC turns into an M-NTC next summer, and the odds of him being around in 2029 are slim, anyway. The only other NMC on the roster belongs to Brendan Gallagher, but he’s in the last year of his contract.

It’s really hard to predict who else will even be around in 2029 from the current set of veteran forwards. All of Gallagher, Filip Chytil, Drew O’Connor, Linus Karlsson, Paul Cotter, and Max Sasson will have hit UFA status by then, and could be long gone. Any could be extended beyond 2029, but we’d say only Karlsson is anywhere near likely to be.

Of the younger crop of players, the one we’re most certain will need protection is Liam Öhgren. Beyond him, next on the list is probably Marco Rossi, assuming he hasn’t been traded by then. Jonathan Lekkerimäki, if he proves himself a long-term NHL talent over the next year or so, would also require protection. Same goes for Aatu Räty. And maybe Ilya Safonov, too, if he turns out to be anything.

Any forward prospect – with one notable exception that we’ll get to in a moment – playing for Abbotsford this season will most likely be expansion-eligible by 2029. That includes Riley Patterson and Gabe Chiarot, who should debut as 20-year-olds this season, and also anyone who has already been there, like Vilmer Alriksson and Ty Mueller.

The interesting case is Braeden Cootes. By the letter of the law last time around, Cootes’ time in the AHL as a 19-year-old – assuming that’s where he plays this season – would not count as a professional season, and thus he wouldn’t be expansion-eligible by 2029. That’s a best-case scenario for the Canucks.

But we don’t yet know all the ins and outs of this new 19-year-old AHL deployment rule. It could be ruled that if a team assigns a CHL-drafted 19-year-old to the AHL, that counts as a professional season, in which case Cootes would be eligible by 2029.

Of course, it’s all moot if Cootes plays 11 or more games in Vancouver this season, which seems fairly likely. If he does, that’s a professional season right there, and he’ll need protection, too.

Anyone drafted after this point in time will not be able to accumulate three professional seasons before 2029, and thus don’t need to be worried about.

The only other names worth discussing, then, are Caleb Malhotra and Adam Novotny, the two forwards the Canucks’ drafted in this most recent first round.

The answer for those two is pretty straightforward. If either Novotny, through some early-season cameo, or Malhotra, through some late-season cameo, play 11 or more NHL games this season, they’d have their first professional seasons on the counter, and would require protection in 2029. The right thing for the Canucks to do, then, is to ensure that neither plays more than 10 NHL games until next season, which should be easy enough to accomplish.

If the Canucks were protecting seven forwards, right now we’d probably predict those seven to be Pettersson (if still here), Öhgren, Rossi, Lekkerimäki, Räty, Cootes (who we think will likely play 11 NHL games this season), and maybe Patterson, who seems like the next-best prospect on the list. Or Karlsson, if he’s still kicking around.

But then again, we don’t think it’s likely they go that route. If they want to protect even four defenders, they’re left with just four forward protection slots, at which point the decisions become tricky. Fortunately, only Öhgren, Rossi, and Cootes are what we might call priority protectees at this point in time.

Who will the Canucks lose?

We’ve seen enough here to suggest that the Canucks are probably going to lose a young-ish player of some value in the 2029 Expansion Draft. If they don’t, it’s almost worse news, because it means the rebuild hasn’t progressed to the point where there is an abundance of young talent on the active roster.

If the blueline progresses anywhere near where the team expects it to, the loss will probably come there. Even if the team protects Buium, Willander, and Pettersson, and trades Hronek, they’d still likely have to expose one or two of Kudryavtsev, Mancini, or Mynio. Depending on how they’ve developed, those could be unfortunate losses.

Otherwise, the loss will probably come in the form of a young forward. Protecting extra D could leave names like Lekkerimäki, Räty, and Pattersson exposed. And while we don’t yet know how valuable those players will be at that point in time, if they’re still around at all, it’s probably because they hold some value.

The losses we’re describing here wouldn’t be catastrophic. But they might be impactful enough for the Canucks to start planning for them now. That’s especially true when it comes to trade acquisitions between now and 2029. Any new talent coming in, aside from draft picks, will probably need protection, and that further eats away at the available protection slots.

On the other hand, this all grants some extra inherent value to all draft picks from 2027 onward, as they’re now assets that cannot be touched by a 2029 Expansion Draft. The Canucks should mostly focus on accessing that value via keeping and making those picks.

The Canucks aren’t in an awful position looking ahead to 2029. But they are probably in a position to lose a lot more than Luca Sbisa and Kole Lind, the two players they lost to Vegas and Seattle. Austin/Houston project to, at the very least, take a bigger bite out of the Canucks, which is probably appropriate for Texas.

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Canucks: 10 years later, how does Filip Hronek stack up to the rest of the 2016 draft class?

Tyson Cole — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:00:48 GMT

It may have taken 10 years for this outcome to occur, but Filip Hronek is looking like the biggest value of the entire 2016 NHL Draft class – whether it was the Vancouver Canucks who drafted him or not.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a great draft for your Canucks. At fifth overall, they selected one of the biggest busts of the last 10 drafts in Olli Juolevi, and failed to land an impactful player with their third, fifth, sixth, or two seventh-round picks. Of their six selections, only three played NHL games: Juolevi (41 total, 23 with Canucks), Will Lockwood (54 total, 28 with Canucks) and Rodrigo Abols (64 total, 0 with Canucks). In terms of point production, the Canucks saw just four points from their entire class.

That said, through a trade with the Detroit Red Wings, they’ve landed one of the top defencemen in the class. So, let’s see how Filip Hronek stacks up against this class 10 years later.

First round wifs

Highlighted by Auston Matthews selected first overall, there are multiple draft choices selected high that teams simply missed on, and we don’t have to go far down the board to find them.

Jesse Puljujarvi, Olli Juolevi, Alex Nylander, Tyson Jost, Logan Brown, Michael McLeod, Jake Bean, and Luke Kunin were all selected in the first 15 picks of the draft and have not lived up to the high draft capital they were selected with. Puljujarvi and Juolevi – selected fourth and fifth overall – and McLeod played overseas last season. Nylander and Brown spent the year in the American League, while Jost, Bean, and Kunin are seeing bottom-line and depth deployment, all for different teams than the ones that selected them.

As there is in every draft, there are a handful of late-first-round success stories, such as Tage Thompson and Brett Howden, but for the most part, this was an uninspiring first-round draft class.

Second-round gems

While the first round left teams disappointed, some capitalized on their second-round selections. Andrew Peeke, Jordan Kyrou, Alex DeBrincat, Nathan Bastian, Sam Girard, Ryan Lindgren, Filip Hronek, Carl Grundstrom, and Taylor Raddysh are all second-round picks who have logged over 300 NHL games thus far. A handful of goaltenders, including Carter Hart and Filip Gustavsson, are current NHL starters for their respective teams.

Players drafted around Hronek

As mentioned, Hronek was selected in the second round, 53rd overall by the Red Wings. The three teams selecting ahead of Detroit, the Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, and Philadelphia Flyers, are all kicking themselves today as none of those three players they selected played more than 100 NHL games.

Following Hronek at 53, there were a handful of misses, as expected in the second round; however, the Pittsburgh Penguins nabbed Filip Gustavsson, the Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Carl Grundstrom, and the Tampa Bay Lightning selected Taylor Raddysh. The two forwards, Grundstrom and Raddysh, are now serving in bottom-six roles, while Gustavsson is the 1A in a goaltending situation with Jesper Wallstedt in Minnesota.

How Hronek stacks up

With 533 games played, Hronek ranks 13th in the class. He trails only DeBrincat, Matthews, Clayton Keller, Matthew Tkachuk, Jesper Bratt, Mikhail Sergachev, PL Dubois, Jakob Chychrun, Girard, Charlie McAvoy, Jost, and Patrik Laine. Hronek ranks fifth among defencemen in games played.
With 287 points, Hronek ranks 15th in the class. He trails only Matthews, Tkachuk, Keller, DeBrincat, Bratt, Dubois, Adam Fox, Laine, Thompson, Kyrou, Brandon Hagel, Sergachev, McAvoy, and Chychrun. Hronek ranks fifth among defencemen in points.
With 239 assists, Hronek ranks 10th in the class. He trails only Tkachuk, Keller, Matthews, Fox, Bratt, DeBrincat, Sergachev, McAvoy, and Dubois. Hronek ranks fourth among defencemen in assists.

Conclusion

In a draft class filled with misses at the top, the Hronek selection at the end of the second round has become one of the best in the class. Of the 158 players selected after Hronek, only Bratt and Hagel have more points than him. However, at the premium position as a right-shot, top-pairing blueliner, Hronek may be the best value in the entire class, a decade later.

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3 ways the Canucks could win too many games in 2026-27

Jeffrey Kennett — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 14:00:36 GMT

The Vancouver Canucks are in a position where every spot in the standings matters.

Finishing 32nd overall last season gave Vancouver the NHL’s best draft lottery odds and a 25.5% chance of receiving the first-overall pick. By comparison, the second-last team had a 13.5% chance at the top selection, while the fifth-last team’s chances had diluted to 8.5% with the possibility of falling as low as seventh in the order.

The difference between picking one and two can be massive. Macklin Celebrini went first overall in 2024, one before Artyom Levshunov; Jack Hughes went first overall in 2019, Kaapo Kakko went second; and Nico Hischier went one, with Nolan Patrick going two.

It’s safe to say everyone would prefer the first set of names, but Vancouver could still have a poor season in 2026-27 and find itself several spots further down the draft order if the team doesn’t monitor its situation closely.

A few things would have to break the Canucks’ way for that to happen, although none of them are overly far-fetched:

Pacific Division stays weak

Last season showed how little separates the Pacific.

Vegas won the division with just 95 points, followed by Edmonton at 93, Anaheim at 92 and Los Angeles at 90. Further down, Seattle finished with 79 points, Calgary had 77, and Vancouver brought up the rear with 58. If Anaheim, Los Angeles or Seattle gives back even a handful of points, the teams below them can move up without making a dramatic improvement of their own.

Vancouver does not need to become a playoff team to move up the standings. They only need to pass one or two teams that were already within striking distance of the bottom last season. The Canucks finished 19 points behind Seattle and 21 behind Calgary. A modest improvement from Vancouver, combined with even a small decline from either rival, could erase that gap quickly.

Calgary has continued leaning into its youth movement after trading Nazem Kadri, Rasmus Andersson and MacKenzie Weegar last season, then moving 20-goal scorer Blake Coleman this summer. The Flames were already the NHL’s lowest-scoring team at 2.54 goals per game, and now it seems unlikely Calgary has the personnel to out-score last season’s total.

Los Angeles has a more volatile set of outcomes. The Kings enter their first season without Anze Kopitar, who had been the franchise’s captain and top centre for nearly two decades. They will instead rely on an ageing group of additions that includes Mats Zuccarello, Erik Haula and Corey Perry. Even if those players remain useful, replacing Kopitar’s minutes, faceoff work and defensive responsibility is a much larger challenge than replacing a typical middle-six forward.

Every club now plays 28 divisional games, up from 26 previously, so the Canucks will see Calgary, Seattle and Los Angeles four times each under the NHL’s new 84-game schedule.

If Calgary finishes below Vancouver and Seattle fails to improve on a 28th-ranked offence, the Canucks could climb one or two places simply by being more competitive against the bottom half of their own division.

Veterans bounce back under Manny Malhotra

Several players on Vancouver’s roster are coming off seasons well below their previous standards.

Elias Pettersson led the Canucks with only 51 points in 74 games and Brock Boeser scored 22 goals and 48 points — although his season ended on an encouraging note with 10 goals and 23 points in 25 games following the Olympic break.

Kevin Lankinen is another bounce-back candidate. His save percentage fell from .902 in 2024-25 to .876 last season while playing behind a Canucks team that surrendered the second-most high-danger chances in the league.

Even moderate improvement from that group could swing a couple of games in the Canucks’ favour. Pettersson reaching 70 points, Boeser getting back around 30 goals and Lankinen returning near .900 all seem fairly reasonable outcomes based on what each has done previously.

A positive development, although one that could impact the fringes of the rebuild, is Linus Karlsson adding another layer to his game. The 26-year-old scored 15 goals and 35 points while averaging just 12:27 per game during his first full NHL season. Thirteen of those goals came at even strength, and reuniting with Malhotra should see Karlsson’s ice time increase.

Along with Karlsson, Malhotra has familiarity with much of the roster. He worked with Pettersson and Boeser during his previous stint as a Canucks assistant and spent the past two seasons developing players in Abbotsford. General manager Ryan Johnson specifically highlighted Malhotra’s ability to teach and help players improve when announcing his hiring.

Several of those small rebounds across the lineup could end up costing the Canucks pivotal placements come draft lottery day.

Young players level up ahead of schedule

This might be the best problem Vancouver could have in 2026-27.

Braeden Cootes is coming off 63 points in 45 WHL games and has already experienced the NHL after making last season’s opening roster. Another strong training camp could put the 19-year-old centre in the conversation for NHL minutes much sooner than expected, particularly given Vancouver’s weakness down the middle. The possibility remains that Cootes earns more than another short look if his pace, competitiveness and ability to play responsibly away from the puck translate quickly.

Jonathan Lekkerimäki is another potential source of offence after an injury-disrupted season limited him to 13 NHL games last season. The former first-round pick has the shooting ability to make an impact, and a healthy training camp could give him a chance to solidify a role rather than simply audition for a few games.

Aatu Räty, meanwhile, played 66 games last year and won 60.5% of his faceoffs, the seventh-best rate in the NHL. His value is already apparent in the details of the game, but another step could make him more than a dependable depth centre. If Räty improves his offence while maintaining that all-around impact, he could become a regular part of Vancouver’s lineup and do more with the opportunity.

On defence, Victor Mancini appeared in 24 NHL games last season, while Kirill Kudryavtsev recorded 20 points in 44 AHL games and picked up two assists during a three-game NHL stint. Mancini could level up simply by becoming comfortable with NHL pace and decision-making, while Kudryavtsev’s puck movement could give the Canucks another option on the back end if he adapts quickly.

If two or three of those players become dependable NHL contributors ahead of schedule, Vancouver suddenly has greater depth than it did during a 58-point season.

That creates some interesting tension. Seeing Cootes establish himself, Lekkerimäki score goals, or Mancini grab a regular role would all qualify as significant positives for the organization. But combine those developments with better seasons from Pettersson, Boeser, and Lankinen, plus a few Pacific rivals taking steps backwards, and the standings can change quickly.

Vancouver does not have to improve by 20-30 points for its lottery position to take a hit. Even climbing from last overall to fourth or fifth-last would dramatically reduce its odds of landing the first pick and remove the security of drafting in the top three.

A handful of extra wins might not seem like much, but could carry a surprisingly high cost.

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An in-depth look at the Edmonton Oilers in 2026-27: Canucks Pacific Previews

Lachlan Irvine — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 21:00:38 GMT

The Pacific Division in 2026-27 is a top-heavy division made up of two groups: the Haves and the Have-Nots. The gap between the best and worst has never been larger, and the Vancouver Canucks sit firmly at the bottom. Seven teams stand in their way on the path back to contention, and we’re going to look at all of them over the next two weeks in our Pacific Previews series.

Today we’re looking at the Edmonton Oilers.

In the blink of an eye, the Edmonton Oilers went from back-to-back Stanley Cup finalists to a disastrous first-round exit. Drastic changes had to be made.

And that apparently meant hiring one of the most controversial coaches in NHL history.

Mike Babcock won the Stanley Cup in 2008 as the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings and has done nothing at the NHL level since. What he has accomplished since then is a long history of mistreating people, ranging from verbal abuse, benching players from milestone games, psychological exercises and going through players’ phones.

Despite all that, the Oilers are convinced Babcock’s the man that will get them over the hump, replacing recently fired head coach Kris Knoblauch. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are convinced that he’ll hold them both accountable, an alarming thing for two of the best players in the world to admit wasn’t happening before.

The Oilers are a team pushing all their chips in the middle and trying to prolong a Stanley Cup window that’s likely past its peak. McDavid will turn 30 in January; Draisaitl already has, as have key teammates like Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, with a depleted prospect cupboard. Edmonton has all the same issues they’ve had throughout the McDavid era: struggles on defence, underperforming goaltending, and a depth chart of players that haven’t always carried their weight on the scoresheet.

Oilers GM Stan Bowman (and a lot of his predecessors) have attempted to remedy those problems. Tristan Jarry hasn’t panned out in goal since being acquired for Stuart Skinner, so Bowman traded for Sabres prospect Devon Levi and signed reigning Stanley Cup champion Freddy Andersen in free agency. Darnell Nurse wanted a change of scenery, so he was dealt to San Jose and will be replaced in the aggregate by Ryan Shea, Shakir Mukhamadulin and Ty Emberson.

But the bestlaid plans of mice and Oilers often go awry, and their roster is already taking a massive hit. Andersen is out with an injury sustained in offseason training and isn’t expected back until late October. Matt Savoie is on the same timeline, while Mattias Janmark and Alec Regula will also miss training camp with ailments, according to the team. Not exactly the start Edmonton wants after a down year.

Naturally, no matter what problems the Oilers have had, they’ve consistently been the Canucks’ foil and measuring stick over the last decade. Last year, the Canucks lost three of four to the Oilers, surprising no one.

Canucks/Oilers fun fact: Ty Mueller scored his first NHL goal against the Oilers on April 16, off a great feed by Curtis Douglas. It ended up being the Canucks only goal in a 6-1 loss.

🚨CANUCKS GOAL🚨

Ty Mueller gets the Canucks on the board with his first career goal!

🎥: Sportsnet | #Canucks pic.twitter.com/RRzdtLGRBs

— Daily Faceoff Vancouver (@dfovancouver) April 17, 2026

The Oilers and Canucks won’t be on equal competitive footing any time soon. Still, the Oilers are starting to face stiffer competition from budding rosters in the Ducks (who already upset them in the postseason last year) and the up-and-coming Sharks. And the Canucks will have the chance to put the fear of the hockey gods into their Western Canadian rivals, thanks to a home-and-home set to open the season.

Make no mistake, the Oilers will be in the championship conversation as long as they have McDavid and Draisaitl on their roster. But with McDavid’s contract expiring in two years, the window of opportunity is closing.

Bold Prediction

The Oilers take a big step back, but claw their way into the playoffs in a Wild Card spot. Hope they like facing the Colorado Avalanche!

Season Series

September 29 @ Rogers Place (Oilers’ home opener)

October 1 @ Rogers Arena (Canucks’ home opener)

November 7 @ Rogers Place

March 21, 2027 @ Rogers Arena

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NHL Notebook: Hellebuyck officially requests trade from Jets, and Avalanche closing in on mega Makar extension

Tyson Cole — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 20:04:16 GMT

Welcome back to NHL Notebook — the series here at CanucksArmy where we deliver you news and notes from around the National Hockey League — oftentimes through a Vancouver Canucks-tinted lens!

In what has felt like the quietest August in recent memory, we finally have some news at the tail end of the month. And they’re both big-ticket stories.

Hellebuyck publicly requests trade out of Winnipeg

Ray Petkau, Connor Hellebuyck’s agent, released an official statement from his client on social media, making his trade request public. The statement reads:

“Winnipeg has been my home for my entire NHL career, and I will always be grateful for my time there.

“I have never forgotten June 23, 2012. That’s the day Winnipeg took a chance on a goalie playing in Odessa, TX. I gave everything I had from that moment to prove that the Jets made the right decision.

“Several months ago, I privately requested a trade. I have tried to handle the situation quietly and respectfully while giving the organization time to explore its options.

“With training camp approaching, I felt it was important to publicly confirm my request. My position has not change, and I believe moving on is the best path forward for me and my family.

“I appreciate everything Winnipeg Jets fans have meant to me throughout my career and hope a resolution can be reached soon.”

Hellebuyck, 33, is regarded as the best goaltender across the National Hockey League. While last season wasn’t his best, the Jets didn’t perform well in front of him either, missing the postseason for the second time in the last nine seasons. Hellebuyck finished with a 23-23-11 record, a 2.86 goals against average and a .895 save percentage, with four shutouts. All that said, Hellebuyck backstopped Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics, finishing with a perfect 5-0 record, a 1.18 goals against average and a .956 save percentage, including a 41-save performance in the Gold Medal overtime victory over Canada.

However, the Texas native is just one season removed from capturing back-to-back Vezina Trophies as the NHL’s top goaltender. Hellebuyck’s best season was in 2024-25, when he finished with a 47-12-3 record, a 2.01 goals against average, a .925 save percentage, and eight shutouts.

Earlier in the offseason, reports came out that Hellebuyck could potentially want out of Winnipeg. While a trade request was never made public, we now know the player made one. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Jets and Buffalo Sabres had talks about a Hellebuyck trade. Friedman also believed that Hellebuyck was willing to waive his no-movement clause to approve the move to Buffalo. However, talks stalled, and the trade never went through.

Hellebuyck has five years remaining on his contract that carries an $8.5 million AAV. He holds all of the cards on where he wants to go with that full NMC. However, let’s do a little thought exercise. Obviously, every team in the NHL should be lining up for his services. But who actually makes sense as a potential destination for Hellebuyck at this point of the offseason?

Buffalo is still a strong option. They would need to trade some salary out to make the move work. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is making $4.75 million annually, but has a five-team no-trade list. The Carolina Hurricanes are another potential destination. Coming off their Stanley Cup victory, the Hurricanes could bolster their crease to possibly repeat by adding Hellebuyck. How about the Florida Panthers? They somehow always find a way to add big in the offseason, but with less than $35K in cap space, they would need to play some cap gymnastics in order to make that work. Could the Philadelphia Flyers be an option that intrigues Hellebuyck? Young team that just made the playoffs. They have the cap space to fit Hellebuyck in. However, with Joseph Woll and recently extended Dan Vladar, that might be tricky. And lastly, what about the San Jose Sharks? At age 33, he doesn’t really fit their timeline. But not many players are turning down the chance to play with Macklin Celebrini right now. Yaroslav Askarov as a piece going the other way might make sense for what would now be a goaltender-less Jets squad.

With NHL training camp less than a month away, Hellebuyck is hoping this public announcement will expedite the process. Winnipeg has struggled to keep its star talent since it relocated, and it appears to be on the verge of losing its franchise piece and best goaltender in history.

Makar extension coming in Colorado

On Thursday morning, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared on X that he’s hearing that Calek Makar and the Colorado Avalanche are closing in on an extension.

About to go off-line for a bit, but the much-anticipated extension for Cale Makar and Colorado is closing in

Going to be a biggie…but a critical piece of business for the Avalanche

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) August 27, 2026

Without knowing the details of the contract, one can assume the two-time Norris Trophy winner, who has been nominated for the award in six straight seasons, will come in at a significant figure.

Makar, 27, is entering the final year of his six-year, $9 million AAV contract he signed back in 2021. The Calgary, Alberta native is regarded as the best defenceman in the league, and his stats follow that. He is coming off a 20-goal, 79-point campaign last year, following back-to-back seasons with 90+ points.

Earlier this offseason, after the Chicago Blackhawks acquired him, they made Bowen Byram the highest-paid defenceman on an annual basis, coming in at $12.5 million, which kicks in next season. It’s safe to assume that he will come in significantly higher than that when the contract is officially announced.

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Canucks sign goaltender Chris Driedger to a professional tryout contract

Tyson Cole — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:26:37 GMT

Just over a month away from the start of the NHL season, the Vancouver Canucks have added some insurance to their goaltending room.

On Thursday morning, Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson announced the club has signed veteran goaltender Chris Driedger to a professional tryout contract. In the same announcement, Johnson made the Sean Finn hire official as an amateur scout.

General Manager Ryan Johnson announced today that the #Canucks have signed goaltender Chris Driedger to a Professional Tryout (PTO) agreement and hired Sean Finn as an Amateur Scout.

DETAILS | https://t.co/lkHAyFXxrt pic.twitter.com/vOKHaJx9zz

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) August 27, 2026

Driedger, 32, is best remembered for his days with the Florida Panthers in 2019-20 and 2020-21. While serving as Sergei Bobrovsky’s backup, Driedger logged 12 games in 2019-20, but had fantastic numbers with a 7-2-1 record, a 2.05 goals against average and a .938 save percentage. He followed that up with another strong season in 2020-21, where he had a 14-6-3 record with a 2.07 goals against average and a .927 save percentage.

Coming off back-to-back strong seasons as the Panthers’ backup, Driedger cashed in in free agency, earning a three-year, $3.5 million AAV deal with the Seattle Kraken. Over the course of that contract, Driedger suited up in only 29 games for the Kraken, posting a 10-15-1 record, a 2.93 goals against average, and a .900 save percentage.

The Winnipeg, Manitoba native returned to Florida in 2024-25, but did not suit up in a game for the big club. Driedger was later traded to his hometown Winnipeg Jets at the 2025 trade deadline, but did not start in an NHL game that entire year.

Failing to earn a North American contract, Driedger went overseas and spent the year in the KHL. He signed with Traktor Chelyabinsk, where he posted an 8-9-2 record, a 3.05 goals against average and a .897 save percentage.

By bringing in Driedger for a professional tryout, the Canucks now have a goaltending room of Thatcher Demko, Kevin Lankinen, Nikita Tolopilo, and Driedger. The presumed starter, Demko, is still rehabbing from hip surgery he had in January, and his ability for the start of the season has come into question.

This Driedger signing appears to be insurance in case that possibility becomes a reality.

31 days, 31 questions: Does Canucks’ Marco Rossi still have 1C potential?

Stephan Roget — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:00:38 GMT

Marco Rossi has been a reasonable success in the NHL so far.

He’ll turn 25 in September. And when he does, he’ll have already played 235 NHL regular season games across parts of five seasons and two teams (Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks), with 136 points to show for his efforts. He’ll already have career highs of 24 goals and 60 points, set in the 2024-25 season, which is a far greater amount than the average NHL player will ever achieve.

But at the same time, Rossi – the ninth overall selection in the 2020 Entry Draft – has yet to fully deliver on his pre-draft potential.

Heading into the 2020 Draft, Rossi was ranked safely within the top-10 rankings, with many scouts having him in the top-five. Rossi really exploded in his draft year, going from 65 points for the Ottawa 67s the season before to 120 in just 56 games. At the time, only Dylan Strome and Mitch Marner had scored more points as first-year draft-eligible players in the OHL, and they went third and fourth overall in 2015. This earned Rossi the scoring title and the OHL MVP award, along with some lofty comparisons.

Rossi’s offensive abilities, combined with his dedication to two-way play and tenacious competitiveness, had him compared to some of the greatest Selke contenders in modern NHL history – namely, Pavel Datsyuk and Patrice Bergeron, according to both The Hockey Writers and Smaht Scouting.

The only thing consistently mentioned as working against Rossi was his size. He was listed as a perhaps-slightly-generous 5’9” heading into the draft, and he hasn’t gained much height since. It is believed that size was the primary reason Rossi dropped from his lofty projections to ninth overall.

In any case, the consensus from scouts was fairly clear and consistent: if Rossi could overcome his size and build a long-term career in the NHL, he had a real chance to become a number one centre.

At this point, we can probably safely tuck away those Bergeron and Datsyuk comparisons. Even the most optimistic individuals probably don’t have Rossi on a Hall of Fame track. But what about just hitting that 1C status? Is it also too late to hold out hope for that? Maybe not.

First, let’s try to define what a 1C really is. If we just go by the notion that there are 32 teams and thus 32 number one centres in the league, the results are kind of surprising. If we look at the past three NHL seasons combined (2023-24 to 2025-26), we find that the 32^nd-highest scoring centre over that span is…Elias Pettersson. No, seriously, his 185 points rank him right in between Vincent Trochek and Bo Horvat at the basest threshold of 1C production.

By this standard, Rossi isn’t terribly far off. The bottom end of top centres seems to produce about 60-70 points a season, on average, and Rossi already has a 60-point effort under his belt.

But most would agree that Pettersson has not been a true 1C over the past three seasons, and thus the threshold probably needs to be set a little higher.
Over that same three-year span, only 23 different centres achieved a points-per-game average of 0.90 or higher. And not only does that seem like a truer threshold for 1C status, when we look at that list of players, from Connor McDavid on down to Wyatt Johnston, we don’t see anyone who stands out as ‘obviously not a 1C.’

And that sort of production would require a leap forward from Rossi, whose highest PPG in any season so far is the 0.73 he achieved in 2024-25.

We realize we’ve spoken mainly about production until now, and that there is more that goes into a 1C than just scoring. That said, Rossi came into the league with a well-rounded two-way game and has only continued to grow it at the pro level. Suffice it to say, then, that if Rossi could get his scoring up to that 0.9 PPG range, most would have to agree that he’s at least a borderline 1C.

So, is there still time for Rossi to get there?

One thing that has worked against Rossi’s favour, but might work in favour of a later breakout, is that he lost a lot of developmental time after being drafted. Not only was Rossi’s draft year shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, he then contracted a particularly bad case of COVID himself in November of 2020. Though he played through the after-effects for the 2021 World Juniors that December, Rossi was struggling. By the time he got to Minnesota Wild camp in January, he’d been diagnosed with a severe case of myocarditis. That wiped out not only the remainder of his 2020-21 season, but also his ability to even exercise for much of the year.

This left Rossi playing some serious catch-up. He got back on the ice for 2021-22, but spent most of the year in the AHL, where he posted a respectable 53 points in 63 games as a rookie pro.

He’d play 19 games in the NHL for Minnesota in 2022-23, still maintaining his rookie status, but only scored a single assist.

By 2023-24, however, Rossi seemed to have caught up. In his Draft+4 season, and still technically his rookie campaign, Rossi played all 82 games for the Wild and scored 40 points. He bumped that up to a career-high 60 points in 82 games the following year, and then in this most recent campaign, he’d managed 13 points in 17 games for Minnesota before being traded to Vancouver. Where, it should be mentioned, he scored 22 points in 33 games despite being hampered by a foot injury.

It can’t be said that Rossi suffered for linemates in Minnesota. His most frequent wingers while there were Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, two of the best in the game. But one might say that he suffered from a certain lack of opportunity. Rossi only averaged about 17 minutes a night with the Wild, and especially came up short on the power play, where he was stuck on the second unit throughout his tenure – all the while the likes of Kaprizov, Boldy, Mats Zuccarello, and Joel Eriksson Ek enjoyed double-shifts.

In Vancouver, Rossi will definitely have a lower class of winger to play with. Currently, his most likely linemates are Brock Boeser and Liam Öhgren. But at the same time, it’s quite possible that Rossi leads the Canucks’ centres in overall and power play ice-time in 2026-27. And if that’s the case, would a step-up from his career-high of 0.76 points-per-game to something around 0.90 PPG really be all that unexpected?

At age 25, Rossi is late for a breakout, but not entirely outside the range. We had a look at those aforementioned top-23 centres over the past three years to see if any of them had broken out that late, and we found a few worth mentioning.

Nick Suzuki jumped from 0.80 PPG to 0.94 as a 24-year-old, and then up to 1.09 the following year.

Sam Reinhart – who, to be fair, has played as much wing as centre of late – went from 0.74 to 1.05 in his 26-year-old season, though a trade from Buffalo to Florida also had something to do with that.

But our most familiar comparable here is definitely JT Miller. His highest point-per-game season prior to arriving in Vancouver was 0.71. Then, in his first season as a Canuck at age 26, Miller bumped that all the way up to 1.04.

And so, while we’d never call it ‘likely’ that Rossi experiences a sudden increase in production, it’s definitely not impossible. In fact, given his pre-draft projections, his delays in development, and what he’s accomplished in the NHL despite some trying circumstances, one might argue that Rossi has, at least, a far higher chance of one of these late breakouts than does the average 2C-type in this league.

But it’s not going to just happen. A player who put up 60 points next to Kaprizov and Boldy is not going to put up 80 points next to Boeser and Öhgren without some serious self-improvement. The good news is that Rossi has been healthy since the conclusion of the season, and has now had the entire, lengthy summer to work on his game.

He’ll come into the 2026 Training Camp up against an uncertain Pettersson, and that means that, for the first time in his career, Rossi will have a real shot at 1C deployment and minutes, right from the jump.

Can his game also rise to the occasion?

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Canucks: 11 years later, how does Jake DeBrusk stack up to the rest of the 2015 draft class?

Tyson Cole — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:00:47 GMT

It’s been 11 years since the now-infamous 2015 NHL Draft class took place, and many of the best players in the National Hockey League today came from this class. Twenty of the 30 first-round picks have already played over 500 NHL games, with many on track to reach 1,000 in the next few seasons.

Last offseason, we covered how Vancouver Canucks‘ Brock Boeser stacks up against this very class, but this time, we’ll focus on another 2015 prospect who is now on the Canucks, Jake DeBrusk.

A stacked class

We already touched on how stacked a class this was, highlighted by generational talent Connor McDavid. There are a handful of other players who fall into the elite category from this class, including Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Zach Werenski, Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Aho, and Kirill Kaprizov. Other impactful NHLers from this class include Dylan Strome, Noah Hanifin, Pavel Zacha, Ivan Provorov, Timo Meier, Lawson Crouse, Mathew Barzal, Kyle Connor, Thomas Chabot, Joel Eriksson Ek, Brock Boeser, Travis Konecny, Roope Hintz, Rasmus Andersson, Jonas Siegenthaler, Anthony Cirelli, Conor Garland, Troy Terry, and Vladislav Gavrikov.

Players drafted around DeBrusk

DeBrusk will forever be remembered as the lone success story for the Boston Bruins in the 2015 NHL Draft. After trades with the Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames, that saw the Bruins trade Milan Lucic to the Kings and Dougie Hamilton to the Flames, Boston held three consecutive picks in the draft: 13th, 14th and 15th overall.

First of the three picks, the Bruins selected the Czech defenceman, Jakub Zboril. Zboril wouldn’t make his NHL debut until the 2018-19 season, and was out of the league by 2022-23. He played just 76 NHL games, scoring one goal and 16 points. He currently plays for Vitkovice HC of the Czech league.

DeBrusk was drafted at 14th overall, with the Bruins’ own selection. DeBrusk played seven years in Boston, scoring 138 goals and 266 points in 465 games. Looking for an opportunity to play higher in a lineup, DeBrusk signed with the Canucks in free agency in the summer of 2024.

The last pick of the trio is the least successful at the professional level. The Bruins selected right winger Zach Senyshyn at 15th overall, and it’s safe to say they would like to have a do-over. Although he made a fantastic first impression, scoring in his first NHL game in 2019, that would be Senyshyn’s only goal at this level. He played just 16 NHL games over five years before heading overseas, where he currently plays for the Zilina Wolves in the Slovak league.

While DeBrusk is the standout of the three Bruins draft choices, he lacks in comparison to the three names selected after: Mat Barzal, Kyle Connor, and Thomas Chabot.

Barzal has a Calder Trophy in his Trophy room, along with 178 more points in 17 fewer games. Connor has multiple eight-30-goal seasons and a pair of 40-goal seasons, along with an Olympic Gold Medal, and as a defenceman, Chabot has 21 fewer points than DeBrusk in 59 fewer contests. Not to take anything away from DeBrusk, but the three players selected after the Bruins’ three consecutive selections have more impressive resumes to this point in their careers.

How DeBrusk stacks up

With 628 games, DeBrusk ranks 17th in the class. He trails only Hanifin, McDavid, Provorov, Aho, Marner, Konecny, Rantanen, Anthony Beauvillier, Zacha, Meier, Connor, Brandon Carlo, Eichel, Crouse, Werenski, and is one shy of current teammate Boeser.
With 356 points, DeBrusk ranks 16th in points in the class. He trails only McDavid, Marner, Rantanen, Aho, Eichel, Connor, Konecny, Barzal, Boeser, Meier, Kaprizov, Werenski, Strome, Hintz, and Zacha.
With 189 goals, DeBrusk ranks 12th in goals in the class. He trails only McDavid, Connor, Rantanen, Aho, Eichel, Marner, Meier, Kaprizov, Boeser, Konecny, and Hintz.

Conclusion

Outside of the three players immediately selected after him, there were only a few players selected after him in the first round who have had better NHL careers than he has. He still stacks up fairly well as a complementary player and a top-end goal scorer among his class.

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