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Canucks: A look at the most painful points of two recent NHL rebuilds, and what came next for each

Edward Nicol-McCabe — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 21:00:53 GMT

No one said rebuilding was easy.

As the losses have begun to pile up for the Vancouver Canucks early in the season, players, the head coach, and fans alike have begun to show more frustration with the on-ice results from both an individual and team perspective.

For the first few losses, it was relatively straightforward for everyone. “We’re not supposed to win” and “Even when we lose, we win” were common lines you’d read on social media, and the players and coach didn’t seem all that concerned, either. For the most part, the effort was there in those early losses, and the club entered the season with a mantra of “wins and losses don’t matter” in the early stages of their rebuild. But during the club’s recent 10-game losing streak — which they snapped on Tuesday night with a great comeback win over the Anaheim Ducks — the tone has certainly shifted both among fans and inside the Canucks’ locker room.

During the recent homestand, Manny Malhotra pointed to a lack of effort from his players, Elias Pettersson talked about how much all the losing “sucks”, and Brock Boeser called the Canucks’ 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings “embarrassing” last week.

Pain is part of the process, but there is a difference between the standard bumps and bruises that a franchise goes through during a rebuild, and cruel and unusual punishment.

Let’s walk through a couple of the NHL’s most recent successful rebuilds, looking at their most painful moments to see how the Canucks’ pain stacks up against the rest of the field, and what could be coming next.

Ottawa Senators (2017-2024)

Worst Moment: Nine-game losing streak, Dec. 29^th, 2019 – Jan 16^th, 2020

After reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017 and making it to game 7 before losing to Chris Kunitz and the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime, the Ottawa Senators spent a few years in obscurity.

Stuck between the reality of an aging roster and owner Eugene Melnyk’s desire to win, GM Pierre Dorion walked a tightrope, often making moves that seemed to contradict one another. One moment, the club would trade Mark Stone to the Vegas Golden Knights; the next, it would trade draft capital for Vladislav Namestnikov and Mike Reilly.

During the Senators’ darkest hour, the club endured multiple extended losing streaks, including two nine-game stretches. The 2019-2020 streak, however, was particularly painful.

As part of a 20-game stretch in which the club won only three times, the Senators’ nine-game losing streak stemmed from a lack of finishing and goaltending. During the streak, only one of the Senators’ top five players by shots on goal posted a shooting percentage over five percent: Connor Brown.

Brady Tkachuk, the club’s leading scorer, was only 20 years old, and hadn’t developed into the star he would become. Drake Batherson, the only forward still on the Senators, only played 23 games that season.

The lack of star power up front, combined with a defence group with only one 20-point scorer, meant that when Tkachuk or Connor Brown, the team’s two highest-scoring players, went through a shooting lull, the club’s ability to produce was severely hurt.

At the other end of the rink, the Senators goalie situation was also in dire straits. Beloved Senators goalie Craig Anderson just so happened to go through the worst stretch of his season. In the five games he played during the nine-game streak, Anderson posted -4.68 goals saved above average, ranking 67^th, last in the NHL.

During the nine-game losing streak, the club was fourth-last in shooting percentage at 7.17%, and second-last in save percentage at .874.

Although Chabot, Tkachuk, and Batherson would eventually become the backbone of the Senators’ next playoff team, their lack of production, combined with the lack of direction and results from the club, proved to be a cautionary tale that even when the first wave of help arrives on shore, the pain doesn’t stop immediately. It’s merely the first wave in a series of many that will hopefully push a team from the bottom of the standings all the way to the mountaintop.

For the Senators, the second wave of talent would soon be on their way.

Thanks to the Erik Karlsson trade, which sent the Senators a first-round pick that would eventually become the third overall selection, the Senators drafted Tim Stutzle. Then, with their fifth overall selection, the Senators drafted Jake Sanderson.

Stutzle is now the Senators’ top forward. Four seasons with 70-plus points, including a 90-point season, the 24-year-old German has done a magnificent job driving play up front and has solidified himself as a quality top-line centre.

Sanderson, meanwhile, is now the Senators’ top defenceman and arguably their most impactful player. With two consecutive 40-assist, 50-point seasons and defensive metrics that are even more impressive than his point totals, Sanderson has quickly become a top-10 defenceman in the league and may still have room to grow offensively.

In one draft, the Senators selected the two players who will go on to define the current and next generation of Senators teams as they attempt to win the club’s first Stanley Cup.

San Jose Sharks (2021-2026)

Worst Moment: Back-to-Back games with 10 goals against, November 2nd & 4^th, 2023

They say it’s always darkest just before the dawn, and for the San Jose Sharks, the 2023-24 season was by far the worst in their rebuild. After going winless in October, the club entered November not only with its first win, but also its first game with fewer than three goals allowed and more than two goals scored.

Collectively, the club sported a shooting percentage of just 4.1% and an 89.6% save percentage. Already struggling to put shots on goal, averaging only 24.6 per game up to that point, the Sharks couldn’t shoot above their talent, so if their losing streak was going to end, their only hope was one of their goaltenders putting up an otherworldly performance.

I guess the Sharks didn’t specify those performances had to be positive.

On November 2^nd, the Canucks, off to a great start in what would become a division-winning season, walked into the SAP Center and scored 10 goals on the Sharks.

Right out of the gate, Nico Sturm put the Sharks behind the eight ball with a double-minor high-sticking penalty. The Canucks capitalized on both power plays, and the goals kept coming.

Four in the first period, another four in the second, and two more in the third gave the Canucks their first 10-goal game in 31 years. With the Canucks getting nine multi-point performances, including a five-point night from Quinn Hughes, the Sharks couldn’t keep up with the high-end offensive talent the Canucks possessed at the time.

Two nights later, the Sharks welcomed the Pittsburgh Penguins to the SAP Centre, and for the second straight game, an early penalty sank them. This time, Reilly Smith capitalized on an Anthony Duclair roughing minor, quickly putting the Penguins up a lead they wouldn’t surrender. 11 minutes later, Smith scored his second goal, the second of what would be four points on the evening. A five-goal second period would put the game out of reach, before the Penguins would eventually finish the evening with a three-goal third period.

Jake Guentzel’s goal at 12:10 of the third period would put a stamp on Sharks history, marking the first time the club would surrender 10 goals in back-to-back games and making it the first NHL team to do so post-expansion. The last club to do so was the Boston Bruins in December 1965.

What came next for the Sharks?

However, the Sharks’ darkest hour would give way to light. After the 2023-24 season, the Sharks won the NHL’s draft lottery, which gave them the right to select Macklin Celebrini first overall.

Macklin Celebrini has since become the NHL’s brightest superstar. In his sophomore season, Celebrini recorded 45 goals and 70 assists, a staggering 115-point campaign that saw the young phenom break the Sharks’ single-season points record, previously held by Sharks legend and Hockey Hall of Fame Centre Joe Thornton. Internationally, Celebrini is already one of Team Canada’s most trusted players, playing on the top line alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid at the 2026 Olympic Games.

If the Canucks’ rebuild landed them a player of Celebrini’s calibre, they would not only be extremely lucky, but they’d immediately have one of the brightest futures in the league.

What it all means for the Canucks

With some proactive, savvy moves; the patience and willingness to take some pain; and perhaps a touch of lottery luck, the team can transform itself into a contender. Right now, however, Canucks fans need to bear with some losses, and ownership and management have to commit to seeing it through and keep moving out any valuable veterans who won’t be part of their long-term plans. After all, the absolute worst-case scenario would be for all this losing to be for nothing, right?

This season is only the first of many chapters in this rebuild. Enjoy the ride, and you’ll find an even greater love and appreciation for the end of the story.

NHL Notebook: Blue Jackets place ex-Canucks defenceman Carson Soucy on NHL waivers

Tyson Cole — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 19:59:15 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!

A long list of former Canucks found themselves on NHL waivers during the preseason. And as of this morning, we can add another to that crop.

Blue Jackets place Carson Soucy on NHL waivers

On Wednesday morning, the Columbus Blue Jackets placed former Canucks defenceman Carson Soucy on NHL waivers.

Soucy (CLB)
Crotty (OTT)

on waivers

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 28, 2026

After not finding a new home during the summer ahead of the 2026-27 season, Soucy signed a professional tryout contract with the Blue Jackets. He played two preseason games for the Blue Jackets this year, registering 11 penalty minutes and two shots on goal, while averaging 16:25 minutes of ice time. These efforts earned Soucy an NHL deal in Columbus, inking a one-year, one-way, $1.15 million contract on opening night of the NHL season.

The 6’5″, 212-lb left-shot defenceman suited up in seven of the Blue Jackets’ 10 games this season. In his outings, Soucy has a lone assist, four penalty minutes, five shots on goal, four blocks, and 17 hits, with a minus-five rating in 14:45 of average ice time.

If unclaimed, Soucy will now return to the Blue Jackets’ AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters. He will join Corson Ceulemans, Colton White, Charlie Elick, Boston Buckberger, Adam Clendening, Guillaume Richard, and Luca Marrelli.

Soucy spent one and a half seasons of his three-year contract with the Canucks. He formed a shutdown pairing with Tyler Myers in the 2023-24 season that helped the Canucks win 50 games, win the Pacific Division, beat the Nashville Predators in the playoffs, and come within one goal of the Western Conference Finals against the Edmonton Oilers.

The following season, however, was a struggle for Soucy. His defensive play fell off a cliff, and he was traded to the New York Rangers at the NHL trade deadline for a 2025 third-round pick (Kieren Dervin). Fast forward one year later, and Soucy was flipped across to Long Island and in-city rival New York Islanders for another third-round pick. He played 30 games with the Islanders, but was not brought back by the club this offseason.

In 99 games with the Canucks, Soucy scored five goals and 11 assists for 16 points. He had 54 penalty minutes, averaged 18:01 per night, and finished with a minus-three rating.

‘Glad to be somewhere I’m wanted’: Jacob Quillan excited for new opportunity with Canucks

Tyson Cole — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 18:33:36 GMT

It’s been nearly two weeks since the Vancouver Canucks acquired Jacob Quillan and Brandon Buhr from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Aatu Räty. Both of the new Canucks have made their debut in the Canucks organization, with Quillan playing in AHL Abbotsford and Buhr suiting up in ECHL Kalamazoo.

Buhr has played just a trio of games for the Kalamazoo Wings so far, picking up an assist in a 4-1 win on Sunday. Quillan, however, has stolen the show with the Abbotsford Canucks. He made his Abbotsford debut last weekend, finding the scoresheet in each game of their back-to-back set against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. These were his first two points of the season after going without one in his first four games with the Toronto Marlies.

The difference? Quillan’s been put in a prime position to succeed out of the gate in Abbotsford, starting on a line with Ty Mueller and Bennett Schimek. Quillan has seen special teams time and even got a shot in overtime. Quillan shared that he prides himself on being able to play in all situations, crediting his two linemates for his fast start to his Canucks career:

“They’re two great players,” Quillan told Daily Faceoff Vancouver. “I actually really enjoyed playing with them. Seems like we create a lot. They’re two hounds, play with a lot of speed, so it’s been fun.”

With Braeden Cootes injured, Quillan earned a promotion to centre the top line with Kole Lind and Trey Fix-Wolansky for Abbotsford’s set of games this weekend against the Calgary Wranglers. He picked up an assist in the first game, but really flashed the chemistry with his new linemates in Game 2, where he registered his first professional hat trick.

This performance brings his totals to four goals and six points through just four games with the Abbotsford Canucks. With him elevating his play and clearly unlocking something in his new situation, the former college captain may have the inside track on the first call-up if the big club faces injury trouble or starts moving players out.

After his third season with Quinnipiac in the NCAA in 2024, Quillan was one of the hottest commodities in the undrafted college free agent pool. He posted back-to-back seasons with intriguing scoring profiles: 19 goals and 38 points in 41 games in 2022-23, and an even better 17 goals and 46 points in 39 games in 2023-24.

Teams lined up to sign Quillan, but the Nova Scotia native chose to sign in Toronto. Fast forward two seasons, and with 107 AHL games and 24 NHL games under his belt, new Maple Leafs management clearly didn’t see Quillan in their plans moving forward, so they shipped him out West.

While getting moved from the team you chose may sting, Quillan is excited now to be somewhere he is wanted:

“Yeah, when I first got the call, I was pretty shocked,” Quillan admitted. “I really didn’t know how to process it. When I signed in Toronto initially, the management staff really wanted me. With the new management, there were a lot of changes; so many guys joined the team, and so many guys left. So it’s just part of the shrapnel, I guess. But I’m glad to be somewhere I’m wanted; it gives me a confidence boost for sure, so I’m really looking forward to my journey here.”

For those who haven’t gotten eyes on Quillan yet, here is how he described his style of play:

“I think I play with pace, speed, physicality and battle,” Quillan replied when asked what he wants Canucks fans to know about his game. “I don’t give up on pucks or anything like that. I play a 200-foot game. I help in the D-zone. I like the transition offensively. I feel like I can play PK; I feel like I can play power play. So honestly, whatever the team needs to win. I’m just here to help them win at all costs.”

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The Statsies: Willander and Öhgren’s underlying metrics stand out in Canucks’ wild comeback vs. Ducks

Jeffrey Kennett — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 16:45:58 GMT

That was one way to snap a 10-game losing streak.

The Vancouver Canucks finally found a way back into the win column Tuesday night, but the underlying numbers from their 6-5 overtime victory over the Anaheim Ducks finally offer something more encouraging than an empty-calorie win.

After controlling just 26.75% of expected goals at five-on-five against Minnesota on Sunday, Vancouver flipped that figure to 59.24% in Anaheim. The Canucks generated 12 high-danger chances while surrendering seven, and a surprising combination of Liam Öhgren, Marco Rossi, and Linus Karlsson produced some of the team’s most dominant possession numbers of the season. However, a difficult outing from Leevi Meriläinen nearly spoiled the improved performance, leaving Vancouver needing six goals to secure its first victory in 11 games.

Here’s the win, by the numbers. As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Game Flow

The Canucks’ five-on-five performance was a considerable improvement from Sunday’s loss, particularly in their ability to generate quality scoring chances. Vancouver finished the opening period with a 54.84 CF%, out-attempting Anaheim 17-14. That translated into a 71.92 xGF%, with the Canucks producing 0.92 expected goals while allowing 0.36.

After an early push from the Ducks, Vancouver began steadily tilting the ice in its favour. Unlike Sunday, when the Canucks controlled shot attempts without building a significant expected-goals advantage, their early pressure in Orange County produced dangerous looks around the blue paint.

Things became considerably less comfortable in the second, when the Ducks took a 63.16 CF% while out-attempting Vancouver 12-7 at five-on-five. Still, Vancouver’s underlying numbers weren’t nearly as disastrous as the scoreboard suggested after 40 minutes. Its 45.05 xGF% in the middle frame represented a relatively modest disadvantage, with Anaheim generating 0.71 expected goals compared to Vancouver’s 0.58.

Vancouver regained control during the third, generating 13 shot attempts to Anaheim’s seven at five-on-five. Its 65% CF% and 61.02 xGF% reflected a stronger territorial performance as the Canucks mounted their comeback.

By the end of regulation, Vancouver had out-attempted Anaheim 37-33 at five-on-five and produced 2.22 expected goals against 1.53 for the Ducks. It was a substantially better performance than Sunday’s, even if the defensive breakdowns and goaltending nearly

Heat Map

Vancouver’s improvement in shot quality becomes particularly apparent when looking at the concentration of unblocked attempts around Anaheim’s crease, with the strongest clusters extending through the low slot and into the areas surrounding the net.

That pressure translated into 12 high-danger chances at five-on-five, compared to seven for the Ducks. Vancouver controlled a 63.16 HDCF%, an impressive turnaround after surrendering 17 high-danger opportunities and generating just seven against Minnesota. The opening period was especially productive, with the Canucks generating five high-danger chances while allowing just one. They added three more in the second and four in the third, consistently finding ways to reach dangerous areas even when Anaheim carried long stretches of play.

Despite being outshot 18-15 at five-on-five, one important distinction was that Vancouver limited the quality of the chances against. Anaheim’s strongest concentration appeared around one side of the Vancouver crease, however, the Ducks couldn’t match the overall volume of high-danger chances Vancouver created. The larger concern was how frequently those opportunities became goals against Meriläinen, despite the Canucks conceding fewer dangerous chances than they generated.

Individual Advanced Stats

Corsi Champ: Liam Öhgren finished with a team-leading 73.33 CF% at five-on-five, with Vancouver generating 11 shot attempts and allowing just four during his 13:28. Vancouver generated six scoring chances and allowed only one during his minutes, and after a difficult outing against Minnesota, the winger delivered one of his strongest performances of the season.

Corsi Chump: Victor Mancini found himself at the opposite end of the spectrum. The defenceman finished with a team-low 33.33 CF% at five-on-five, with Anaheim generating 10 shot attempts against Vancouver’s five during his 11:01. Those numbers came despite reasonably favourable deployment, including one offensive-zone shift start and none in the defensive zone. Although his high-danger chances were even at two apiece, Vancouver spent too much of Mancini’s ice time defending rather than generating sustained pressure.

xGF: Öhgren’s dominance extended past the shot-attempt differential, as his 98.07 xGF% led all Canucks skaters at five-on-five. The Canucks held a 3-0 advantage in high-danger chances with him on the ice, while the overall scoring-chance battle finished 6-1. Marco Rossi wasn’t far behind at 93.35 xGF%, followed by Linus Karlsson at 93.02%.

GSAx: The final result was considerably kinder to Leevi Meriläinen than his underlying numbers. Vancouver’s goaltender stopped 18 of 23 shots for a .783 save percentage, surrendering five goals against just 2.16 expected goals, leaving him with a minus-2.84 goals saved above expected.

His numbers at even strength were particularly concerning, allowing four goals on 18 shots at five-on-five, where Anaheim generated just 1.53 expected goals, producing a minus-2.47 GSAx in those situations. Four of the five goals he surrendered were classified as high-danger, although he faced only six high-danger shots throughout the game.

Anaheim’s Lukas Dostál struggled as well, allowing six goals against 4.33 expected goals and finishing with a minus-1.67 GSAx.

Statistical Musings

The Öhgren-Rossi-Karlsson line finds its groove: In 11:41 together at five-on-five, Öhgren, Rossi, and Karlsson controlled a 71.43 CF% and an extraordinary 97.84 xGF%. In those minutes, the Canucks generated 10 shot attempts against Anaheim’s four, outshot the Ducks 5-2 and held a 6-1 advantage in scoring chances. Even more impressive was that Vancouver allowed just 0.01 expected goals against in their ice time. Rossi’s individual numbers were particularly encouraging following a difficult performance against Minnesota, where he recorded a 7.59 xGF% against his former team Sunday, before registering at a 93.35% clip on Tuesday.

Tom Willander was outstanding: The sophomore defenceman had arguably the most impressive performance of Vancouver’s blue liners. Willander finished with a 72.41 CF%, second among all Canucks skaters, while controlling an 83.55 xGF%. Vancouver out-attempted Anaheim 21-8 during his 19:48 at five-on-five and generated 1.35 expected goals against just 0.27. The high-danger differential was 7-2 in Vancouver’s favour, and its scoring-chance advantage finished 11-4.

His performance becomes all the more impressive when considering he recorded eight neutral-zone shift starts without an offensive- or defensive-zone start, indicating his results weren’t simply a product of favourable offensive-zone usage. Jamie Oleksiak enjoyed a strong outing as well, finishing with a 65.52 CF% and an 81.74 xGF% across 20:14 at five-on-five.

Anaheim’s top line struggled: Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson and Judd Caulfield struggled to control play during their 12:07 together. The Ducks generated just five shot attempts while allowing 12, producing a 29.41 CF%, and their 35.28 xGF% wasn’t much better, with Vancouver holding a 6-3 advantage in high-danger opportunities. For a Canucks team that struggled to contain Minnesota’s depth players two nights earlier, limiting Anaheim’s most dangerous forwards unit was an encouraging development.

A productive power play without a goal: Vancouver generated plenty of offence with the man advantage but couldn’t convert. Across 8:15 at five-on-four, the Canucks recorded 11 shots on goal and generated 1.49 expected goals, including six high-danger opportunities, yet finished without a power-play goal. Anaheim, meanwhile, scored once during just 43 seconds at five-on-four. The Canucks generated the better chances and controlled possession as a whole, but their failure to finish those opportunities kept the game far closer than the numbers suggested.

As a team

CF% – 52.86% | HDCF% – 63.16% | xGF% – 59.24%

After 10 consecutive games without a victory, Vancouver finally found a way to win, and the five-on-five numbers prove the Canucks were full value for it. Meriläinen’s struggles and another scoreless power play left plenty to address, but the territorial improvement was substantial. For a team that spent much of Sunday’s loss chasing Minnesota around its defensive zone, Tuesday’s performance provided a far more encouraging foundation for Manny Malhotra’s squad to build upon.

Stats provided by naturalstattrick.com

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The Stanchies: Lekkerimäki has arrived, Elias Pettersson goes full Macbeth, and Meriläinen gets his win

The Stanchion — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 08:04:42 GMT

Somehow, some way, the Vancouver Canucks managed to crawl back from the brink of defeat to topple the Anaheim Ducks to the tune of a 6-5 overtime win.

For two periods, I prepared for the post-game article much like I have for most games this season, sans the Cotter Receipt Era.

I was going to talk about the team having to find a way to battle out of the depression of being mired in a franchise record-tying 11-game losing streak.

I was going to talk about how the team had to learn to not give up on life when the other team scored on them.

I was going to talk about how the team needs to find a way to produce offence and show some semblance of competency in the offensive zone. Maybe a pass or two might connect once in a while. I wasn’t asking for much, but I just wanted to know it could theoretically happen.

I was going to talk about how it feels like the Canucks leave a guy open beside their goal on every single goal against. About how it was hard to imagine this team ever winning a game of hockey ever again. That maybe they needed to all show up at 8 Rinks and just beat the snot out of a beer league team at an 11:30 puck drop, just to get their mojo back.

And then I was going to talk about a small glimmer of hope in the form of a Jonathan Lekkerimäki shot at the end of the second period. It was nothing major, but it was a small play in which he made a little dangle and unleashed a bit of a laser of a shot. Not enough to score, but just enough to let the Ducks know, “Hey, don’t you forget about me. Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t.”

It was going to be one of those “ok so they lost horribly, but at least Prime Time continues to have some moments in these games; he continues to look like an NHL player.” Which, when the team struggles to get twenty shots in a night, that feels like the high point of a game. “Maybe one day he’ll have a multi-goal game or something, I don’t know.” was how I was going to sign off on the segment, as I settled in for the usual third period of mediocrity.

But something strange happened on this night. Somewhere between the Anaheim fans chanting for their free Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich if the Ducks score five in a game, and after Elias Pettersson looked at his hands in the penalty box in a moment that can only be described as him wondering about how to get the spot out, Jonathan Lekkerimäki showed why Prime Time isn’t just a name; it’s a way of life.

Originally, the name was a bit of a laugh about how he only scored in games featured on Amazon Prime. He’d score a goal, Conor Garland would admonish him about twirling his stick and having sideburns or whatever, and we’d all have a good laugh. Watching his performance against the Ducks on Tuesday night, however, Prime Time felt more suited for being investigated by a blood splatter analyst from the Miami Metro Police Department than anything else.

Down 5-3 with time winding down in the third period, it truly felt like the game had embraced the moral victory lifestyle. A night with three goals? A game with almost thirty whole shots? The Canucks were playing with house money at this point.

Yet with the goalie pulled for the extra attacker, one man laughed at the idea of moral victories. Why not bask in the real stuff, instead?

Yes sir, with time draining off the clock, Prime Time loaded up a shot that, and I say this with careful consideration, resembled a Markus Naslund offering. A true laser beam. The kind of stuff legends are written about. Not Dave Nonis smiling about Patrick White’s release, but a true honest-to-god, weapon of mass destruction shot. The kind of shot where you almost feel sorry for the goaltender, because they truly had no chance on the play. Are you really a goaltender if all you’re doing is hearing the sound barrier breaking behind you? It’s the kind of shot you assume you’re going to uncork in beer league every time you send the puck on net, only to wonder how it only ended up going a brisk four kilometres per hour along the ice.

Now at this point, believe me, I was still firmly in the mindset of “you know what, this isn’t just a moral victory, this is a MORAL victory, full caps, because one of their young kids just unleashed a piss missile and damn it, if you can’t get jacked from that, then what are we even doing here.”

Be honest, if you read about a game in which the Canucks scratched back to make it 5-4 after being down 4-1, complete with Prime Time giving you tickets to the gun show, you’d happily accept that tanking result.

Lekkerimäki, though, maybe he heard those whispers in the off-season. The people crowding around the water cooler, talking about how this was a make-or-break season for him. That he hadn’t shown enough to be in the NHL. That if he didn’t step up this year, he might just have to accept being a B+ player in the AHL.

Whatever the reason, he looked so calm on the ice when it was 5-4 that it made me uncomfortable. Like he knew something I didn’t. It felt like Nathan Fielder was filming a bit, but I didn’t quite know what the premise was. I just couldn’t figure out why he didn’t look nervous; doesn’t he know he needs to be panicking at this point?

Now his second goal wasn’t shot with as much force as the first one, but it was fired from downtown. It had the aura of Steph Curry stepping up to hit a three from the logo; So smooth and confident that you can’t quite understand how he does it. He just sort of looked at the net, and in one smooth motion the puck was sailing through the air, beating Lukas Dostal to tie the game up. I have watched this goal over and over again just to marvel at how easy he made it look.

It was a brilliant shot in a game that has the potential to be a bit of a coming-out moment in this young man’s career. Of course, they say there are two wolves in all of us, one of which is a Brabarian, so we know not to get too overly hyped on just one small moment in time. But in a season in which the team has looked downright awful on most nights, Prime Time continues to be a player that makes you think he might actually be part of the long-term solution around here. Which, in a tanking season, during a rebuild that will most likely take 3-5 years to truly take off, is one of the few things you can get a little bit excited about.

It wasn’t all Prime Time, of course. The veterans are always the guys who are going to have to step up and lead the way, and Elias Pettersson, Fil Hronek and Brock Boeser did just that. With seven points between them, and a couple of unassisted goals where Elias Pettersson was the main driver of the play, it could easily have been nine points from their leadership group. With the game slipping away in the third period, they managed to get it done and give Lekkerimäki the chance to shine.

Was it a perfect game? Clearly not. It was, in fact, quite ugly at times.

But for a team that looked like they had no idea how to turn things around and find their way into the victory column, this was about as good as it gets.

Let’s dive into a winning game for once, shall we?

Best all the small things

Let's Go #Canucks

— J.R. 𝕁ℝ𝕀ℂ𝕂𝔼𝕐 ℙℝ𝕆𝔻𝕌ℂ𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ𝕊 𝕊𝕋𝕌𝔻𝕀𝕆 (@JasonRickey) October 28, 2026

The first twenty minutes have traditionally been the Canucks best period in every game this year. And by “best” I just mean the period in which I can kind of, if I squint really hard, see a path to, maybe not a victory in what they are doing on the ice, but at least a goal or two.

It usually doesn’t result in scoring; of course, it just sort of ends up being a collection of plays where you find yourself going “fair enough” to whatever choices they made, compared to their usual third-period actions, in which the reaction is usually more along the lines of “why are they actively trying to hurt me, do they get off on this, I am just asking questions here.”

And it was much the same Tuesday night in which the Canucks did some things that looked like hockey, and you know what, fair enough.

First up you had Paul Cotter back in the lineup getting the puck by the side of the net and driving it on goal, just firing a shot wide:

https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExZXE1NTRoM3B6YzN2ZHR0Zjk2dG1naGEzNTU4OHd2a3dia29yczJjZCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/Cz0SQVbPj9eQNBxf03/giphy.mp4

Did he score? No.

But he made the right play by dragging the puck towards the Ducks goalie. You also had a couple of good board battle victories from Max Sasson and Arshdeep Bains, something that has been in short supply this season from the entire team.

All in all, it almost resulted in a shot on net, and this is what they call low bar expectations.

Zeev Buium was next up, and he almost created a breakaway off of an ambitious check off of a faceoff, but was thwarted by Alex Killorn refusing to be made into a highlight:

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Buium ended up with a lone assist on the night, and while he didn’t have a treasure trove of moments where you felt the need to text your buddy demanding to know if they saw that, I felt like it was a good game from the young defenceman. Certainly a game where it felt like he was trying to play to his strengths? He just had several times where he stepped up into the rush and was trying to be a positive force in the offensive zone, something we haven’t seen nearly enough of from him with Vancouver yet. He’s had a lot of games where I swear I can still feel the ghost of Adam Foote over his shoulder, but against the Ducks I finally saw a bit of that Zeev we all heard about from his college days.

Don’t get me wrong, he struggled in his own zone at times (as did, well, everyone), but at least he had moments that you felt he could build on in this one.

Early on, Leevi Meriläinen also looked calm and collected in net, making several glove saves that should delay any career change into becoming a real estate agent in Arizona anytime soon:

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And with the veteran trio of Elias Pettersson, Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser playing together, we actually saw signs of a line that can make a zone exit with control and generate a scoring chance out of it:

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Despite the fact that the Canucks had to come back from being down 4-1 in this game, it was a pretty even affair for the most part. It just felt like Anaheim knew how to finish on their chances, whereas Vancouver struggled to light the lamp. A common refrain on the year, which is why I think we had all settled into the mindset of “hey you know what, losing 5-3 isn’t SO bad.”

Best generational goals

#Canucks Hronek taking this "Team Tank" a little too serious 😂

— zipper (@zee_zipper) October 28, 2026

Alan Walsh is calling it the greatest goal of all time: Fil Hronek put the Ducks up 1-0 after he tipped an AJ Greer pass right past Leevi Meriläinen:

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It’s safe to say Fil Hronek has struggled this year. A lot of Canucks have, we all know that, but Fil was supposed to be the main guy on the backend who kept everything calm and cool. The cool Uncle who won’t buy the kids alcohol but doesn’t mind if you sneak a swig or two out of the whiskey in the pantry.

Instead, we’ve seen a shell of his former self, and maybe that’s on us and our expectations. Last year he was one of the few players who looked like they survived Adam Foote’s system, so I think we just kind of expected him to adapt and continue on the same way this year.

Aside from what Walsh called the best pass the NHL has ever seen against the Wild, we just haven’t seen any of the old Hronek make much of an appearance. And again, everyone is struggling on this team. Tying up the opponent’s stick seems to be a skill that is unlearnable on this squad, so at this point why not just tap the puck in yourself and save everyone the trouble.

But you do wonder if Fil’s overtime goal on this night might help jumpstart that top d-man we know lives inside of him.

Best just the tip

That’s PP shot almost went in. #Canucks

— David Mays (@StatsObsessed) October 28, 2026

The Canucks held the decided advantage on special teams against the Ducks, going 1/7 compared to the Ducks 1/2. It’s not often the Canucks get many power plays just due to the fact they’re usually chasing the puck. It’s hard to get a call when you’re chasing down the other team and wondering how hard it is to pull a Dylan Larkin.

And while the Canucks ultimately only got the one goal with the extra man, at least their power play looked serviceable? They were moving the puck well, and in something I have rarely seen over the last decade here, their second unit looked just as competent as the first? Dare I say I was hoping the second unit would hop over the boards at times? I cannot remember the last time I thought that. When the Sedins would go off from the power play and give 15 seconds to Andrew Ebbett or whoever, you just sort of wished the team had taken a timeout instead.

Against Anaheim, though, Jake DeBrusk was looking spry and lively. You can smell it in the air; his hot streak is coming if he keeps playing like this:

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As I said, quick, competent puck movement; there is no magic here. Just zipping the puck around to get Anaheim chasing, opening up room for Jake DeBrusk to attempt the Conor Garland mini-stick hockey backdoor tap-in.

And with the period coming to a close, Elias Pettersson almost tipped home a Fil Hronek point shot, a point shot many are calling the greatest of all time:

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Elias Pettersson still stands out as one of the few Canucks who can skate their way through the neutral zone with puck possession, and he was using it effectively in this one.

With the second period starting while still on the power play, Marco Rossi would get a clean look at Dostal, only to be denied and then having to watch Travis Mitchell uncork a game five Geoff Courtnall attempt:

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Leevi was once again calm and steady, something something Mom’s spaghetti.

The Canucks found themselves on yet another power play after that, and this time it was Filip Chytil taking the puck to the net, followed up by Linus Karlsson getting the puck high in the slot, only to fire wide:

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You can see the puck movement; you can see the vision. Taking the puck hard to the net will always be met with approval from this fan base, so seeing Chytil take that course of action is always a good thing. And there aren’t many players on Vancouver that get me thinking “uh oh, that other team is in trouble” when they get the puck in that spot, but oddly enough Linus is one of them. I honestly thought he was picking his spot and sniping one home there, but alas.

Best no hugs allowed

LiOh from ZeeBu. #canucks

— Tom Hoen (@thoen88) October 28, 2026

Zeev Buium got his assist on Liam Ohgren’s goal after Tristan Luneau paid Fil Hronek back by tipping the puck past his own goalie:

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The best part of this goal was Liam looking almost angry that this was how he got his first of the season. You can see Buium celebrating the goal and going for the hug, but Liam just no-sells it and skates past him.

If this was wrestling, the fly-by from Liam on the hug offer from Buium would mean he is 100% going to cash in his Money in the Bank title shot against him down the line. But you have to assume that being mired in a 10-game losing streak in a season in which you have struggled to do much of anything, a goal finally going in off of a funky bounce probably doesn’t feel all that satisfying.

“Of all the things I do, THAT’S what goes in?” sort of vibes; we’ve all been there. When the universe doesn’t make sense, sometimes you have to take a moment to process it.

Aside from the first of several existential crises in this game, you can see Buium jumping up in the play on this goal, which was a major driving factor on it. He not only takes the puck in the neutral zone, but he makes a zone entry with possession before dishing off to Linus Karlsson, then keeps skating to the net to give Liam options on the play.

Lucky bounce or not, the process on the goal was solid, and is exactly what the Canucks need to see more of from Zeev.

Best cleaning up your basement

Once again can’t defend in front of the net. Have to attack the puck net front on defense better. #Canucks

— gavin benitez (@GavinBenitez19) October 28, 2026

The Ducks would strike back under a minute later, this time when Jackson LaCombe found Jeff Mallot unguarded, unchecked and possibly unloved, at the side of the net. Hronek and EP40 both took on the monumental task of defending Mikael Granlund for reasons (bees?), leading to another easy goal for the opposition:

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We saw it a lot under Adam Foote last year, where there would just be some dude completely alone in his thoughts beside a Canucks goaltender, only to turn around and have around thirty seconds to figure out the best way to slide the puck into the empty net. It’s starting to feel like that is happening more and more under Manny Malhotra as well, but I will say a lot of observations and comparisons can’t be fully fleshed out due to the 10-game losing streak.

What is lack of skill? What is coaching? What is depression from losing? We have a long season to go before we figure out what kind of squad and system we have in front of us.

Either way, it was 2-1 Anaheim, and at this point you were just sort of assuming the game was done. Good first period, then the second period of failure, followed by the “pray for a moral victory” goal in the third, a tale as old as time.

Best too much man

How tf did Anaheim wind up with a power play on that? #Canucks

— The Line Change (@LineChangeVAN) October 28, 2026

One of the few bright spots this year has been the play of Defensive Hobbyist Elias Pettersson. I don’t say this to besmirch him, but last season I found it hard to see why he was in the NHL. His play just fell off a cliff, and I truly never knew what was going on through his head. I chalked it up to the Foote effect, but it was still rough watching him play hockey.

This year, though, he far more resembles the guy we saw under Rick Tocchet, the guy with the potential to be an NHL regular for many years to come. Even better, he is really picking his spots under Manny. He doesn’t chase hits nearly as much; he isn’t losing the play and getting lost on the ice; he has sort of simplified his approach to “are you going near my goalie? If yes, I will attempt to murder you,” and every NHL team has room for those kinds of guys.

Which is why it isn’t surprising he has been the most consistent heavy hitter on the team this year, something he displayed when he absolutely crushed Sam Colangelo in a race for the puck:

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Let’s be clear here: that is the cleanest hit you will ever see. Both men look at each other as they skate into the corner; you can see them both signing the mental contract to engage in a contest of physical strength. Both guys set their feet, load up their shoulders, and they come together in a cacophony of momentum and violence.

The only problem here is that D Petey was too much man on this day. There is no shame in losing this battle; it happens all the time in a game. You try and exert your will; sometimes you fail. Live by the sword, die by the sword. DP25 was just the bigger and better man here.

But because hockey can be stupid and a big hit can equal “we must fight, now”, Tyson Hinds goes to have some words with Elias after the play, resulting in DP25 taking him down as well:

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Now, did Hinds attack Elias? No, but he was skating with intention. It’s clear DP25 used Florida laws here and stood ground by hitting him with a cross-check pretty quickly. I can see why the referee handed out a penalty to Pettersson because visually he was the guy doing the stick work.

But sometimes the NHL is like the DMZ, and you don’t know if that guy getting on your exfil is going to honour the truce. Sometimes you have to take the guy out before he takes you out, because you can’t risk losing that weapon blueprint, damn it.

Either way, I take that every single day from D Petey. I’d rather watch a season of him being an asshole than watching him meekly trying to draw a penalty for being punched.

Even if it leads to a power play goal against from Beckett Sennecke after Jamie Oleksiak doesn’t tie up his stick:

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Cutter Gauthier tosses the puck on net, Jamie can’t control the twig of Beckett, and it was now 3-1 for the bad guys.

Best familiar feeling

The Canuck are starting to get comfortable losing. #Canucks

— Kerry Banks (@bad_kicker) October 28, 2026

You truly felt like the game had officially slipped away when Leo Carlsson made it 4-1 at the end of the second period when he banged home the rebound off of a Malott shot:

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This is about as EA Sports as it gets with buddy firing low pad to try and generate the easy rebound in the slot, and it worked quite easily against a Vancouver team stuck on the rookie difficulty setting.

And as promising as some of Buium’s exploits in the offensive zone looked against Anaheim, his defensive game continues to be a big work in progress. Instead of taking the man on this play and trying to box out his crease, he swipes at the puck and ends up misplaying it, leading to the easy tap-in for Carlsson.

Now, Zeev is a smaller guy, so he won’t be living that D Petey lifestyle of hammering away at dudes and overpowering them physically in the crease, but that just makes it more imperative that he figure out a way to tie up sticks and embrace the joys of leverage and thick thighs in the NHL. It’s a thin line between being a promising small, offensive-oriented d-man and becoming an Erik Brännström, which, relax, Zeev still has a ton of runway left before we go anywhere near that ideology. I am just stating it because we know smaller d-men always have a much higher hill to climb in the NHL, and tend to get far less rope.

Best those were the times, my friend

Not a single player on the Canucks is showing even a glimmer of promise, are they? #Canucks

— ぴーぶれ (@KRYpeekaboo) October 28, 2026

See, this is the moment I talked about! The game was over! The Canucks were done! The third period was academic at this point! So when Prime Time did a little dingle dangle off of a really good Doc forecheck, I was like, “yeah man, this is the highlight of the game, just embrace it!”

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You can see the confidence there, though, right? Dude goes inside out and unleashes a laser that required a glove save hard enough that Dostal had to milk it a little bit. That’s when you know you’ve got their attention.

Best look at the bright side

#Canucks register 12 shots on goal in 2nd period. Most since the 13 they had in third period vs Calgary on October 3

— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) October 28, 2026

Jeff wasn’t wrong! They ended up with 33 shots on net. 33!

Best who wins

I think we would lose against a team of actual ducks at this point #Canucks

— Shiru (@ShiruDesigns) October 28, 2026

The Canucks trotted out in the third period to dutifully play out the game, where Paul Cotter once again got a good look on net, this time on a pass from Marco Rossi:

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Good puck movement from the second unit once again, ending with a shot on net? Inject that moral victory into my veins!

Best seeds of an idea

That might’ve been the worse 20 seconds of 4on4 hockey I’ve ever seen my the #canucks

— james cooper (@46jcoop) October 28, 2026

I have watched this game and gone over the clips, and I think it turned when Drew Helleson deked out half of the Canucks. I will wait while you Google Drew Helleson, but basically the bottom-pairing defenceman from Anaheim was out there looking like Paul Coffey in his prime, dangling his way around the offensive zone:

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You essentially have Max Sasson and Defensively Enthused Pettersson falling over in an attempt to block a shot, with Paul Cotter getting his leg swept by Leevi trying to make a save, while Tom Willander wisely stays out of it all.

Visually, it’s comically amusing. Hilarious, in fact. Synchronized diving in hockey will never not be funny, so giggle along with me as we watch this clip.

My takeaway from this, however, is that this is a team that still truly cares. A checked-out team doesn’t dive to block shots. A checked-out team doesn’t sacrifice its body to try and keep a 4-1 game from going to 5.

What I see is a team that is just absolutely mired in a losing streak and is gripping the sticks way too tight and overthinking everything.

The effort is there, clearly. They are just battling the demons of a long losing streak.

Best speaking of

EP40 has gone full Macbeth in the penalty box pic.twitter.com/DVf0mGawsU

— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) October 28, 2026

This is where I think Elias Pettersson locked the eff in. He had just taken a penalty that made it a four-on-four, and just sort of sat in the penalty box staring at his hands like he had just offed King Duncan and was trying to come to terms with everything. This was the look of a man who knew this was just the beginning of the dark descent, and that more lay ahead of him if victory was to be had. JT Miller would have been so proud.

And with that renewed energy, EP40 led the rush that made it a two-goal game, leading to a puck bouncing in off of Brock Boeser:

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As of this moment, the NHL has still listed this goal as unassisted because they claim Alex Killorn had possession of the puck when he *checks notes* whacked at the puck in the air.

I continue to believe the NHL bets on their own games because I truly never know what they will come up with when deciding on outcomes. Intent? Possession? Cruel thoughts? Somehow they all get thrown into the mix when the NHL decides what’s a point and what isn’t.

But on this play, despite Elias Pettersson making the zone entry, making the deke to cut to the middle of the ice, and then throwing the puck into the middle, resulting in a bounce that went Boeser’s way, that somehow was deemed to not be an assist because Alex Killorn flailed at, and made brief contact with, the puck.

Ok, sure.

Best ok now it’s over

The #canucks tonight so far have allowed a response goal 30 seconds and 43 seconds after scoring

Brutal

— Canucks Hub (@CanucksHub) October 28, 2026

If you thought the game was done at 4-1, you 100% thought this one was over when the Ducks made it 5-2 right off of the draw:

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Colangelo just throws the puck on net; it’s that easy, apparently. It doesn’t help that Fil Hronek bounces to the side and manages to both not take the stick of AJ Greer nor stop him from screening Leevi, but that’s kind of how this season has gone. Net front defence has been non-existent for the majority of the time.

Which, hey, like I said, 5-2? That’s a moral victory, baby. Managed to scare the hometown crowd a bit, but ultimately continue on your quest for Landon DuPont.

Best Jamie, the sniper?

Oleksiak makes us sort of respectable. #Canucks

— Snowstar444 (@snowstar444) October 28, 2026

The Canucks top line of DeBrusk, Boeser and EP40 would take the next shift, however, and score a quick one themselves:

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I don’t know if I had Jamie Oleksiak scoring off the rush on my Bingo card, but that’s pleasantly surprising.

The main takeaway from this goal is I think the Canucks kind of have to run with their three vets playing on the same line. As much as we want to believe in a world in which Jake, Brock and Elias can each run a line, they just don’t have the juice for that. Not with this current roster.

This is a team that has struggled to get anything going off of the rush all year long, and the only time you see some level of NHL-caliber North/South hockey is when these three guys play together. Brock and Jake are passenger players, and EP40 is a facilitator; they can all play off of each other very well.

And not to be lost in this comeback was this effort from Defensively Endowed Elias Pettersson hustling on the backcheck to thwart a clean breakaway:

https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExNGtvNXF5YzI3MTlnd3ltNThtanBoMHFxd3QyMGYxa2loaWxocnVtNSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/93ANCjZAiFsgxUKbbk/giphy.mp4

It could very well have been 6-3 here, but that effort level from DP25 ended up being a massive part of the comeback instead.

Best pew pew pew

SNIPESHOW LEKKERIMAKI #Canucks

— Mirror Mirror 🪞 (@mirror_moi) October 28, 2026

All of which brings us to Prime Time. I said it at the start of the season: if Jonathan Lekkerimäki takes number 88, he needs to bring some razzle dazzle to earn that number, and it’s safe to say he did it on this night.

With Leevi on the bench, Lekkerimäki gets the puck and unleashes hell on his command:

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Things to love about this goal:

The shot from Jonathan Lekkerimäki. He had the option of finding a wide-open Jake DeBrusk down low with a pass, or by floating in a shot for the tip. You can’t say for sure, but it looks like initially he is assessing if he can pull off a pass to Jake. He holds onto the puck on his initial look on net and seeing the passing lane being blocked by Ducks D-man Noah Warren, Prime Time essentially says bet, and drags the puck over until he can get a clean shot off.
That is an elite, high-level finish from Jonathan Lekkerimäki on that shot. That’s the kind of shot you can set your watch to and/or get pregnant on.
Jake DeBrusk, who won’t get an assist on this play, sets up a perfect screen for Jonathan Lekkerimäki to shoot into. I know, I know, that laser beam might not have needed it, but it always helps.
Elias Pettersson loses the puck on the initial board play, but doesn’t give up on it. Using that intense Macbeth energy he summoned in the penalty box, he chases down AJ Greer and lifts his stick enough for AJ to fear for his life. With Filip Chytil closing in on him as well, Greer spins and fires the puck into space, turning it over to Lekkerimäki to set the goal in motion. Usually it’s Vancouver being harassed into making an egregious mistake, but the John Cena approach from Elias Pettersson on the play turned the tables for once.

Best we aren’t done

Lekkerimäki lore in real time. #Canucks

— DaveOfEarth 🌎 🇨🇦 (@Dave_of_Earth) October 28, 2026

With the game at 5-4, and the goalie pulled once more, it was young Jonathan Lekkerimäki who once again found himself with the puck on his stick:

https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExNmxmM244Z2ZicDd0MHFpcnptcTFqOHhkYXg5djQwNHF2NHNuODNseiZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/C3DGmtf9UvJxvI51Ei/giphy.mp4

Things to love about THIS goal:

Showing the calm swagger normally reserved for Yusuf Dikeç, Jonathan Lekkerimäki makes this look way too easy. He also doesn’t even seem excited he tied the game up; he is very much acting like he’s been here before.
This goal is made even better by the fact that Prime Time almost set up Jake DeBrusk for the Garland mini-stick tap-in just moments before the eventual goal. Jonathan Lekkerimäki is making some very astute plays at the NHL level, and it is promising.
Speaking of Jake, he won’t get an assist on this goal either, despite being a vital part of it. He set up two perfect screens for Jonathan Lekkerimäki to shoot into, and had himself a pretty terrific response in his role as a veteran guy who needs to start making some big plays. Won’t get credit for it, but without Jake, this victory doesn’t happen.
Speaking of vets, Elias Pettersson and Fil Hronek just make smart passes on this play. They buy time, they remain calm, and they find a way to get looks on net. That’s what you want from your top guys.

Best don’t call it a comeback

WE'VE ONLY GONE AND DONE IT #Canucks

— Josh (@spursymac) October 28, 2026

The only umbrage I take with overtime was that, at one point, Jonathan Lekkerimäki drew a penalty, and with a timeout called, Manny chose not to put the young man back on the ice for the chance at the hat trick. Jonathan Lekkerimäki was firing on all cylinders at this point, so I would have loved to have seen him get that chance, but alas.

What ended up happening, though, was Elias Pettersson once again using hustle, loyalty and respect as he backchecked hard on Killorn, leading to what I would call a lucky break in that the officials penalized the Ducks player for running over Leevi:

https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExMjcydmZrMW5jMTA5emVidHNsYnpsd3hjeTYzbmp6cnM3YjhpMm1pbyZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/c0DsJIqVDtIcTiNOqi/giphy.mp4

Don’t get me wrong, that’s a fine penalty to call; I just thought there was enough contact from EP40 that the officials might have swallowed their whistle on the play.

But with that two-man advantage, the Canucks went to work, ending with Fil Hronek scoring what many are calling the greatest overtime goal of all time:

https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExdm4ybXIyNGdvNWY1ZDNtczcwYTQ2bTN4d3JwdHNhMGs1djRwMm13NCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/aH3DnasZRzIptalhdl/giphy.mp4

Much like their earlier power plays that didn’t connect, the smart puck movement was there. The process was great. But this time they got the result they wanted. A Fil piss missile for Man of the Year.

Game, blouses.

Best everyone is asking

So do we acknowledge that Hronek scored the first and last goals of this game? #Canucks

— Key (@Keywielder18) October 28, 2026

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Instant Reaction: Canucks mount unbelievable comeback on the back of Lekkerimäki to beat Ducks 6-5 in OT

David Quadrelli — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 04:53:46 GMT

Welcome back to Instant Reaction, the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Vancouver Canucks game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!

First Period

Leevi Meriläinen was busy early and often to start this game, flashing the leather multiple times to rob Ducks shooters. Meanwhile, the players in front of him attempted some shots, but it took nearly eight minutes for the Canucks to be credited with their first official shot on goal, a Linus Karlsson wrister that Lukas Dostal shouldered away.

Meriläinen’s early saves opened the door for the Canucks to find their footing a bit, and they began to get on their forecheck.

You know how Manny Malhotra has been talking about effort-based mistakes and the Canucks’ defencemen not clearing out the crease? This wasn’t exactly that, but it was another tough moment for Filip Hronek, who has not looked like himself to start this season. DPetey kept a driving AJ Greer to the outside, but Greer fired a pass into the middle for Tim Washe that Hronek inadvertently redirected behind his goaltender.

Anaheim goal!Scored by A.J. Greer with 04:08 left in the 1st. Assisted by Jackson LaCombe and Sam Colangelo.ANA: 1 | VAN: 0#VANvsANA #FlyTogether #Canucks

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-28T02:51:34.877411Z

1-0 Ducks.

The Canucks didn’t let that stop them, immediately returning to the forecheck and playing an up-tempo game.

Travis Mitchell flipped the puck over the glass from his own defensive end, which led to the Canucks being awarded the game’s first power play with just over a minute to go.

To be clear, the Canucks did not have a particularly bad opening 20 minutes of play. Certainly far from their worst first-period effort of the season.

Some takeaways from the first:
-Jackson LaCombe sure looks like a top pairing defenceman. I remember being briefly confused when the Ducks locked him up long-term, but there’s no confusion now.
-What a tough start to the year for Hronek.

Second Period

The Canucks opened the second period with just under a minute of power play time, and did not score. They didn’t have to wait long for their next chance, as Tyson Hinds was called for roughing on Linus Karlsson. This time, they rolled out their second unit to start things off, but it was to no avail. One positive though was that the Canucks pulled ahead on the shot clock. I’m pretty sure I could count on one hand how many times I’ve been able to say that in a second period of a game this season.

And eventually, they tied things up.

First, Marco Rossi won a defensive zone draw to Zeev Buium. Buium quickly snapped the puck up to Liam Öhgren, who tried to move the puck up but was stopped in the neutral zone. Buium kept his feet moving, got to the puck first, and kickstarted a zone entry, dishing off to Linus Karlsson before making a beeline toward the net. Karlsson rifled a pass over to Öhgren on the far side, and Öhgren’s attempted pass back to Buium on the backdoor deflected off Ducks defenceman Tristan Luneau and past Dostal.

Vancouver goal!Scored by Liam Ohgren with 13:24 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Linus Karlsson and Zeev Buium.ANA: 1 | VAN: 1#VANvsANA #FlyTogether #Canucks

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-28T03:21:36.042012Z

It’ll go down as a secondary assist for Buium, but he’s the engine on this play and that’s one of his better moments of the season. 1-1.

The Ducks answered back just 30 seconds later as Jeff Malott set up right near the blue paint and didn’t face much pushback before rifling home a pass from Jackson LaCombe.

Anaheim goal!Scored by Jeff Malott with 12:54 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Jackson LaCombe and Noah Warren.ANA: 2 | VAN: 1#VANvsANA #FlyTogether #Canucks

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-28T03:22:21.508978Z

Don’t think that’s one that Manny is going to like very much from DPetey. 2-1 Ducks.

The Canucks got their third power play of the game just past the halfway mark of the second period when Drew Hellesson was called for slashing. Brock Boeser got a soft chip chance off from the bumper spot, a shot from the point as he looked for a deflection in front, then found Elias Pettersson for a one-timer, but the Canucks couldn’t break through.

It was a pretty solid 35 minutes for the Canucks!

Then Elias Junior Pettersson took a cross-checking penalty, giving the Ducks their first power play of the game. I just want to highlight how strange it was that DPetey got a penalty out of this play:

DePetey gets challenged by the Ducks after the most normal hit in hockey and somehow Anaheim got a power play out of it.

— Lachlan Irvine (@lachinthecrease.com) 2026-10-28T03:34:21.338Z

Anyways, the Ducks’ PP moved the puck well, and scored one of the nicer PP goals you’ll see:

Power play goal for Anaheim!Scored by Beckett Sennecke with 04:16 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson.ANA: 3 | VAN: 1#VANvsANA #FlyTogether #Canucks

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-28T03:41:35.250071Z

3-1 Ducks.

Leo Carlsson added another before the end of the period to push the Ducks’ lead to three. Meriläinen came way out to challenge a shooter, made the initial save, but unfortunately, the rebound was too tough for Buium to handle clearing, and Carlsson banged it home.

Anaheim goal!Scored by Leo Carlsson with 01:36 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Jeff Malott and Tristan Luneau.ANA: 4 | VAN: 1#VANvsANA #FlyTogether #Canucks

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-28T03:53:14.762421Z

4-1 Ducks.

Some takeaways from the second:
-Third of the year for Öhgren. Thought he had some good jump and responded well to the healthy scratch.
-Three assists in his last four games for Zeev Buium.
-Loved to see Buium execute a Quinn Hughes-like end-to-end rush zone entry on the power play.
-The Ducks’ power play was a good reminder about just how much longer the Canucks need to be committed to this rebuild if they want it to actually work out. Sennecke, Gauthier, LaCombe, and Leo Carlsson, to name a few. The Canucks still have plenty of young talent left to accumulate in this rebuild.

Third Period

The Canucks’ power play was 0-for-3 on the night, and they got their fourth chance shortly after the third period began. This time, they started with the second unit, and while they did some more good things, they ultimately didn’t score, and the Canucks’ odds of a comeback grew thinner.

The Canucks seemed to have another great chance to come back in this game not long after, when Travis Mitchell once again sent a puck out and over the glass from his own end. The Canucks’ power play was quickly nullified, however, when Elias Pettersson got his stick up after another faceoff loss (he was 5-for-15 in the dot at the time of this penalty) and was assessed a two-minute minor.

Brock Boeser was taking a ton of shots in this game, and seemed like he was due for a goal. He eventually got it after Elias Pettersson made a nice move to cut into the middle before pushing the puck towards the net. Boeser got the last touch as it trickled past Dostal.

Vancouver goal!Scored by Brock Boeser with 08:20 left in the 3rd.ANA: 4 | VAN: 2#VANvsANA #FlyTogether #Canucks

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-28T04:32:22.032494Z

4-2.

Again, though, the Ducks answered back in a hurry. Anaheim’s fourth line wreaked havoc all night, and on this one, Hronek was sure not to get in his goaltender’s eyeline. That’s all we’ll say about it.

5-2 Anaheim.

Jamie Oleksiak scored his second goal of the season as Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser led the Canucks’ effort to not give up on this game. And that sounded like a real moral victory when I originally wrote it, but I urge you to read on.

A few Ducks get turned around and the ice opens up for Jamie Oleksiak. #Canucks behind by two

— Lachlan Irvine (@lachinthecrease.com) 2026-10-28T04:29:04.353Z

5-3.

The Canucks pulled their goalie with 3:30 left. AJ Greer committed a terrible turnover in his own end, feeding Jonathan Lekkrimäki a beautiful pass that allowed the Canucks’ young sharpshooter to wind up a wrister and rifle a perfect shot past Dostal to pull the Canucks within one.

Prime Time Lekkerimäki. What a lethal shot. #Canucks

— Lachlan Irvine (@lachinthecrease.com) 2026-10-28T04:38:26.358Z

5-4.

And you won’t believe this, but Jonathan Lekkerimäki scored again. But before that, a shoutout to Lekk is in order for nearly setting up Jake DeBrusk for a tap-in in front, before deciding on his next chance to just rip the puck himself. And when you’ve got a release like that, why wouldn’t you?

PRIME TIME AGAIN. WE'RE TIED#Canucks

— Lachlan Irvine (@lachinthecrease.com) 2026-10-28T04:39:15.196Z

As Brock Boeser appeared to say after this goal… “Holy F***”

All tied up.

Some takeaways from the third:
-A bit of a chaotic third period.
-Tough night in the dot for EP40, but he won a crucial OZone draw with the goalie pulled.
-Not Leevi Meriläinen’s best game, but he still made some big saves in this game. He’s just been otherworldly since landing in Vancouver. Tonight wasn’t that.
-Lekkerimäki has been a bright spot to start this season, and he sure shone bright tonight.
-Three points for Boeser, who I really thought led by example this evening and helped kickstart the comeback.

Overtime

Free hockey!

Jake DeBrusk started OT with a fun rush, then the Canucks sent out Chytil, Lekkerimäki, and Buium. Lekkerimäki nearly had a chance to score his hat trick goal, but instead did another thing to help his team: Lekkerimäki skated back with Beckett Sennecke pressuring him, shielded the puck, and took a high stick to the face.

Canucks with a two-minute power play with 2:11 left in OT.

The Canucks had 16 seconds of 5-on-3 time to work with after Alex Killorn was called for goaltender interference after Elias Pettersson poked the puck off his stick while Killorn was driving toward the net.

Lekkerimäki out on the ice. I thought he would be itching to shoot, but instead picked up an assist on Filip Hronek’s one-time shot that won this game for the Canucks.

What a night for these guys.

What’s your instant reaction to this game? Let us know in the comments section below! And be sure to tune into Rink Wide Vancouver LIVE after the game on the Daily Faceoff Vancouver YouTube channel. Check out our live programming button in the top right of our website for easy access!

Canucks prospect Caleb Malhotra may have had his “coming out party” at NCAA level

Tyson Cole — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 22:09:57 GMT

It was a slow start to his NCAA career for Vancouver Canucks prospect and 2026 third overall pick Caleb Malhotra at Boston University. But after this weekend, the point production has started to follow.

Last week, the Boston University Terriers met the UConn Huskies for a two-game set on Thursday and Saturday night. The Huskies took game one in overtime, with Malhotra failing to find the scoresheet on the Terriers four goals. That marked Malhotra’s third consecutive game without a point.

Some scoreboard watchers began sounding the alarm bells that Malhotra was not producing through his first three weeks of October, especially when considering the level of competition Boston University has faced. The Terriers played two games against the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and two against the University of Vermont, both programs with a collective zero NHL-drafted talent, whereas BU’s roster had a whopping 18. Yet, Malhotra had just one empty-net goal to show for it.

What doesn’t always show up on the scoreboard is how a team does territorially. And while the Terriers weren’t necessarily running up the scoreboard against these lesser opponents, they were dominating territorially. That’s been the silver lining for the Terriers’ offence and an indication that it was only a matter of time before chances became production, and that’s what we saw happen for Malhotra on Saturday night.

Caleb Malhotra (#Canucks) looks legitimately amazing tonight. Feels like the dam is starting to burst for him. Only the one assist thus far, but you know a lot more is on the way, in this game or not

— J.D. Burke (@JDylanBurke) October 25, 2026

JD Burke of EliteProspects chimed in with his viewing from Saturday night on social media, and Daily Faceoff Vancouver followed up on his viewings of the Canucks’ recent third overall pick:

“We’ve been waiting for Malhotra to look like a top prospect at Boston University through the first three weeks of the season, and he finally delivered this Saturday against UConn,” Burke told Daily Faceoff Vancouver. “This was as complete a performance as I’ve seen from anyone in college this season. He was an attentive, engaged defensive piece, supporting defencemen low, getting stops, and leading the breakout in the opposite direction.

“From there, Malhotra carved his way through the UConn defence, with dynamic handles in space and a sophisticated delay game setting the stage for a series of deceptive feeds through layers and area passes to set his linemates up with a full head of steam.

“The two assists look good enough on paper, but if Jack Harvey had a little more touch as a finisher, there’s a world in which Malhotra doubles that number. This really felt like his coming out party as a college player, but we’ll see if he keeps it up in November, when BU’s schedule starts to get really difficult.”

Burke wasn’t the only one who suggested Saturday night may have been Malhotra’s coming-out party. Terriers head coach and former NHLer Jay Pandolfo had some kind words for Malhotra during Saturday’s postgame:

“Caleb Malhotra was outstanding tonight,” Pandolfo began. “He had the puck a lot; he was coming through the neutral zone with the puck a lot; he was making a ton of plays; his stick was excellent all over the ice. I could go on and on. He had a great game; his best game. He was moving his feet, good defensively; just all the positives you want in a centreman, and it was great to see.

“I think he’s going to build off this game from a confidence standpoint. Any first-year player, it’s an adjustment, and I just really liked the way he played tonight.”

On today’s episode of Blackfish, Dave Hall and I discussed Caleb Malhotra and his lack of production so far, but there are promising signs that things will turn around for him given his most recent run of games. You can check that out below!

What’s behind Marco Rossi’s quiet start with the Canucks?

Elijah Ford — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 20:00:37 GMT

When Marco Rossi returned to the Vancouver Canucks lineup after last season’s Olympic break, he looked like a player finally finding consistent footing in the NHL.

After an injury-plagued year, Rossi recorded 20 points in 25 games down the stretch, offering a glimpse of the playmaking centre Vancouver hoped it had acquired. At just 25 years old, he appeared poised to build on that momentum and establish himself as a reliable top-six option in the lineup moving forward. Instead, Rossi’s first few weeks of the 2026-27 season have raised some questions.

Through 11 games, he has five points, including just two assists, putting him on pace for 38 points over an 84-game schedule. Four of those points came in Vancouver’s first two games against the Edmonton Oilers. He then went seven consecutive games without a point before recording an assist against the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 22.

Rossi hasn’t necessarily been disastrous on a nightly basis. The bigger concern is how difficult it has been for him to make his presence felt, particularly at five-on-five. His underlying numbers have generally sat around the middle of Vancouver’s group, but the offensive impact that made his late-season performance so encouraging has been difficult to find. Several factors help explain the difference, including a change in role, diminished power play opportunities, and the challenge of consistently creating offence at even strength.

A different role under Malhotra

One of the biggest factors to consider is Rossi’s fit under head coach Manny Malhotra. As outlined in a previous piece, Vancouver’s new coach has placed considerable emphasis on size and speed down the middle. Under Malhotra, centres are expected to cover ground quickly, support battles along the boards, and recover defensively when possession changes hands.

At 5-foot-9, Rossi has a different physical profile than several of Vancouver’s other centre options. His offensive instincts and ability to read plays remain valuable, but his skating can become a limitation when he needs to recover defensively, win a race to a loose puck, or keep pace with a developing transition. That doesn’t automatically make him a poor fit for Malhotra’s system. However, it does create a challenge when the coaching staff prioritizes traits that don’t necessarily play to Rossi’s greatest strengths.

His brief move to the wing and his overall deployment have also made it harder to establish a consistent offensive rhythm. Adjusting to different responsibilities and linemates can make it harder to recreate the chemistry that fuelled a productive stretch last season.

Rossi found much of his offensive success at even strength while centring the “BRÖ” line with Liam Öhgren and Brock Boeser. Malhotra, however, has deployed that combination for just over 15 minutes total at five-on-five so far this season.

That limited time together doesn’t tell the entire story, but it does highlight how different Rossi’s circumstances have been. If Vancouver wants to get more out of his offensive skill set, finding a consistent role and giving him time with linemates who complement his game would be a logical place to start.

The power play has taken a hit, and its trickle-down effect

Rossi’s late-season production also needs some context.

His 20 points in 25 games were encouraging, but during that stretch he was a staple on Vancouver’s power play, which was the second-best in the league following the Olympic break. Rossi had opportunities to use his vision and playmaking in more controlled offensive situations, helping him produce at a promising rate.

That combination hasn’t been as effective this season, and Rossi has lost his spot on the top power play unit. With fewer opportunities to produce on special teams, his five-on-five game has become more important. That’s where the questions become more pronounced. Rossi recorded just 11 five-on-five points with Vancouver last season. Six of those came while playing on the BRÖ line, suggesting that his success at even strength may have been at least partly tied to a particular combination of linemates.

That isn’t an indictment of his performance. Rather, it reminds us that his late-season scoring rate may not have reliably indicated what he could consistently produce under different circumstances. The problem for Rossi is that he hasn’t yet found another way to generate that same level of offence. When the power play isn’t providing opportunities and his line isn’t creating much at even strength, his impact can become difficult to notice.

Finding a greater impact at five-on-five

When watching Rossi this season, the most noticeable concern isn’t a glaring defensive mistake or a string of costly turnovers. It’s how rarely he appears to be driving the play.

With Vancouver’s lack of offensive talent, being able to create breakouts and zone entries individually at times becomes all the more important for a centreman. Rossi’s skating can make it difficult to create separation from defenders or arrive first to developing opportunities. When he can’t get into position quickly, he has less time and space to use the vision and passing ability that drive his offensive game. The result is a player who can go quiet for long stretches of a game. Rossi needs to do more than avoid hurting the team; he needs to consistently create something for it.

That could mean attacking and planting roots in the middle of the ice more aggressively, getting involved around the net more often, and making quicker decisions to turn possession into scoring chances. Those adjustments would give him more ways to influence games, even when the power play isn’t producing, or his line struggles to generate sustained pressure.

Still, 11 games are too small a sample to conclude that Rossi has become a significantly worse player. His underlying numbers haven’t suggested a complete collapse, and his slow start can’t be separated entirely from Vancouver’s broader offensive struggles.

The Canucks have had difficulty generating offence consistently, making life harder for forwards throughout the lineup. Remove the two offensive outbursts against Edmonton to start the season, and Vancouver would rank third-lowest in the league in goals per game. A centre can make the right read or deliver a quality pass, but if his line can’t maintain possession or convert its chances, the results won’t always show up on the scoresheet.

Ultimately, Rossi’s quiet start looks like a combination of factors rather than one isolated problem. His power play opportunities have diminished, his fit within Malhotra’s preferred style remains uncertain, and his even-strength production hasn’t been strong enough to offset the decline in opportunities elsewhere.

What comes next?

The Canucks don’t need Rossi to become a completely different player. They need to find a way to maximize his offensive strengths while ensuring he can handle the demands of Malhotra’s system.

That may mean giving him more consistent linemates, finding opportunities to use him on the wing, or putting him in more favourable offensive situations. Rossi, meanwhile, needs to find ways to influence games more consistently at five-on-five rather than relying on power play production to drive his point totals.

His five-point start is underwhelming, but it isn’t enough to suggest his late-season success was a fluke. The more important question is whether he can sustain that level of production in a different role, with different responsibilities and fewer favourable opportunities.

For now, Rossi remains a player with clear offensive ability who has struggled to translate it into a consistent game-to-game impact. How he and the coaching staff respond over the coming weeks will help determine whether this is simply an adjustment period or a more significant concern for Vancouver’s top six.

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Canucks Game Day: Can new lines help snap the losing streak in Anaheim?

Jeff Paterson — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 18:08:55 GMT

The Vancouver Canucks (2-10-1) kick off a brief two-game California road trip when they face the Anaheim Ducks (5-6) at Honda Center. Opening faceoff is set for 7pm PT.

The Canucks are mired in a 10-game winless skid, while the Ducks snapped a five-game losing streak in their last game.

What we know

The Canucks are trying a new approach. After a full team practice and travel to Southern California on Monday, Manny Malhotra elected to go without any kind of morning skate today. As such, it will be closer to game time before the lineup for tonight’s game is revealed.

At Monday’s practice, Malhotra had Jake DeBrusk skating with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser, Drew O’Connor on a line with Filip Chytil and Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Marco Rossi between Liam Öhgren and Arshdeep Bains, while Max Sasson centred a line with Paul Cotter and Brendan Gallagher. Linus Karlsson took a maintenance day and did not practice on Monday, but is expected to play tonight, so another forward will be bumped. Karlsson could easily swap in for either Bains or Gallagher.

On defence, expect Jamie Oleksiak to return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the second time this season on Sunday night against Minnesota. Oleksiak spent Monday’s practice paired with Victor Mancini. Filip Hronek missed practice, but is expected to be in the lineup tonight.

The Canucks have alternated starts for Leevi Meriläinen and Kevin Lankinen over the past five games. Meriläinen stopped 30 of 34 Minnesota shots in Sunday’s loss. Lankinen last played on Thursday against Detroit. He has not won since opening night in Edmonton.

The Canucks are coming off a 4-2 loss to the Wild – the team’s 10th straight setback (0-9-1). Max Sasson and Brock Boeser each scored their third goals of the season. On the winless skid, the Canucks have managed just 20 goals in 10 games, scoring more than two goals in a game only once (a 6-3 loss to Carolina last Tuesday).

The Canucks have been held to fewer than 20 shots on goal in five straight games, lowering their season average to just 19.8 shots per game.

The Opponent

The Ducks return home following a four-game road trip that ended with a 5-4 win in Philadelphia on Saturday. Prior to that, the club had dropped five straight games scoring just nine goals in the process.

Bennett Sennecke scored his team’s leading sixth goal of the season against the Flyers, while Leo Carlsson had a goal and an assist to boost his team-leading total to 13 points on the season. Cutter Gauthier, who scored 41 goals last season, has just two goals so far this season. They both came in the home opener and he has gone eight without scoring.

Ducks practice lines (10/26):

Gauthier-Carlsson-Caulfield
Malott-Granlund-Sennecke
Nesterenko-McQueen-Killorn
Greer-Washe-Colangelo
Vatrano-Klepov

Lacombe-Warren
Hinds-Helleson
Mitchell-Luneau
Jensen

Dostál | Husso#FlyTogether

— Derek Lee (@Derek_Lee27) October 26, 2026

The Ducks are the youngest team in the NHL, and their roster includes Nikita Klepov, who is the youngest player in the league this season. Klepov, the 15th pick in June’s NHL Draft, and Winnipeg’s Viggo Bjorck are the only 2008-born players to appear in a game so far this season.

The Ducks roster features six first-round draft picks since 2022 (Leo Carlsson, Bennett Sennecke, Roger McQueen, Nikita Klepov and the injured Pavel Mintyukov, along with Cutter Gauthier, who was a Philadelphia draft pick).

Anaheim won its home opener 3-2 over Florida, but has dropped its last three on home ice.

News and notes

The Canucks took three of four head-to-head meetings with the Ducks last season, including both games in Orange County. Marco Rossi scored with 9.5 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Canucks a 4-3 victory in their last visit on April 12th.

The Ducks will be in Vancouver next Tuesday.

The referees for tonight’s game are Garrett Rank and Ben Betker.

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What positive steps forward is the Canucks’ rebuild making this season?

Stephan Roget — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:56:41 GMT

The 2026-27 Vancouver Canucks season is progressing more or less as planned so far. But, like with The Robert Cray Band, this forecast called for pain. And losing so handily to a returning Quinn Hughes and the Minnesota Wild this past weekend was undoubtedly one of the more painful moments to date. For some, it was downright demoralizing.

What better time to check in on the bright side of things?

There are plenty of things going right for the Canucks, even as they’ve sunk to one of the all-time worst winning percentages in NHL history. The rebuild isn’t just on; it’s taking some positive steps forward all the time. Stuff that matters more in the long term than in the short term. Here, today, we’re talking about those positive steps that have either already been taken or are in the process of being taken.

1) The younger Elias Pettersson’s ascendancy

There is no more positive story on the Canucks this season than the younger Elias Pettersson. Sure, the elder Elias Pettersson is also playing pretty darn well, but when we’re talking potential impact on the rebuild, it’s “D-Petey” suddenly playing like a top-pairing two-way stud who will really matter in the long run.

Enough ink has already been spilled on the quality of Pettersson’s play, but just to briefly summarize, he’s leading the blueline in virtually all analytic categories, including Corsi, expected goals, scoring chances, and high-danger chances. He’s doing that while playing consistent top-four, and occasionally top-pairing, minutes, and all the while facing an ever-increasing quality of competition. And he’s only gotten more physical along the way.

Heading into the year, some saw Pettersson’s long-term role with the team in question, but that question mark has been replaced by an exclamation mark. Now, the question is less whether or not Pettersson can play a long-term role and more how large that role will be.

2) The arrival of Jonathan Lekkerimäki

Coming up right behind Pettersson on the positive news priority list is the long-awaited arrival of Jonathan Lekkerimäki as an every-night NHL player. Lekkerimäki has looked good from the preseason onward, and that’s despite an incomplete offseason due to surgery recovery. GM Ryan Johnson and coach Manny Malhotra expressed belief in Lekkerimäki regardless, and they’ve been rewarded for that faith.

Lekkerimäki sits second in team scoring, behind the senior Pettersson, with four goals and nine points in 13 games. That might not sound like a blistering pace, but that’s been achieved on a team that has struggled to score on some nights. More important than the numbers is the fact that Lekkerimäki has looked not just like a full-time NHLer on most nights, but someone who outright belongs in an NHL top-six.

It’s such a big step forward, it might as well be a leap. And as the Canucks attempt to get their hands on as many additional first-round picks as possible, it’s extremely convenient to have one of their past first-rounders start working out so well.

3) The surprising performance of Leevi Meriläinen

Leevi Meriläinen is a case of found money for the Vancouver Canucks. Plucked from the waiver wire from the Ottawa Senators, the Canucks gave up no assets in exchange for Meriläinen, and he’s rewarded them with the best goaltending this team has seen since Thatcher Demko’s Vezina-nominated season.

As of this writing, Meriläinen has the 14^th-best save percentage in the NHL at a .918 and a respectable goals against average of 3.12, made all the more respectable by the fact that the Canucks as a whole have given up an average of 4.56 goals against per night. Beyond the numbers, Meriläinen has made a number of goal-saving stops and given his teammates a degree of additional confidence that is hard to come by in a season dedicated to losing.

The Canucks have only added one NHL player to their roster since Training Camp began. But that player has been a difference-maker, and they didn’t have to pay a single draft pick to acquire him.

4) Filling in the gaps in the long-term depth chart.

The first three entries here are all different variations on the theme of young players stepping their game up. And, in a rebuild, that’s an important and expected part of the process. But the step-ups of Pettersson, Lekkerimäki, and Meriläinen each represent more than standard player growth. They represent gaps in the Canucks’ long-term depth chart being potentially filled in.

Heading into 2026-27, there were two defenders on the blueline seen as definitive long-term pieces in Zeev Buium and Tom Willander. Their own development hasn’t been as direct or notable as Pettersson’s in the early going, but they’re each still considered to be cornerstones. If the Canucks can effectively add Pettersson to that group after sustaining some of this performance, well, now they’ve potentially already got three of their long-term top-four defenders in the fold, and that’s not just a crucial step for a rebuild; it’s a step that many rebuilds don’t even reach.

Similar could be said for Lekkerimäki. Heading into the year, the Canucks may have had one long-term piece on the wings in Liam Öhgren and another in the system in Adam Novotný. Many had begun to write Lekkerimäki off as a long-term piece himself, being on his Draft+5 season without much in the way of NHL success.

But if Lekkerimäki can continue playing as a top-six quality winger night in and night out, that’s another important piece of the Canucks’ puzzle put into place. Something that matters all that much more given Öhgren’s own struggles in the early going.

In terms of goaltending, there was no clear future plan for the Canucks prior to 2026-27. The organization had clearly lost what faith it had in Nikita Tolopilo, and none of the prospects were beating down the door or even developing in a way that pegged them as definitive future NHLers.

In comes Meriläinen and, in the early going at least, he has the appearance of a could-be goaltender-of-the-future. That gives the Canucks both a long-term option and, if Meriläinen doesn’t quite pan out into that, it at least buys more time for the prospects to continue to develop.

In summation, the Canucks are turning some of the biggest question marks on their long-term depth chart into potential answers. Better than that, they’re answers from within (or, in the case of Meriläinen, brought in at no cost). That’s the lifeblood of a rebuild.

5) Well on the way to top lottery odds

Of course, as well as some of the Canucks’ pieces are developing right now, they’re still an overall talent- and asset-poor franchise, at least for now. Their biggest priority has to be adding high-quality prospects to the system, and the only real way of doing that is by drafting as high as possible.

The Canucks are well on their way to getting the best odds in the draft lottery once again. As of this writing, they’ve sunk to a point percentage of just .192, which is considerably worse than their pace last year, and once again has them in last place by a considerable margin, especially for this early in the year.

Things can change, and as Canucks fans know all too well, even finishing in last carries no guarantee of the top pick. But it does carry a guarantee of a top-three draft pick, and the Canucks already look like they’ve got that almost in the bag.

6) Team culture holding strong

For a team that is technically doing worse than it was last year, the Canucks sure seem like a more positive bunch this season. There’s been a clear shift in team culture, and that shift has survived at least this first chunk of the season, ten straight losses and all.

Even the few points of frustration, like Brock Boeser’s recent comments about the Canucks not listening well enough to the coaches, are continually growth-oriented and directed at the whole team, as opposed to any individuals. These Canucks seem to understand, as a group, that it’s these long-term steps forward that matter so much more than any short-term gain in the standings. That’s a tough truth to swallow for competitive hockey players, but thus far the Canucks are sticking together and staying resolute.

Which is good, because that team culture is going to have to bear a lot more losing than this before the rebuild can be called anything close to complete.

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What positive steps forward is the Canucks’ rebuild making this season?

1) The younger Elias Pettersson’s ascendancy

2) The arrival of Jonathan Lekkerimäki

3) The surprising performance of Leevi Meriläinen

4) Filling in the gaps in the long-term depth chart.

5) Well on the way to top lottery odds

6) Team culture holding strong