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3 Canucks Stars of the Week: Liam Öhgren and other young players leading the charge
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Photo credit: © Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
Arielle Lalande
Jan 12, 2026, 09:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 11, 2026, 18:53 EST
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Welcome back to Stars of the Week at CanucksArmy! Every week, we’ll be bringing you our Top Three best and brightest performers on the Vancouver Canucks that week. Disagree with our picks or have your own stars to nominate? Let us know in the comments below!
There are no stars in a week where the Canucks dropped three games in a row, not in the true sense of the term ‘star.’ The Canucks lost to the Buffalo Sabres 5-3, although they had just enough of a comeback effort without entirely spoiling the tank campaign. Their 5-1 loss against the surging Detroit Red Wings and brutal 5-0 shutout loss to a reinvigorated Toronto Maple Leafs team were much uglier. They’ve now extended their losing streak to six games in a row and have yet to win in 2026. In the enduring words of our old friend Charlie Brown, good grief. 
During weeks such as these, there will always be better performers than others, even when the criteria for a decent performance reach new lows never before thought possible. It’s not lowering standards, it’s adjusting expectations. 

Jake DeBrusk

After suffering a lengthy drought on the offensive side last month, including a healthy scratch, DeBrusk managed some slight redemption this week. DeBrusk had power play goals in back-to-back games – the only goal in Detroit – which makes 11 out of his 12 goals this season on the power play. This might be the closest the Canucks are going to get to a special teams expert this season. He also got roughed around like he was in a tumble dryer, drawing the penalty against the Sabres that led to his goal with a high stick, and colliding face-first with ex-Bruins teammate Brandon Carlo, now a Leaf.
It is not groundbreaking for a player known to run hot and cold to do just that, but with the Canucks in their current state, the cold phases are that much more noticeable when there isn’t even strength goal scoring coming from elsewhere to cover it up. Speaking of running cold, Brock Boeser picked up assists on both of DeBrusk’s goals, but continues to face a similar drought. While DeBrusk seems to have benefited from his coach-mandated time out to regroup mentally and physically, it is time to consider whether Boeser might as well. 

Liam Öhgren

Liam Öhgren is one of the more interesting storylines to come out of the Quinn Hughes trade. This young forward has been a joy to watch, even while he is still learning and earning his way to ice time. He’s been an unexpected jolt of energy added to a young forward group with the likes of Nils Höglander, Aatu Räty, Linus Karlsson, and Max Sasson currently playing. The unstoppable force of the Canucks’ lethargy and rock-bottom state has met the immovable object of the new guard’s bright-eyed and bushy-tailed attitudes. While it seems to be the young defencemen bearing the most of the pressure and learning the hardest lessons at this point – make no mistake, they should be making mistakes to learn from –  the young forwards have had to step up while veterans have struggled. Now, it has not been fun to watch some of the veteran blueliners making overt mistakes alongside the rookies, but I digress. 
Öhgren has been a bright spot in a very dark time for the Canucks. He has been rewarded in turn, skating in the top six, and putting up very solid underlying offensive numbers to boot. Take his goal against the Sabres, for example. Linus Karlsson identifies a perfect opportunity to pass to Öhgren rather than battle for the puck at the net with all five Sabres skaters now in the zone. 
Öhgren is open near the boards, since his countryman Nosh Östlund can’t catch up to him and fumbles his one-to-one coverage, and Öhgren shoots through the traffic of Bowen Byram, Max Sasson, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to find the net. Confidently going for this shot rather than desperately looking for a teammate who simply isn’t there to pass to is the difference between the Canucks of the last year and a half and the Canucks of the future. Treating the puck like a prize rather than a live grenade is a start for this team moving forward. 

Nils Höglander

I have seen enough from Höglander since he returned from his extended injury recovery to know that he should be in the lineup, full stop. 
If the Canucks are in a rebuild, continuing to sit Höglander or giving him a limited fourth-line role makes little to no sense. He is young enough to be a part of the new Canucks generation, with enough experience of the highest highs and lowest lows the team has seen over the past few years to lead. He has the potential to be a bridge between two player groups – the Hughes-Demko-Boeser-Pettersson era and the present. He’s been shaped by the horrors, yet he still has a hunger to play and win and earn his spot. There is no use in wasting that. The choice now is either invest in young talent or continue to flounder with no direction. Rebuild or do not rebuild; there is no try. Or, whatever Yoda said. 
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