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3 Canucks Stars of the Week: Liam Öhgren exceeds expectations in first week as a Canuck
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Photo credit: © John Jones-Imagn Images
Arielle Lalande
Dec 21, 2025, 20:06 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!
This week, the Canucks took the concept of reverse psychology and ran with it. After officially declaring a rebuild and trading away their captain and franchise player, they then proceeded to win four games straight on the road. Canucks logic, it never gets old. 
The Canucks won all three games in their New York road trip for the first time two years ago – a team that might as well look like they’re from a different planet, these days. Now, they’ve done it again after reaching rock bottom, somehow. Again, if you thought the Vancouver Canucks were going to make sense, you’re watching the wrong team. 
In the wake of the loss to their locker room, the team has stepped up on the morale front and has started…passing around an honorary axe to show it. When it comes to the common tradition of locker room wins awards, this is a new one, but definitely not the weirdest one in the league. Plus, it’s a solid homage to Johnny Canuck.

Liam Öhgren

I’ve seen enough from this man. Plan the parade.
All jokes aside, even if it is a brief surge before his game settles, Öhgren has proved that he has some serious middle-six potential. Despite going pointless this season while he was with the Wild, Öhgren has had two goals and an assist in just his first week with Vancouver. He also put the laborious seven-round shootout against the Boston Bruins to bed with a single winning shot – after some encouragement from Brock Boeser.
Öhgren is a bulky forward at just 21 years old, coming in at six feet tall on the dot and 187 lbs, but he looks light on his feet enough, and has proved he’s got a powerful shot to match. He has a ways to go, still, but I’m happy to take on a reclamation project if this is what reclaiming looks like.

Kiefer Sherwood

While most fans – and allegedly management, too – know that selling high on Kiefer Sherwood before the deadline is a no-brainer, it would still be an absolute tragedy to lose this player. The Rolling Stones say you can’t always get what you want, but what if I really want Sherwood to remain a Canuck? Has no one considered that?
Sherwood pulled off a hat trick to steamroll the New York Islanders 4-1, even if the final goal was an empty-netter. Those count!
As it stands, Sherwood is on an expiring contract of just $1.5 million against the cap, an extremely attractive number for a playoff team looking for depth scoring and physicality down the stretch. He has 20 points through 35 games, compared to 40 points in 78 games last year, and he sits at second place league-wide in hits at 153. Wherever Sherwood lands will be his fourth NHL team, and they will be fortunate. 

Linus Karlsson

Linus Karlsson, you have now become one of my elite employees.
Karlsson hears the term “depth scoring” and simply responds, “Bet?” He has certainly earned his spot with the big club this year after winning the Calder Cup with Abbotsford in the spring – hopefully, he gets his championship ring sooner or later.
Karlsson had a four-point week, three of which came in one game against the Bruins. His two goals and an assist came in his very respectable 13:01 ice time, a good chunk of which was on the power play. That worked out, considering his own power play goal.
All of a sudden, the Canucks seem determined to prove that their season record does not represent the team they are on paper, and I’m inclined to agree. How you should be playing does not matter much when you aren’t, but Karlsson has been consistent even through the disaster-class of an autumn stretch that the Canucks put on. 

Honourable Mentions

These are the first 3 Stars honourable mentions of the season! To be quite frank, there hasn’t been much extra merit to honour with the Canucks so far this season. That said, more than three players contributed to Vancouver’s most important win streak this year. Besides, it’s the holidays, and I’m feeling generous. 

The Tendy Team

Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen were both locked in this week. I don’t think I’ve been able to say this. Through no fault of their own, these two have rarely been healthy and playing well at the same time as a proper tandem.
Demko recorded his 10th career shutout after he backstopped the team to a 3-0 shutout win against JT Miller’s middling Rangers, and stopped 24 of 25 shots from the New York Islanders to secure Vancouver’s 4-1 victory. In fact, Demko was between the pipes for all three New York metro area wins this week.
Kevin Lankinen had a .905 SV% against the Bruins – nothing to sneeze at, stopping 42 out of 46 shots – but most importantly, he set a league-wide record. Kevin Lankinen now holds the highest career shootout save percentage in NHL history. We’ve long known that Lankinen is a shootout specialist, but this is still one of those random records that you never predict. No one ever suspects the backups.

Filip Hronek

Quinn Hughes’ former D-Partner has quietly been having a fantastic season, and this past week was a statement for him, as it was for the whole team. Hronek now leads the Canucks defence corps, with help from veteran presences like Marcus Pettersson and Tyler Myers. They have young, gifted defencemen in Elias Pettersson, Tom Willander and Zeev Buium to contend with, employing a blue-line strategy I am electing to call “3 Men and 3 Babies.”
His guidance on and off the ice has certainly made an impact, and his rocket of a shot hasn’t gone anywhere, either. Hronek had four points through three games this week.
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