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3 Canucks Stars of the Week: Liam Öhgren scores in back-to-back games

Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images

By Arielle Lalande

Nov 8, 2026, 17:02 ESTUpdated: Nov 8, 2026, 17:04 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!

It’s been yet another week wherein the Canucks have improved, worked harder to stay on the heels of their opponents, but still came out winless. This is the trade-off of a rebuild. Sometimes ugly, but worth it. Like a pair of limited-edition Crocs.

The Canucks don’t have to win games – though a few more would be nice – as long as the games they’re playing aren’t dead boring. They delivered on that this week, starting off with a close 5-4 tilt against the Anaheim Ducks that featured not one, not two, but five fights. The Canucks were trailing 4-2 in the third after allowing a hat trick from Philadelphia’s Public Enemy Number Two, Cutter Gauthier – Public Enemy Number One is Rick Tocchet, currently. Vancouver then made a stunning comeback effort, with Jake DeBrusk scoring twice to bring the team within one, but they just weren’t able to tie it up. Either way, it was the most entertaining effort from the team in weeks.

The same cannot be said for the subsequent game against the Winnipeg Jets, where they fell 6-2. The game was still closer than the final score implies, but it was still not the performance of the year from this team by any stretch of the imagination.

There is no universe in which the current Edmonton Oilers should be tied or nearly getting outpaced by them at some turns. But that’s exactly what happened on Saturday, when the Canucks delivered some redemption after the disastrous Jets game. They once again made a late push to break the closely tied game, but couldn’t stave off the empty-netter finale that left the score at 4-2. If they can continue playing this kind of hockey, imperfect but highly watchable, then they can survive the weeds they’re in towards a not-so-distant future where they can hopefully win some of these things.

Despite the lopsided game against the Jets, both games against division rivals were hard-fought and ended with close scores to show for it. This Canucks team are in no way near giving up. In fact, they’re just getting started.

Let’s dive into three of the top three fighters, literally and figuratively, from this week.

Liam Öhgren

Öhgren seems to have taken his healthy scratch two weeks ago to heart and has been working hard to ensure he makes an impact in the lineup night after night – and to ensure he stays in it.

Öhgren had goals in back-to-back games this week, which has tied him up with Jonathan Lekkerimäki for second on the team in goals scored, behind only Brock Boeser. Öhgren has just been playing better and better alongside longtime linemate Marco Rossi, who came over with him from the Minnesota Wild last year, and the two teamed up for a power play goal in Anaheim. If things keep trending in this direction for the young Swede, Öhgren will quickly solidify a spot as one of the Canucks’ more dependable wingers moving forward.

In an ugly loss to the Jets, at least Liam Öhgren came through with his fourth goal in his last five games. Öhgren had six shot attempts, and had the team's best corsi on the night at 73.9%, as the #Canucks out-attempted the Jets 17-to-6 when he was on the ice at 5-on-5.

— Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis.bsky.social) 2026-11-06T03:00:42.532Z

Marco Rossi

Marco Rossi has struggled this year. This might not seem like much of a statement, given that most of the team has been collectively struggling, unless your name is Elias Pettersson, which still only leaves the team at two-for-two. But, to give credit where it’s due, he had a handful of games this week that show a noted improvement on the year for the centre. He was one of the hardest workers on the ice against Winnipeg, which is unfortunate, given the final score, but that shouldn’t go unnoticed. He’s already cleared his total shot count with Vancouver last season in half the number of games. On a line with Öhgren and Lekkerimäki, Rossi’s registered shots on goal jumped up to 7. This might be a sign that Manny Malhotra should try his hand at playing this line again, if it will help activate Rossi to the level everyone knows he can perform to.

Jacob Quillan

This week, the new kid (*24-year-old man) deserves his flowers. Acquired from the Maple Leafs organization in the Aatu Räty trade a little less than a month ago, Quillan was on a tear in Abbotsford before he was called up after – now, stop me if you’ve heard this one before – Filip Chytil was placed on IR. Quillan had two games to make an impression, and he absolutely did. Drawing into the lineup down the middle against Anaheim and Winnipeg. He made his presence known immediately.

Jacob Quillan scraps with Roger McQueen (kachow) after his hit on Mintyukov. #Canucks get a power play out of it.

— Lachlan Irvine (@lachinthecrease.com) 2026-11-04T02:20:26.302Z

Two out of the five fights against the Ducks came at the hands (fists?) of Quillan, who didn’t hesitate to stand up for himself and his new teammates and seemed enthusiastic to jump into the divisional rivalry. He also picked up his first point as a Vancouver Canuck against Winnipeg, hopefully the first of many, if Quillan is going to be number one on the call sheet for call-ups moving forward.

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