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3 Canucks Stars of the Week: Linus Karlsson continues to prove himself at the NHL level
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Arielle Lalande
Dec 8, 2025, 09:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 7, 2025, 23:25 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!
The best players on the Canucks this week were the young guns – depending on how you define young. Nikita Tolopilo, who drew into the net for Vancouver against Utah and Minnesota and even played a game down in Abbotsford on Wednesday, is 25, which everyone knows is 18 in goalie years. He also became a first-time father this week!
If you’re wondering why the Calder Cup-winning Abbotsford Canucks are struggling alongside their big sibling team, it’s because most of their key players – or players eligible to be with the development club – are in Vancouver. The efforts of Arshdeep Bains, Aatu Räty, Tom Willander, Elias Pettersson (DPetey), Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Linus Karlsson, and Max Sasson kept Vancouver from scoring exactly no goals this week. They still had six total goals for over three games and nine goals against, and four of those goals for came in one game, but at least they were scoring!
Despite a positively grim three losses in a row this week, their 4-2 triumph over a surging Minnesota Wild team on Saturday night was a fantastic showing for the youth on the team, supported significantly by the long-time NHLers around them.
Is it depressing to be giving up on a win-now mentality and looking towards change already? Sure. But it’s hard to ignore that, for right now, the future Canucks core 
looks as bright as blinding LED headlights on the highway. 

Linus Karlsson

Linus Karlsson is proof that some prospects take longer to cook than others. In Karlsson’s case, he just needed to slow cook. A development Crock-Pot, if you will.
At 26, Karlsson had his first season in North America with Abbotsford in 2022, and first saw a handful of NHL games two years ago. He split his time between Abbotsford and Vancouver last year, winning the Calder Cup and topping the scoring charts in the playoffs, but he has consistently been with Vancouver this year. 
He has been incredibly exciting to watch lately, not afraid to get to the net-front and position his body to serve as an ideal absolute menace for opponents. His skating has never been his strongest suit, but he has certainly compensated by refining his hands, his physicality, and his hockey IQ, all of which have proven useful on an injury-beleaguered Vancouver team. His ability to keep his head up, especially through the neutral zone, avoiding opponent traffic and scanning for every possible opportunity for a pass or a chance of his own has been really noticeable. Is this…growth and development? On my Vancouver Canucks?
You could call Karlsson a late bloomer, but I think he’s just getting started. He found himself on the top line this week alongside Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson against Utah, and also scored the lone goal against Colorado. 

Aatu Räty

Räty has been one of the most exciting prospects, to me, especially as a non-Canucks-drafted player. Originally a part of the return from the New York Islanders in the Bo Horvat trade, which feels like it happened both yesterday and eons ago, the 23-year-old has shown great potential down the middle. Not to mention his prowess in the faceoff circle, and ability to wield his faceoffs on either side like a two-sided lightsaber. This ambidextrous legend went 87.5% in the dot against Minnesota, which was especially helpful in Elias Pettersson’s absence, 87.5% again against Utah, and 60% against Colorado, but he only took 5 faceoffs there.
Minnesota was his game, with two goals and an assist, plus a tragically called back goal, but he also picked up two assists on Karlsson and Bains’ earlier goals in the week.
Our holiday treat is this unassisted wrap-around tally from Räty.

Tom Willander

Willander, as I touched on last week, is not playing sheltered minutes as might be expected from a rookie defenceman. Now, this is what you want from an 11th overall pick. My bar has just been lowered so much that I am glad to see Willander thriving despite the team’s collective struggles.
Willander has been phenomenal, especially playing alongside the younger forwards and D-Petey, and is clearly learning a great deal and learning it quickly from the veteran presences on the blue line in Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Marcus Pettersson, and, sure, Tyler Myers, too, why not. It might seem strange to label Quinn Hughes a veteran player, but at this point, playing with the Norris Trophy winner is like an up-close masterclass. 
Willander scored his first NHL goal on Saturday against the Wild in a gutsy second-period comeback effort from the Canucks, and the smiles from his teammates say it all. 
He needed this goal, the team needed this goal, and perhaps we all needed this goal, just to keep us going. 
Let’s hope this is the first of many goals in an Orca sweater for the young blueliner, barring any unforeseen trade packages. But, if the Canucks want to get younger and stay younger, this 20-year-old defenceman is a good place to start.
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