logo
CanucksArmy has no direct affiliation to the Vancouver Canucks, Canucks Sports & Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA
3 Canucks Stars of the Week: Quinn Hughes contributes 7 points in two games despite injury
alt
Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Arielle Lalande
Nov 17, 2025, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 17, 2025, 01:37 EST
Comments
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 Vancouver Canucks are struggling. Between injuries up and down the roster and a serious allergy to finding shots on goal, circumstances are far from ideal. Fear not, however, a hot new bombshell has entered the villa to change the team’s DNA and be the all-around star they need: David Kämpf.
All jokes aside, the Vancouver Canucks are not currently a great team, but they insist on trying to  appear like one with all their might. I admire their resolve in this respect. They have crawled their way over broken glass and the broken bones of half their roster to break the .500 points percentage cutoff. Out of the possible 6 points available this week, the Canucks picked up 3. That is either a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty situation, depending on how well you and your disposition are personally adjusting to daylight savings time. They are 5 points behind where they were through 20 games at this time last year, all while playing musical chairs with available healthy players and line combinations. When you put it that way, it almost sounds inspirational. But I digress. 
We have collectively survived another week of the epic highs and lows of Canucks hockey. Which players are on the board as change makers this week? 

Quinn Hughes

Quinn Hughes started the week picking up assists on all three Canucks goals on Tuesday night’s 5-3 loss against the Winnipeg Jets. Unfortunately, the Canucks are legally and morally obligated to have everything go wrong for them at this point, and Hughes left the game after getting injured on what was apparently a hooking penalty on Mark Scheifele. Double whammy. 
Hughes was with the team in North Carolina, but ultimately did not play against the Canes – but this would be the only game he missed this week. Presumably, Hughes may still be working through some level of injury. He may also have been fitted with a high-tech bionic arm not unlike Bucky Barnes. Who’s to say?
With at least two serviceable limbs and a team desperately needing his help, Hughes returned to the lineup on Sunday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Lightning. And how did the banged-up defenceman fare? He had a 4-point game in a freakishly unlikely 6-2 victory over Tampa.
Hughes’ leadership and general wunderkind-like play is not a want but a need for the Canucks right now, and if his surprise bounce back from another injury this week is any indication –  he has already missed five games this season – no one is more aware of that pressure than himself. 

Elias Pettersson

To return to the concept of glass-half-full and glass-half-empty, Elias Pettersson had a phenomenal shorthanded goal against the Carolina Hurricanes this week, one which reminded most of us what a truly glorious Pettersson play can look like.
This was later followed by losing the puck off an overtime defensive zone faceoff, then losing it again, which led to Carolina’s overtime win. It should be noted that Vancouver was overall outshot 17 to 38. Pettersson had two points, went 63.6% in the faceoff circle, and was one of the best players the Canucks iced in that game. The bar was not high in this one, but still, it needed to be said.
The Canes game was Vancouver’s nightmare before it even started; Quinn Hughes was sitting out due to injury, and the Canucks are currently allergic to producing shots, while the Canes’ style of hockey under Rod Brind’Amour is famously “shoot everything blindly at the net and surely something will stick.” The consolation point won in this game might as well be an unlikely late-career Academy Award for a beloved character actor. 
Pettersson had no fewer than 6 points in three games this week, 3 of which came on the power play, and 1 which was the aforementioned shorthanded goal. This was one of his better weeks this season. Many Canucks fans are understandably scarred by being placated with phrases such as “good enough” and “moral victory” for years, and thus accept nothing but perfection, especially from scrutinized core players such as Pettersson. Perfection is unrealistic, but showing up when it matters most is not. Elias Pettersson is delivering under the current circumstances around him, and that’s worth more than we might think. 

Kevin Lankinen

A lot has been asked of Kevin Lankinen, as of late. He came into the net cold against the Winnipeg Jets after it was announced that Thatcher Demko would not return to the game, likely suffering a groin injury. Now, Demko is allegedly week-to-week. In the words of Taylor Swift and Bon Iver, “I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending.”
In Lankinen’s starts this season before this week – previously to alleviate Demko’s workload, not fully shoulder it – he has not always played like a backup goaltender making $4.5 million against the cap. You do not have to be a mathematician to come to that conclusion, but you also don’t have to be an expert to know that goaltending is far from Vancouver’s primary issue at the moment.
Lankinen had three solid games this week, and it’s unfortunate the team only has one win to show for it. He backstopped the team to their miraculous 6-2 win against Tampa Bay on Sunday night. Lankinen has looked better than his numbers suggest – because this is what happens when you have to do an entire group project yourself. Lankinen successfully saved 82 out of 90 shots this week for an overall .911 SV%. The Canucks made a total of 65 shots, and scored on 12. This isn’t even to mention that Vancouver’s depressing last-in-the-league penalty kill has seen Lankinen carrying an unfair percentage of the actual penalty killing in question. 
So, in the absence of Thatcher Demko, is Lankinen ready to once again be the number one Canucks netminder? He definitely thinks so, and if this week is any indication, he might just be right.
Sponsored by bet365

Editorials

Breaking News