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31 days, 31 questions: How much did the Canucks accomplish in a busy July?
Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Aug 1, 2026, 17:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 1, 2026, 17:10 EDT
Welcome to a new series here at CanucksArmy, where over the month of August, we’ll ask a new question each day about the Vancouver Canucks. We’re calling it “31 days, 31 questions”. Today, on August 1st, a look at the month of July as a whole.
As the calendar flips to August, we can officially say that hockey season is now just a month away. However, before we look forward to what’s to come, let’s take a moment to assess what the Vancouver Canucks were able to do in a busy month of July. As a recap:
- the Canucks signed Luke Schenn, Jamie Oleksiak and Paul Cotter
- they traded Marcus Pettersson to the Rangers for a 2030 first round draft pick
- the club filled out its NHL coaching staff
- the team hired Ryan Papaioannou as its head coach for AHL Abbotsford
- the Canucks hired Alex Edler as a player development coach
- they released their 2026-27 schedule
- they revealed they will be going back to Penticton for training camp for a third straight year
- announced that Cammi Granato had been re-assigned within the hockey operations department
- announced they’d signed a memorandum of understanding with the City of Vancouver to explore opportunities to create a practice facility at Britannia Community Centre
By any measure, July was a busy month for the Vancouver Canucks and for a team in the early stages of its self-professed rebuild, it appears to have been a fairly fruitful month. Not only did the Canucks sign a trio of veteran free agents that met the club’s stated criteria of being good people as much as they are good hockey players, all three were signed to short-term contracts. In Cotter’s case, it’s a one year deal with no trade protection which should provide the hockey club options as the season unfolds.
On top of that, with the arrival of Oleksiak as a physical presence on the left side of the defence, the Canucks recognized and pounced on the opportunity to peddle Marcus Pettersson to the New York Rangers for a conditional first round draft pick in 2030. All told, July got off to a strong start for the Canucks.
The process of hiring coaches for both the NHL and AHL teams took longer than expected and some of that was reported to be due to the organization holding firm on salary offers. In the end, the Canucks elected to go with an unproven NHL coaching staff, but all reports are that in Ryan Papaioannou they found a highly-regarded coach to replace Manny Malhotra in Abbotsford.
The addition of Alex Edler to the player development staff brings a familiar face back into the fold. Edler helped out at the team’s summer development camp, so it was no surprise that he was officially hired by the hockey club. He has no experience in coaching, but brings a decorated resume with more than 1,000 NHL games played. He should be able to use that experience to help in both Vancouver and Abbotsford.
Going back to Penticton makes perfect sense. The Canucks are familiar with the city and the South Okanagan Events Centre. They have had successful training camps there the past two seasons and there’s every reason to believe this year will be more of the same. It’s a great part of the province and allows the Canucks to strengthen their ties with fans outside Metro Vancouver. Camps are short in today’s NHL, but there is a reason the Canucks keep going back to Penticton.
The news of Cammi Granato being shuffled out of the front office and into a senior advisor’s role in amateur scouting came out of the blue late in the month. The Hockey Hall of Famer stays in the organization, but in a reduced role. It doesn’t seem like the vacancy in the assistant general manager’s position that Granato held is going to be filled. That leaves the Canucks with a lean front office to say the least. It also leaves Emilie Castonguay as the lone holdover in her current position among the club’s senior hockey operations executives.
And finally, Friday’s joint announcement by the Canucks and the City of Vancouver used a lot of words, but didn’t really say much about the firm plans to build a much-talked-about practice facility. The two sides have entered into an election-year memorandum of understanding to explore the possibilities of adding a new building attached to the existing single sheet of ice at the aging Britannia Community Centre.
The building would house a locker room, gym, medical facilities and a player’s lounge for the Canucks and would offer the city some new office space. It hardly sounds like the kind of practice facility commonly found elsewhere in the NHL with multiple sheets of ice and more amenities. It’s something and it may be better than nothing. But the announcement was simply an agreement to look into the feasibility of making it happen. It seems like it will be a while still before any sort of ribbon cutting or any shovels are put in the ground.
Overall, it seems like the Canucks accomplished plenty in the first month on the new NHL calendar. They stuck to their plan of trying to change the culture of the organization by bringing in quality people. And they didn’t commit to lengthy terms or significant dollars that will impact their flexibility in the long run. They were also able to convince one of their veterans with trade protection to agree to move on. Sure, it would have been beneficial to the rebuild to make at least one more trade along those lines. But there is no race to make that happen in the summer time and there is still plenty of opportunity to pull off deals long before the NHL trade deadline in March.
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Vancouver CanucksTeam Cap Summary
Cap Summary
2026-27
2027-28
Projected Cap Hit
$86,185,833
$62,923,333
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$17,814,167
$50,576,666
Current Cap Space
$17,814,167
$50,576,666
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13/23
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