The westernmost Canadian franchises, the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames, have long had a storied rivalry. And that rivalry will continue into the 2026-27 season, just in a different sort of shape than it usually does.

Most oddsmakers have the Canucks and Flames neck-and-neck in the race for last place in the NHL next year. There are other ‘contenders,’ to be sure, but the Canucks and Flames are head-and-shoulders above/below the rest. With that in mind, we thought it was worth putting the two rosters up against one another to see which was truly worse off heading into the 2026-27 campaign.

We’ll note that the Canucks and Flames are, in truth, competing against one another in the long-term sense, with nearly parallel rebuilds. This is not about that. Today, we’re purely talking about next year, and which one is most in line to walk away with the best odds at the 2027 Draft Lottery.

Let’s start in the crease. Here, the Flames have a distinct leg-up in the form of Dustin Wolf. It’s true that Wolf has yet to reach the career heights of Thatcher Demko, and Wolf did take a bit of a step back last year as a sophomore. But, in general, Wolf is a 25-year-old starting goaltender who looks built for long-term stardom.

Demko, on the other hand, is almost guaranteed to never reach his own career heights ever again, so that’s a largely moot point. By now, just getting Demko back to some semblance of healthy would be considered a win, and the expectation has to be that he again misses large swaths of time in 2026-27.

Devin Cooley really stepped it up as Flames’ backup last year, and for now, he holds the statistical edge over Kevin Lankinen.

If we were just putting the two duos head-to-head, we’d probably have the Flames out in the lead. But factor in availability, and the fact that the Flames are far more likely to have access to both their goalies for the majority of the year, and it’s a clear-and-distinct advantage to the Flames in net.

The blueline is a very different story. There, the Flames have a reasonable collection of veterans in Kevin Bahl, Zach Whitecloud, Jacob Middleton, Joel Hanley, and Brayden Pachal. Still, it’s questionable whether more than a couple of those are truly top-four quality, never mind anywhere approaching top-pairing.

The Flames traded their version of Filip Hronek last year in MacKenzie Weegar, and they also traded Rasmus Andersson on top of that. As a result, their blueline has taken a clear step back. The Canucks’ other vets, like Jamie Oleksiak and Luke Schenn, are more in line with what the Flames have on hand, but Hronek himself puts the Vancouver D corps in another tier.

Both teams have a bit of a youth movement happening on their blueline. Leading talents Zeev Buium and Zayne Parekh are comparable talents. Parekh was drafted higher, but Buium seems to be a little further along on the development curve and had a much stronger rookie season than Parekh last year.

We’d put Buium ahead by at least a hair for 2026-27 specifically, especially since Parekh seems to be determined to begin his NHL career playing on his off-side.

The Flames traded for Simon Nemec this offseason, who, based on his lofty draft position, probably has to be considered a stronger talent than Tom Willander. That said, they look about the same defensively at this stage in their careers, and the offensive gap is minimal, whereas that was supposed to be Nemec’s strength.

If that’s a close call, though, then the Canucks regain any advantage through having more young defenders ready for NHL minutes in 2026-27, including the younger Elias Pettersson, Victor Mancini, and Kirill Kudryavtsev. The Flames are still awaiting their next wave, which could include names like former Canucks pick Hunter Brzustewicz. And recent top pick Carson Carels is still at least a couple years away.

All in all, the Canucks blueline should be in much better shape than the Flames’ next year.

That leaves us with the forward corps. Here, the easy comparison is between the elder Elias Pettersson and Jonathan Huberdeau, each said to have one of the worst contracts in hockey. Huberdeau’s, though, has specifically been called the outright worst contract in hockey, and that’s probably true. Though he ‘only’ makes $10.5 million a year, compared to Pettersson’s $11.6 million, Huberdeau scores a lot less than Pettersson (only 25 points in 50 games last year) and is significantly worse defensively.

In terms of their milestone contracts, the Flames are burdened much more heavily than are the Canucks.

Past that, things look a little brighter for the Canucks, and about as dreary for the Flames. Seriously, just take a look at this collection of Flames forwards for next year, ordered by cap hit. You’ve got Huberdeau, then Matt Coronato, Yegor Sharangovich, Ryan Strome, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Connor Zary, Mikael Backlund, Martin Pospisil, and Maxim Tsyplakov.

Is there a worse group of forwards in this entire National Hockey League? Maybe not.

Only two of these players scored 20 goals, or even at a 20-goal pace last year, in Frost and Farabee. There’s a chance none of them do in 2026-27. It’s a forward corps without a top line, or even really a real second line.

The Canucks, on the other hand, at least have a few veterans still playing at a genuine top-six level. That includes the aforementioned Pettersson, but also Jake DeBrusk, Marco Rossi, and even Brock Boeser, who would have been the Flames’ top scorer by three points last year.

Vancouver also have better veteran depth, with the ability to cobble together a bottom-six out of the likes of Linus Karlsson, Drew O’Connor, Brendan Gallagher, Paul Cotter, and more, along with younger pieces like Aatu Räty and Max Sasson.

We don’t want to belabour this point too much, but it really looks as though the Canucks might have better forward lines than the Flames do, one through four.

If we focus on the immediate youth movement, the Flames do have some interesting forwards approaching the roster, like the 20-year-old Matvei Gridin and the 21-year-old Samuel Honzek. Still, they’ve got a bit of a gap to wait until they can access their true best forward prospects, like Cole Reschny and Jack Hextall.

Sure, the Canucks have to wait for Caleb Malhotra, too. But in the meantime, they’ve got the likes of Liam Öhgren, Braeden Cootes, and Jonathan Lekkerimäki all ready to compete for more NHL minutes.

Top of the lineup, bottom of the lineup, veterans, youth. Pick a category, and the Canucks forwards have the Flames forwards cleanly beat.

So, as we look ahead to 2026-27, we have to give the ‘losing edge’ to the Flames. Their blueline has been deconstructed, their forward corps might be the worst in the league, and their youth movement hasn’t arrived quite as steadily as Vancouver’s as of yet.

The one thing the Flames have going for them – or against them, if losing is the goal – is their goaltending. For Canucks fans wishing for another last-place finish, the hope has to be that Wolf really puts the Flames on his back this season, recovers back to his rookie statline, and steals a number of wins.

Unless that happens, we’d put our money on the Flames finishing below the Canucks in 2026-27. Either way, however, the ‘race’ is on, and these two Pacific Division rivals are going to be gunning for that cellar all season long.