Not that Quinn Hughes needs any new remarkable accomplishments on his resume. It’s already pretty loaded. But one recent accomplishment we can add is that he somehow managed to talk about having hope for future seasons without sounding as though he’d given up on this one.

Speaking after the Vancouver Canucks’ comeback victory against the New Jersey Devils earlier this week, Hughes told the press that “We’re going to try to do everything we can to make the playoffs here and I believe we can, but if that doesn’t happen, what we’re building here the next couple years — just the care factor — I’m liking what I’m seeing.”

Seriously, compare that to such ‘there’s always next year’ statements of the past, and it’s really night and day. Hughes manages to be realistic, optimistic, and even a little bit downright inspiring, all in one honest, off-the-cuff statement. Yet another sign of his continuing to develop into a truly capable captain.

And he’s right. The Canucks are going to do everything they can to make the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the odds are decidedly against them. They’re a few points back and chasing the hottest team in the NHL. They traded their top centre and then lost their next best two to injury. Speaking of injuries, their best player, Hughes, is definitely playing through one, as is Thatcher Demko and probably a whole lot of others, too.

Yet, the Canucks continue to push.

Now, there are those for whom the mindset is ‘playoffs or bust.’ That’s a fair headspace after the strong performance of 2024/25 and the expectations that followed. For that crowd, there may be no positives to be gleaned from a postseason push that, inspiring or not, ultimately comes up short.

But for the rest of us, it’s easy to see the wisdom in the captain’s words. This stretch of play, regardless of its outcome, does contain some true nuggets of positivity upon which the Canucks can build in the years to come. Including some very specific things. 

We’ll start with the simplest thing that can be taken from what might have to be a moral victory, and that’s morale itself. Look, hockey is an emotional sport – maybe the most emotional of them all – and vibes matter. The vibes around the Canucks for much of 2024/25 have been – for lack of a better term – toxic. But that’s really started to shift over the past couple of weeks.

The Canucks clearly believe that they belong in the playoffs. More than that, however, they’re giving themselves far more of a reason to believe in themselves and in the other players with them in the dressing room than they have at any other point in this year.

There were times throughout 2024/25 when tearing this whole franchise down seemed like the only thing to do. Now, there’s far more reason to hope that next year can be different.

The play of Elias Pettersson (the forward) is a good example of this concept. Does the fact that he finally started playing like his old self, only to immediately suffer a long-term injury, help the Canucks make the playoffs this year? Nope, not really. But it sure helps the team and its fans feel better about its chances next year. And that matters. Why? Think of what the vibe around the team would be heading into the offseason had this late push not occurred. But we’ve got more on that concept a few sections later.

For now, suffice it to say that the “care factor” is not something that Hughes is imagining. It’s real, and it matters.

Some folks wondered what the point was in rushing Demko back to play if he wasn’t back to full health. And then he reminded everyone that the point was that he was really, really good at goaltending.

Oddly enough, this might be the best Demko’s ever played as a Canuck, Vezina-nominated season included. He’s absolutely standing on his head to try to get the Canucks back into the playoffs, and that can only be a good thing.

The Canucks have already signed Kevin Lankinen to a long-term extension. That’s naturally led to some speculation about an offseason Demko trade. Prior to this run of play, some might have wondered if there was even a market for him out there, or if the Canucks might have to essentially give him away for free. Nobody is wondering that anymore. If Demko can play this well, coming off a season in and out of the lineup, then there will be a market for him. The trade market is, after all, often a ‘what have you done lately’ sort of thing, and the goalie market especially so. If the Canucks look to move him this summer, teams will come calling, and real value will be returned.

Or, on the other hand, the Canucks might decide keep Demko on hand for 2025/26, and platoon him with Lankinen. They’ve got the cap space on hand. And in that scenario, Demko’s play is also a positive, because it probably means he’s ready to assume more of a 1A position than was previously assumed, which sets the Canucks up to have one of the best tandems in hockey heading into next season.

A true win-win.

Late-season auditions for prospects are pretty common in hockey. Often, however, they come on teams that are already out of the playoff picture, playing in games that don’t truly matter.

But that’s not the case for the Canucks and their auditioning youngsters right now.

These are some unique circumstances. The Canucks are making a playoff push during which every game matters, and they’re also battling through some key injuries to an already-thin forward corps.

The end result is the sort of audition conditions that just don’t happen under ordinary circumstances. These young players aren’t just trying out for the team; they’re being tried out in the sorts of roles and responsibilities that the team hopes they’ll be able to take on in the near future.

Players like Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Aatu Räty aren’t just playing; they’re scoring the kinds of big goals that they’ll be counted on for in future seasons. That’s vital on-the-job training, and the fact that the youngsters are handling the pressure so well bodes positively for their development paths.

It’s not just the forwards, either. The shedding of Carson Soucy and Vincent Desharnais in-season opened up space on the blueline for the likes of the other Elias Pettersson and Victor Mancini to step in and step up. Both are contributing positively when in the lineup, again handling high-pressure minutes at the highest level of competitiveness.

Folks no doubt noticed Mancini out on the ice as the Canucks tried desperately to tie the game against his former team, the Rangers. Those types of minutes-that-matter normally aren’t available to emerging prospects at this time of year. But they are on the Canucks.

If and when Tom Willander signs, he’ll enter the lineup not because the season is a lost cause and he might as well, but because the Canucks need the boost he can provide them. That’s just a way better way to start one’s career off than playing Whose Line Is It Anyway? hockey. 

This section isn’t just about how nice it is to see Brock Boeser smiling again, but it could be. It’s been a trying season for someone who is normally a beacon of optimism, and Boeser has definitely shown the emotional wear-and-tear at times. That the team is playing well again, that Boeser himself is playing a leading role, and that the vibes seem to be more positive around the team all seem to have combined to lift a great weight from his shoulders.

But if we’re talking about long-term impact, one could definitely also argue that Boeser having fun again is a positive when it comes to his ongoing contract negotiations. Talks reportedly continue, and while we’re not privy to the details, the fact that Boeser is being reminded of how much he likes playing in Vancouver has to favour the management side of the negotiation, no? At the very least, Boeser is being given one last ‘pitch’ on lessening his demands a little for the sake of staying, and if that results in a more team-friendly contract than he might otherwise have signed, that’s obviously a good thing.

Or, if Boeser does hit the open market, then these clutch goals have definitely earned him an extra million or two, and that’s nice, too. Speaking of which…

If Boeser hits UFA status, his recent play will earn him some extra dough. But that’s even more true for two other pending UFAs in Pius Suter and Derek Forbort.

Suter is getting to play a 1C role on a team desperately pushing for the playoffs, and he’s doing pretty darn well, all things considered. If the Canucks can’t extend him themselves, some other team is going to use this run of play to convince themselves that Suter is their solution at 2C, and he’ll be given a contract in line with that.

In short, these few weeks might just conspire to put some money in Suter’s pocket that wouldn’t otherwise be there.

The same could definitely be said for Forbort, who has been at the centre of the Canucks’ truly dominant run of penalty killing, and who has somewhat miraculously added an element of offence to his game that had been largely absent in his previous 500+ career games.

And, hey, we realize that Suter and Forbort becoming richer this summer isn’t exactly a positive to the Canucks as a franchise. But if individual gains aren’t enough to get you feeling optimistic, there are a couple of ways this can be spun in favour of the home team all the same.

With Forbort, this run of play has greatly increased his odds of re-signing with the Canucks. Hopefully, it hasn’t increased his requested salary in step. But if management was on the fence about the wisdom of extending him, they should be convinced now. And that continuity is probably a good thing. We saw what happened when Ian Cole and Nikita Zadorov left this offseason. If this run of play justifies keeping this blue line intact, then that’s probably for the best.

Alternatively, we can also look at this last burst of energy on the Suter and Forbort contracts as retroactively helping ensure that they’re remembered as true high-value signings. Which doesn’t help the team much moving forward, but does lend more credit to Patrik Allvin and Co.’s offseason work. And managers need confidence and morale, too!

More than anything, what the Canucks have gained with this late gasp of life is the prevention of any sort of overreaction during the coming offseason.

Hughes is, again, right. The Canucks’ core remains a talented one, led by the best player in franchise history (not that Hughes would ever refer to himself as such.) One bad year should not change that outlook, especially not when said year is one of the strangest in franchise history.

There was a lot of talk about ‘burning it down’ at various points throughout 2024/25. About trading Pettersson and Demko, and, heck, at that point, maybe Hughes, too. Talk about firing Rick Tocchet and staff. Maybe even talk about Allvin and Co. being given their own walking papers.

Such talk has died down. And so, too, has the impetus for the front office to make anything approaching sweeping changes in the offseason.

There’s work to be done, no doubt. But there’s, as Hughes said, also plenty to build on. The blue line is better than it has been in over a decade. Pettersson is showing signs of life again. The goaltending tandem is locked in and rolling. The depth pieces, like Drew O’Connor and Kiefer Sherwood, continue to outperform their contracts.

Add a quality centre and perhaps another winger to this mix, and there’s a lot of reason to think that the 2025/26 season can be much, much different. And that’s just a much better feeling to go into the offseason with than a feeling of drastic change being required.