On Wednesday morning, new Vancouver Canucks staff met with the media before 2026-27 training camp began.

We’ve already discussed some major talking points from today’s availability, such as Thatcher Demko not being a full participant for training camp, Manny Malhotra’s view on the difference between losing and playing losing hockey, and Ryan Johnson’s anti-Yo-Yoing philosophy regarding their young players.

It appears this management group is in no rush to name a captain for the upcoming season:

“We’re in no rush to hand out letters just for the sake of putting a letter on somebody,” said Malhotra. “We’ve talked about it earlier in the summer that the leaders of this group will emerge when the time is right. That’s going to play out over the next few weeks to see who takes hold of that type of role, and we see who the guys want to follow. But we’re not in any rush to put ‘A’s and ‘C’s on guys. When it happens, it happens.”

After last season’s Hughes trade, a rotation of players wore an ‘A’ on their sweater: Filip Hronek, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Tyler Myers. That group shrank to the first three after Myers was traded to the Dallas Stars.

Now, with a new regime, they believe in letting the leaders emerge as they do, with a clean slate coming into the year. Just because you’ve worn a letter before does not mean you will be wearing one now. So, we’ll see who will be wearing the letters on their sweaters come Game 1 of the regular season on September 29 against the Edmonton Oilers, but it would be a surprise to see a player with the captain’s ‘C’ on their sweater.

With training camp now just one night away, Malhotra detailed the defensive system he plans to exercise this season:

“It obviously relies on structure and being in the right place at the right time,” Malhotra began. “For me, playing good defence doesn’t mean sitting on the inside and just soaking shots all night long. In this NHL, if you give teams time and space, they’re going to take it, and it’s going to go badly for you. So, we’re going to be preaching the same things that, if you look at all the successful teams in the league defensively, how they play, it’s ultra-aggressive. They take time and space away quickly. They play layered, so there’s constant support and redundancy, so guys don’t get exposed if there is a breakdown. But it’s going to revolve around being structured and aggressive.”

At last year’s training camp, it became clear quickly that Adam Foote’s defensive system was going to be high-risk, high-reward. It’s pretty obvious how that turned out. That said, we should be able to see Malhotra’s system early on in training camp and whether it will work for this young Canucks squad.

Johnson has been asked about Elias Pettersson at nearly every availability, because he has become one of the Canucks’ most polarizing players. The new Canucks GM has treated the situation delicately each time, hesitant to pour any gasoline on the situation. However, Johnson had some positive things to say regarding his highest-paid player and what his expectations are for him as he looks to rebound in 2026-27:

“Well, I think it’s very simple, and I’ve said it’s not just Petey; we expected our group to come in extremely prepared. He has done that,” Johnson shared. “The other thing that I really wanted him to focus on was, in his own way, what did it look like to be a really good teammate to the other players in that room. We’ve had many good discussions. I think Petey knows he’s in a safe place here, as far as people who have his back and are going to give him an environment to not be anything other than who he is. And we think with the environment that we’re going to surround him with – the players – we expect him to be a really happy hockey player coming to the rink to practice and work on his game.

“That’s my expectations. I don’t have points in mind. I don’t expect him to be the loudest guy in the room. I don’t expect him to overnight turn into an alpha. I just expect him to be exactly who he is, and I think as we allow him to do that within some structure and within the environment that we want him to be able to come to the rink and work on his game every day, that we’re going to see a happier hockey player, which usually translates into some form of success or improvement.”

At the beginning of the availability, Johnson mentioned that Abbotsford Canucks defenceman Jack Thompson took a puck to the face and will miss training camp. To fill his spot, the club has extended a PTO to a defenceman, Johnson shared.

“We are adding a defenceman based off the injury to Jack Thompson that will be coming in kind of last minute, that was actually a defenceman that was on an American League contract. But as of this minute, and I don’t want to overspeak because things can change, as we know, but he would be the the only guy. Yes.”

While we wait to see who this defenceman is, he will join goaltender Chris Driedger as the only two players coming to Canucks training camp on a professional tryout contract.

Daily Faceoff Vancouver’s Jeff Paterson was the media hero during the press conference for asking the Sedins about an update on the practice facility. Here is what Daniel said regarding the reported Britannia Ice Rink location and the frustration coming from the local Minor Hockey Association about the limited rink space in the Lower Mainland:

“We had a very good meeting with the Minor Hockey Association and good discussions; I think we’re on the same page,” Daniel said. “We’re working hard with the city to get something done. And correct me if I’m wrong, Hank, but you know how big our city is back home in Sweden. It’s about 65,000 people, and we have the same amount of rinks there as we do in the city of Vancouver. So we would love to give something back to the community and add rinks, and that’s something that would be a dream of ours as an organization to do. Like I said, it’s a lot of hard work with the city to get something done, and I think we’re on a good path.”

This isn’t actually a takeaway, but boy did they get their use out of this phrase. Johnson used it once at the start, and then Malhotra used it another four times after.

We’ll see which players play and where they eventually line up starting tomorrow for Day 1 of Canucks training camp in Penticton.