Past a certain point, the 2025-26 Vancouver Canucks were expected to undergo a mass exodus. But sitting here, on the other side of the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline, that just hasn’t come to pass. Deadline Week itself saw the Canucks deal out just Tyler Myers, Conor Garland, and David Kampf from their NHL roster. If we go back a couple more months, we can add Kiefer Sherwood and Quinn Hughes to the list. But that’s it.

Put it this way, there are more Canucks still here at this point than most assumed there would be.

But the Canucks have announced their intention to rebuild already, and they’ve also acknowledged that it will be a multi-year project. There is still plenty of time left on the table to continue shaping this roster by subtraction. The next such opportunity will be this offseason, in the Summer of ’26, and it could be a big one.

With that in mind, we thought we’d highlight some Canucks today who did not move at the Trade Deadline, but who may still move this summer. More specifically, we’re highlighting a handful of Canucks who, for one reason or another, should probably be easier to trade in the offseason than they were at this most recent deadline.

For those who were let down at the lack of trades thus far, we’re saying there’s still hope. And for those who like talking transactions and roster movements as much as we do, we’re saying there’s still plenty of names to discuss.

You probably knew this article was going to be about Pettersson when you clicked on the headline.

But it’s true. Even the rumours surrounding Pettersson at this deadline, specifically those related to the Detroit Red Wings, mentioned that the summer was a far more likely time for a deal. That’s presumably for a number of reasons, including the sheer size of his contract, his no-movement clause, and the difficulty of bringing a player with ongoing struggles into the middle of an ongoing season.

Pettersson’s contract isn’t going anywhere, nor is his NMC. But there will be even more cap space opening up around the league this summer, and there will always be a deficit of centres with talent. The summer is the exact right time to go for Pettersson if a team is going to do it, leaving plenty of time still on the clock for him to get situated, get integrated with the team, and get up for a true fresh start as of 2026-27.

A Pettersson trade is still probably on the unlikely side of the probability scale, but it is far more likely for something to happen this offseason than it was this past deadline.

Different bets get made in the offseason, and for different reasons.

There were reportedly some teams interested in DeBrusk around this Trade Deadline. And there were plenty of reports that DeBrusk might welcome a move, given everything that has happened this season, and so his ongoing NMC was probably not a major barrier.

Still, a trade did not happen. But teams will likely take another swing this summer. It’s no secret that DeBrusk, like many Canucks, is having one of the worst seasons of his career. But we find it’s always easier to convince oneself of a pending bounceback at the start of a new season than it is in the middle. A team looking at DeBrusk at the deadline is going to see his current statline. A team looking at him this summer is more likely to look at his entire body of work, and see this past 2025-26 as perhaps a team-induced blip.

That’s especially true for a team that had their sights set on adding more scoring this summer, but missed out on some key free agents. Such a team should be able to convince themselves that DeBrusk can turn it around for them – and, by now, with less of a contract commitment than most similar UFAs would entail, to boot.

You can take pretty much everything we said about DeBrusk and copy-and-paste it here, save for the chatter at the deadline. We did not hear much about the senior-most Pettersson on the roster, but with Zeev Buium and the youngest Pettersson already on the left side of the blueline, there will have to be some thought put toward moving him at some point. Those thoughts may begin this summer.

Like DeBrusk, Pettersson has a NMC for the next couple of years. Like DeBrusk, he’s mired in one of the worst seasons of his career. Some will say that Pettersson has been on the decline for a bit, with some saying that goes as far back as his last season in Pittsburgh. But we think his years upon years of reliable top-four play will hold some appeals to teams that, as we suggested with DeBrusk, are able to convince themselves that this season had more to do with the team around Pettersson than his qualities as a player.

Pettersson feels older than DeBrusk, but they’re both 29. Of the two, it feels like DeBrusk should be easier to move, but then there is always a premium on sizeable defenders, so maybe there’s more of a market for Pettersson in the end.

Here’s a player we’re not sure will be on the trade block. The Canucks were looking for a young-ish 2C the entire last offseason, so why would they deal one who fell into their laps via the Hughes trade?

At 24, Rossi is definitely not too old for the rebuild, but he is kind of in that awkward in-between spot. As of yet, it’s hard to know whether he will truly play a long-term role in the plan. And with that said, a trade for Rossi should probably remain on the table just in case the offers get big.

Which they may! If there is one position of which there is always a shortage in the NHL, it’s right defence. If there are two, it’s right defence and centre. The Canucks know this firsthand. It’s all but guaranteed that a few other teams will find themselves short a centre or two following the Free Agent Frenzy, and that’s when interest in Rossi may peak. With no trade protection, the Canucks would be free to shop him around. If someone truly makes it worth their while, they should probably take that offer.

Lankinen’s NMC and current status as the Canucks’ default starter made a deadline deal unlikely for him. But he’s heading into next season looking at a three-headed monster in the crease between him, the oft-injured Thatcher Demko, and the newly-waiver-eligible Nikita Tolopilo. There’s a good chance the Canucks will want to deal Lankinen this summer, and there’s a decent chance he wants that, too.

His NMC will complicate things. But there is seemingly always a market out there for goalies with NHL experience, and Lankinen has that. The Canucks would be best to wait until the usual offseason goalie carousel concludes, and then see who is left lacking. Those will be the teams to make a pitch on Lankinen, and also the teams to pitch Lankinen on. If the Canucks can offer him another pseudo-starting role on a team more likely to put up wins, perhaps he will jump at that.

This one’s a little different, and requires some prognostication. The first year of Höglander’s pay increase to $3 million is not going well. In what has already been an up-and-down career, Höglander has just one goal and three points through 25 games, and that’s not good.

But there have been some signs of Höglander turning it around. And with Garland out the door, there are going to be some more top-six and power play minutes available down the stretch. Those minutes have to go somewhere, and Höglander is as likely a candidate as any.

If he can get more minutes moving forward, and start putting up more points, maybe a strong finish is enough to convince another team to make a bet on him this offseason. He’s a buy-low candidate, to be sure, but the contract is probably small enough to justify that – at long as Höglander can do something here in the coming month to draw real interest.