The Vancouver Canucks are down to just two games remaining in their 2025 exhibition schedule. Normally, this is the point at which the roster would be whittled down to its opening day shape, or at least close to it, so as to allow the last couple preseason games to be more warm-ups than evaluations. But this year feels different.

The competition promised to be fierce at Canucks Camp 2025, and it has been, but it’s also been very close. The result is that it feels like there are still more players in the running for roster spots at this late juncture than there usually are, and consequently, there are still plenty of players that we’d like to get at least one more look at before the 2025-26 regular season officially gets going.

These are those players.

Mancini has been the star of the exhibition schedule so far, impressing at camp itself and then with two goals through two preseason games. Many had already declared him the winner of the battle for 3RD with Tom Willander.

But Mancini has also been somewhat conspicuously absent from the two most recent games. Is this because he’s already locked himself in, is he nursing a minor injury, or is something else at play?

We’ve already heard some statements from head coach Adam Foote about some of the risky play still inherent in Mancini’s game. It could also be that Mancini is getting a little extra time to reassess some of those gaps and ensure he’s ready to face true NHL competition. Make no mistake though – if there’s one thing Mancini has earned, it’s the right to play in these final two preseason games and truly claim a blueline spot for himself. A couple more dynamic performances would certainly do it, but so too might a quieter, safer showing.

We can’t reasonably mention Mancini without mentioning his primary competition in Willander. Whereas Mancini came out gangbusters in Training Camp this year, Willander arrived a lot quieter. Perhaps that was to be expected of a 20-year-old fresh out of the NCAA. But then, Willander has also looked a little better with each passing appearance, gaining comfort and steadiness.

Willander was always going to bring less flash to the table than Mancini. But the coaching staff isn’t looking for flash necessarily. They’re looking for someone who can best handle the rigors of a full 82-game schedule against the best competition in the world.

It would have been nice to see how Willander matched up against the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, but he got the night off on Sunday. Chances seem best that he’ll play in the last two, however, at which point the showdown between him and Mancini becomes almost head-to-head. From where we’re sitting, it still could go either way.

Many had Lekkerimäki pencilled in to the Abbotsford lineup to start, but the team clearly felt a bit differently, starting him out on a line with Filip Chytil and Evander Kane. It’s been said often this summer that Lekkerimäki is one of the most natural goal-scorers in an organization that has been a little bit starved for goal-scoring of late. Him hitting this year, and becoming a fit in the top-six, would make the Canucks a more dangerous team. And Lekkerimäki is certainly making an argument.

He’s got a goal and an assist through three preseason games. That’s nice and all, but what has been far more impressive is Lekkerimäki’s play away from the net. He’s using his body to protect the puck, he’s winning battles in the corner, and his defensive game seems to have improved by leaps and bounds. The shot was always there, but it’s these upgraded traits that will have more to do with Lekkerimäki securing a job this year.

The final preseason games should really feature Lekkerimäki in both top-six minutes and with ample power play deployment to see if he can be a fixture on that PP2 unit. Maybe, in the end, he’ll just wind up sticking with that Chytil-Kane unit into the regular season, especially with Nils Höglander out with an injury.

Seven years after being drafted at ninth overall, Kravtsov is still up to his old trick of flashing tantalizing potential without ever actually doing anything with it.

It is probably safe to say that Kravtsov has looked better in a Vancouver jersey this preseason than he has at any point in his attempted NHL career to date. He’s been frequently involved in offensive chances, has driven play more than usual, and still looks like he has a big league toolkit of skill. But it’s often been said that Kravtsov has no real standout trait, and that’s what it feels like right now.

Kravtsov hasn’t done enough to stand out either positively or negatively. At least one more game, and one more opportunity to do something, is probably warranted. At this point, however, Kravtsov is battling uphill to make this team.

Speaking of battling uphill, it feels like the incline has got a little steeper for Bains, too. He’s looked fine throughout the preseason, and probably more NHL-ready than he was in last year’s regular-season cameos. The issue is that, like Kravtsov, Bains hasn’t done enough to stand out from a particularly competitive pack.

Abbotsford linemates Linus Karlsson and Max Sasson would seem to have made a better impression. One might have thought that Höglander’s injury severely reduced Bains’ chances of ending up on waivers, but the longer this exhibition schedule goes on, the likelier it seems that the Canucks will instead choose to take a longer look at a younger player like Lekkerimäki or Braeden Cootes.

In any case, Bains has earned the right to one more game, at least, in order to potentially change some minds about that. 

If Mancini isn’t the star of the preseason, it’s Cootes. He’s certainly the talk of the town. No one can remember the last time an 18-year-old arrived in Vancouver and made such a strong impression. Previously, the idea of Cootes making the team this year, straight out of the draft, was almost a fantasy – a “can you imagine how convenient that would be for the centre-starved Canucks?” sort of situation. But Cootes has gone on to make every argument possible in his favour to do so.

Cootes looks like he possesses an abundance of NHL-appropriate skill, but more than that, he’s got poise. He’s already making veteran plays and flashing his intelligence, particularly in how he’s working around his lack of strength and size. Point-blank, Cootes looks like someone who could play in the NHL this season and, at the very least, survive and do fine.

Right now, he’s playing for the chance to do a nine-game cameo while Höglander is out of the lineup. And right now, he looks like he deserves it, cleanly out-competing Aatu Räty for the theoretical 3C position.

Getting Cootes into one more game is almost for the opposite reason of the other forwards on this list. They’re looking for one more chance to stand out. Meanwhile, we’re all waiting to see if Cootes will stop standing out.

Again, we can’t really mentioned Cootes without mentioning his primary competition. Räty has had a rough start to the preseason, but maybe that was to be expected after a shortened offseason made complicated by a late-year injury.

Räty skated into camp with pretty close to a guaranteed spot, but his skating remains questionable and he didn’t take the step forward many were hoping for. Given his body of work thus far, it seems fair to give Räty more time to work with and shake off the rust. We don’t think he’s in any danger of outright losing his spot on the team, or of hitting waivers. But if Cootes does end up sticking around, it’s not out of the question for Räty to start the season as the 13^th forward, outside of the lineup looking in.

Sunday’s game against the Oilers was Räty’s best showing so far. It is hoped he’ll look even better in the final two.

Where is Stillman at? The partial return for Arturs Silovs turned a few heads in camp and then in the first preseason game, where he agitated the opposition and scoring a nice penalty shot goal. For a moment there, Stillman was looking like a genuine dark horse to make the team. But after a quiet second exhibition game, he hasn’t been seen since.

Is this because the team has already decided to focus on likelier candidates? Or is Stillman going to get one more chance to show that he can be a genuine rat against top-tier competition?