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JPat’s Monday Mailbag: Could a healthy Canucks roster compete for a playoff spot?
Jeff Paterson's weekly Vancouver Canucks mailbag.
Jeff Paterson
Dec 8, 2025, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 8, 2025, 00:24 EST
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Even the most ardent tankists in Canucks nation have to understand this team isn’t going to lose every night. That’s just not how professional sports work.
So while one win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday isn’t likely to change the trajectory of the now 31st place team in the National Hockey League, for a night it was a credit to the guys in Vancouver Canucks colours that they dug down and found a way to grind out a victory – especially with the late-breaking news that Elias Pettersson was the latest to be bitten by the injury bug. Canucks fans should welcome nights when players like Aatu Räty, Tom Willander, and Nikita Tolopilo step up and play key roles. Those three might be part of a brighter future here one day.
Speaking of brightness, it’s Monday, and that means it’s time for our weekly mailbag here at CanucksArmy. As usual, readers had plenty of questions, and we have done our best to address them. Let’s dive in.
Perhaps. Although the one where fans and media try to will a Stanley Cup victory to happen for the Canucks and the City of Vancouver remains very much a work in progress. Despite a Herculean effort, nobody has quite nailed talking that one into existence just yet. So the work continues. I think there are more powerful forces that go into a star player’s decision about his future. Things like a winning environment, a talented roster, and stacks and stacks of cash – although it must be noted that star players will get their money wherever they go. It’s just that certain places can offer more money over longer terms than others in this completely random example you are suggesting.
I’d need to see the return on the much-talked-about Hughes trade first. But I certainly hope any package for one of the best defencemen in the league would yield a couple of pieces that the team could build around. The Canucks look like they are headed for their highest draft slot in years, as long as they hold on to the pick. That should be a piece of whatever new core is assembled (see first question and speak the name Gavin McKenna into existence).
Tom Willander, defenceman Elias Pettersson, Victor Mancini, Aatu Räty and Braeden Cootes are all young, are already in the system and have the potential to be part of what the team is trying to put together. Hopefully, Alexei Medvedev continues to develop into the goaltender the Canucks believe he can become. But if Quinn Hughes decides he wants to play elsewhere, then the Canucks need to find elite-level talent to replace him. A mega-deal should help stock the roster, but it’s going to take more than just one trade to do the trick.
I don’t want to overreact to a three-game sample size, but sure. I like what I’ve seen from Nikita Tolopilo over the past couple of weeks at the NHL level and hope he can continue to push for more opportunities with the big league team. If the Canucks get to a point where they are stripping this roster down and trying to start over, then having a pair of aging goaltenders who make significant money and both have term on their deals doesn’t make a lot of sense. Lankinen needs to regain his form before he’d attract significant attention on the trade market, and Demko, who just happens to turn 30 today, is a wild card given his lengthy injury history. The Canucks grand plan at the outset of the season was to have one of the best goaltending tandems in the league to cover other areas of concern on the roster. This morning, the team sits 31st in the overall standings. If the club elects to fundamentally alter its path, gauging the trade market for one or both of its starting netminders makes sense, especially with the likes of Tolopilo and, eventually, Medvedev pushing for a path to NHL starts. 
Truth be told, I had the Canucks pegged for a 96-point season and figured they’d be on the fringes of playoff contention right to the end. I based my assumption on the same things many others did: goaltending, a stout defence, enough top-end talent to swing games on many nights and a belief that there would be enough internal growth from several of the players that helped Abbotsford claim the Calder Cup. We now know that just about every assumption with this hockey team this season has taken a nose-dive, although a few of the Abbotsford guys are showing well of late. Given the seasons that many of the veterans have had so far, it’s hard to see this group – even if fully healthy – finishing above the playoff bar. Elias Pettersson’s effort has been there most nights, but he hasn’t reverted to an elite point producer. Jake DeBrusk and Evander Kane have both been quieter than hoped. Brock Boeser has run cold without a second line centre to play with. Conor Garland’s in that same boat. And we all know the collective struggles of the group defensively. So I’m not holding out much hope for my 96-point projection at this stage. And even if the roster were fully healthy, I think too many holes have been exposed that would have prevented this team from making the postseason.
Sure it is. The team website has plenty of them! I kid. Sort of. We produce hundreds of articles a month here at CanucksArmy. Most of them reflect the current state of the franchise. Some are editorial. Some are features. Some are news updates. Some are game day previews. Others are game reviews. A few are mailbags. For the most part, we deal with the material presented by the team on the ice or by management off of it. Right now, the Canucks are in a bad way. There’s no getting around that. But there are still plenty of articles written here and elsewhere in the market pointing out some of the good being done by individuals on the hockey club. A quick scan of CanucksArmy articles over the weekend includes headlines like “A big game from Aatu Räty helps Canucks overcome Wild’ and ‘Youth carries Canucks in weekend win vs. Wild’. There was praise on Saturday for the play of Tom Willander and Nikita Tolopilo. There has been love shown to Linus Karlsson for his play of late. People have written about the excitement of seeing Nils Höglander return from injury or Canucks prospects making their respective countries’ World Junior teams. So I don’t know where you’re looking, but it seems like you’re missing out. The articles are out there and in plain sight. 
I’m going to say Chicago – especially after last night’s 7-1 blowout loss to the Anaheim Ducks. They’ve been fun to watch, and it’s been incredible to see Conor Bedard blossom into the player most figured he would become. But if he runs cold for a stretch or Spencer Knight falters, there’s an awful lot of ordinary in that Blackhawks lineup. The team is the third-youngest in the NHL, so there is still a ton of potential. But it’s important to remember that this was a 61-point team just a year ago. So baby steps are likely required. A few weeks back, the Hawks were 10-5-4, but have just two wins in their last 10 games. So maybe that market correction is taking place before our eyes.

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