Recent articles from Jeff Paterson

How do we watch the Vancouver Canucks after such a spectacular tournament? Is it just trade deadline, Stanley Cup Playoffs, draft? Can we fast forward to mid April?

10:09 PM · Feb 22, 2026

So this question was asked in one form or other by about a hundred of you. And, yes, without a doubt, it’s going to be a letdown going from a winner-take-all gold medal showdown to the absolutely no stakes on the line 32nd place Canucks vs the 28th place Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena. But you know what? We’ll all adapt and adjust. Sure, there won’t be the same level of investment in the final 25 games that there was for Olympic hockey. But we’ll all return to our own level of interest. With the Canucks, there will certainly be trade intrigue.

It’ll be interesting to see what a healthy Marco Rossi looks like. Will we see some of the younger players offered larger roles and responsibilities? Will the team get to 60 points on the season? I think it’s reasonable to expect casual fans to hang on through the trade deadline to see how that plays out. After March 6th, however, interest will surely wane. The Canucks face Quinn Hughes for the first time on April 2nd. That night might register with some fans. But really, the next true date of any consequence is the draft lottery (likely to be conducted in early May).

Josh Haggstrom

@JoshHaggstrom

After their performances, which of the candidates for trade did the best to increase their value? Whose value dropped?

8:58 PM · Feb 22, 2026

I’m not sure three preliminary round games and one or two elimination round contests did much, if anything, to impact the trade value of any of the Canucks Olympians. Filip Hronek played a ton for Czechia. Elias Pettersson had one game of note for Sweden, Teddy Blueger battled hard for Latvia, and Kevin Lankinen saw no playing time for bronze medal-winning Finland. I suppose if one player perhaps opened a few eyes on the trade market, it may have been David Kämpf, who more than held his own on a Czech team that pushed Canada to the brink in the quarterfinal.

Kämpf was used as a top penalty killer for his country, won key faceoffs and played higher in the Olympic lineup than perhaps was anticipated. With an injury to Pavel Zacha, Kämpf was thrust into a top-six role and managed to contribute on the big stage. His Olympic performance won’t likely have teams lining up around the block, but it may have reinforced the notion that Kämpf could be a useful depth piece for a playoff-bound NHL team.

rogueone_13

@JulianBeckett75

Does Connor Hellebuyck get 👻 or 👏🏽 on Wednesday at Rogers?

9:04 PM · Feb 22, 2026

This one is interesting to me. The Canucks are pretty solid when it comes to game presentation. I think they’ll acknowledge all of the medal-winning Olympians returning to the NHL, and that way can roll a salute to Kevin Lankinen in with Connor Hellebuyck, Kyle Connor, and Josh Morrissey. They may take it a step further and acknowledge every player who participated in the tournament, although they did that in their final home game before the Olympics. Sure, Hellebuyck dashed this country’s dream of capturing gold, and we will hold that against him. But give the guy his flowers in his first game on this side of the Atlantic. I’ll be surprised if he gets the start in goal on Wednesday after all he’s been through over the past few weeks. So give him a quick close-up on the jumbotron as he backs up for the night, show him some respectful applause, and then we can all move on.

Who is Team Canada’s goalie of the future to play with Celebrini & Bedard?

— DSto (@dsto2.bsky.social) 2026-02-22T20:40:27.830Z

I want to say the answer to this is currently being constructed in a top-secret lab somewhere. But if that were the case, we likely would have already built a robo goalie for past tournaments. Perhaps it’s Jet Greaves of Cambridge, ON who, at 24, is quietly putting together a strong season in Columbus (2.62 & .910). Beyond that, we’re probably looking at guys like Hamilton native Sebastian Cossa, who is 23-4-2 with a 1.95 GAA and a .928 save percentage, along with five shutouts for Detroit’s AHL farm team in Grand Rapids this season. Or maybe it’s one of the players that performed for Canada at this year’s World Juniors: Carter George (LAK), Jack Ivankovic (NAS) or North Vancouver’s Joshua Ravensbergen (SJS). Or maybe it’s a player that has yet to burst onto the scene. Also, whatever happened to our Quebec goalie factory?

Michael

@MJohnRadcliffe

How would you draft the top 5 of both the 2025 and 2026 draft classes combined. Purely pre-draft, so disregarding what the 2025 players have done this year.

8:48 PM · Feb 22, 2026