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JPat’s Monday Mailbag: What exactly are the Canucks at the 10-game mark?
Jeff Paterson's weekly Vancouver Canucks mailbag.
Jeff Paterson
Oct 27, 2025, 14:30 EDTUpdated: Oct 27, 2025, 14:04 EDT
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I don’t know about you, but to me it feels like the Vancouver Canucks have played 60 games already this season. There’s certainly been enough storylines to keep this market talking for months. And yet a check of the schedule shows the Canucks are merely at the 10-game mark after a back-to-back weekend against Montreal and Edmonton. Between injuries, inconsistency, travel, and a compressed schedule, the first three weeks of the season have presented all sorts of challenges.
Yet, it’s also allowed the likes of Conor Garland, Kiefer Sherwood, Thatcher Demko, and, at times, even the much-maligned Elias Pettersson to flourish. Say this much about this year’s version of the Vancouver Canucks. It’s never dull. And the same can be said about submissions to the CanucksArmy mailbox. Each week, we ask for submissions. And each week, our loyal followers and readers are up to the challenge. So while the hockey club enjoys a well-deserved day off, we present this week’s Monday Mailbag.
I’m going to say they’re probably a solid six. That’s taking into account – and giving them credit for – playing through a rash of injuries and a hellish schedule to start the season. Gutting out five wins from the first 10 games with the context of early adversity is quite admirable. Obviously, .500 hockey won’t get them anywhere close to the playoffs at season’s end. But the first 10 games didn’t derail their season or put them so far behind the 8-ball that they can’t or won’t recover.
It’s going to be a slog for this team to make the progress necessary to get to the required 13 or 14 games above .500 to finish above the playoff bar when all is said and done. But credit where it’s due for finding ways to grind out good wins over teams like Dallas, Washington and Edmonton in the early going. There will be no let up from the schedule, so they’ve just got to find a way to continue to plug away.

How do you feel Reichel’s first two games went and do you see some promise?

— DSto (@dsto2.bsky.social) 2025-10-26T17:08:30.231Z

I give the guy a pass on his debut on Saturday. In a 24-hour span, he had his life turned upside down with a trade, difficulty getting to Vancouver and then being asked to step into the line-up and play at 4pm game against one of the top teams in the league. Through it all, he managed to post the fastest speed burst by a Canucks player this season. So on that front he came very much as advertised. On Sunday against Edmonton, he fared well matched up for the most part against Leon Draisaitl. Reichel had several scoring chances, looked assertive and his speed in open ice was notable.
I’m sure he, as much as anyone on the team, will benefit from a full day off after a whirlwind weekend. In saying that, he could also probably use a couple of practices with his new team and coaching staff. However, in a condensed schedule and with the club heading back out on the road after Tuesday’s game against the Rangers, the Canucks will likely only have one practice over the next week. That’s just the reality of the situation for players like Reichel. Overall, I thought he showed signs of the player the Canucks are hoping he can be. Now, let the guy grab a nap.
The mountains. The oceans. The weather. Wait, what? Scratch the weather part for the next six months. Who wouldn’t want to live and play second-line centre here? I like the creative marketing approach. With massive television ratings, the World Series would be a great way to let the rest of the hockey world know the Canucks are open for business. However, I think the rest of the hockey world is already acutely aware of that fact.
There were 18 NHL teams represented on scout’s row in the press box at Rogers Arena on Sunday. A weekend of back-to-back games provided a great opportunity for teams to send scouts in to see two games on consecutive nights. So the league knows what’s going on here. But I still like the idea of the Canucks getting aggressive and thinking outside the (batter’s) box by having Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin pop up on TV screens between innings of the Fall Classic making a pitch to their colleagues to do business. 
I think this was a fair assessment after losses in Pittsburgh and Nashville to close out the road trip. The team scored just once in each of those games. Quinn Hughes was visibly frustrated at the end of the loss to the Predators, and Elias Pettersson was still scuffling. But it was impossible to quibble with the effort of the group in weekend games against Montreal and Edmonton. Pettersson looked as good as he has in ages in a shutdown assignment against Nick Suzuki and Connor McDavid. The Hughes injury situation is concerning and full credit to the Canucks for finding a way to beat the Oilers without him.
Look, the Canucks are a flawed team even when fully healthy. But I don’t know how accurate an assessment anyone can truly make on this year’s team as a whole based on a 10-game stretch that was completed in 17 nights with crazy travel, six of those 10 games on the road and with players falling by the wayside on a nightly basis. It wasn’t until Sunday against Edmonton that the Canucks played consecutive games in the same city. It’s their reality, and I think they’ve dealt with it about as well as possible. I’m going to give it another 10 games before drawing any sweeping conclusions about this year’s version of the hockey club.
We’re getting a little far down the road after just 10 games here. However, that said, in a market like Vancouver there is always heat on management and the coaching staff to perform. Given much of what has been said about the Canucks (and written in this piece and elsewhere), I don’t think anyone is on any kind of hot seat in the here and now. But it is important to always remember that this management group was brought in to deliver a championship to this city.
And, on that front, it seems they are well short of those expectations with no obvious path to reach that desired destination. We all know how much ownership loves playoff revenue and there simply hasn’t been much of it for far too long now (seven home games in 2024 was fun, but hardly makes up for the years and years without). So if this season’s team falls short, that will be just one playoff appearance in four full seasons under Jim Rutherford and Patrick Allvin. Objectively, that can’t be seen as any kind of success especially given that this group inherited the best defenceman – and one of the greatest players – to ever play for the franchise.
So let’s slow the roll on the question for now, let the season play out and take stock when the dust settles. But if the Canucks miss the postseason for the fifth time in six seasons (and third time in four years under this regime), then I think it’s fair to believe that the organization’s top decision makers will be in a position to ask some pointed and difficult questions about the direction of the hockey club. That’s just the nature of the beast in professional sports. If however, the season is off the rails by December as posed in the question, that presents a series of new challenges for the club and may change the view of the operation from the top. Again, it’s too soon to contemplate that after a 5-5 start to the season. But if things start to go sideways, then all bets are off.

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