Recent articles from Jeff Paterson

What percent chance would you put on DeBrusk starting the season with the Canucks?

11:34 PM · Jul 31, 2026

I think I’d be willing to peg the odds at 85%. As much talk as there was about peddling Jake DeBrusk around the draft, the discourse has basically disappeared. Does that mean the interest in the veteran winger has dried up, too? Perhaps. I think there are a couple of factors at play. One is that the overall trade market in the NHL has cooled since late June. There just weren’t many deals last month. In fact, since July 2nd there were exactly two trades made in the NHL and they involved names like Tyler Kopff, Zac Funk, Sean Farrell and Sasha Pastujov. And yes, all are all real human beings. The other factor is that there are still some goal scoring free agents available on the open market.

Vladimir Tarasenko, Eeli Tolvanen, Reilly Smith and Patrik Laine are all still without contracts for next season. Is a team going to part with assets to acquire a player like DeBrusk if they think they can simply sign one of the guys looking for new deals to do the job? I think Jake DeBrusk has to be prepared to report to Canucks camp and do his part to get off to a good start to perhaps spur some interest. It’s possible that teams will assess their depth charts prior to camp and decide they’d like to add a proven 20-goal guy on an affordable contract. But since that trade hasn’t happened yet, I am not expecting it to go down before the season starts.

Terry

@surreycanuck6

I spent most of July working on Canucks line combos and ranking their top 30 prospects. Am I being productive?

2:12 AM · Aug 1, 2026

Um, yes. In fact, you should contact Quadrelli. You sound like you’d fit right in around here. Actually, don’t contact Quads. He’s got a lot on his plate these days. He won’t even return my calls. But absolutely I’m all for people obsessing over this hockey club. We all know the Canucks draw you in, break your heart repeatedly and refuse to loosen their grip. But the hope is one day, some day, there will be a pay off for your emotional investment. As for those line combinations, I’m sure Manny Malhotra spent much of his July working on that same project. And no one would criticize him for doing that. So why should anyone knock you? I’d be curious to see what your list of 30 prospects looks like. Here at CA, we were only bold enough to rank 20 prospects. I wonder if you had to manufacture a couple of prospects to round out your list? A top 30 feels awfully ambitious. Like really, really ambitious.

Big Sven

@HeavySvenB

Who is one “surprise” player that you think will be on the roster opening night that most people might not be thinking of?

11:45 PM · Jul 31, 2026

The easiest answer to this question in my mind is Nikita Tolopilo. And I name him because I think there are two distinct ways he could make that opening night roster. The Canucks could choose to keep three netminders to start the season to avoid trying to squeeze the 26-year-old netminder through waivers. It’s also quite conceivable that Thatcher Demko won’t be fully healthy by opening night and that Tolopilo might do more than just make the roster. He could very well be in uniform for that first game. However, it’s also quite conceivable that the Canucks look to mine the pre-season waiver wire for a veteran NHL goalie that they view as an upgrade to Tolopilo. Other surprise options include Kirill Kudryavtsev, big centre Ilya Safonov and my (very) dark horse would be first rounder Adam Novotný who with a massive camp and preseason could stick around and get an early season look the way Braeden Cootes did last season.

k.d. madigan

@riotsurvivor

who are the best hyphenated-named canucks players of all time, and where will niklas aaram-olsen end up on that list

10:10 PM · Jul 31, 2026

I like a good challenge and so I met this one head on. My exhaustive research reveals that the Canucks really don’t have an extensive history of players with double-barrelled names. So, in all honesty, this project turned out to be quite unsatisfactory. I was hoping it was going to be a long list with some great blasts from the past. But in reality, recent Canucks Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Oliver Ekman-Larsson nearly doubled the total from the organization’s first 50 years of existence. Per-Olav Brasar spent three seasons in Vancouver in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and produced 100 points in 181 games. In fact, Brasar dressed for six games in the 1982 playoffs including the first game of the Stanley Cup Final. Based on that fun fact alone, he may be the best hyphenated player to ever suit up for the hockey club.

In terms of overall career, Ekman-Larsson is easily the most accomplished even if his time in Vancouver will prove to be but a footnote in his career. Otherwise, Marc-Andre Gragnani’s 14 games as a Canuck in 2011-12 are hardly remembered and you have to go back more than 40 years to find Jean-Marc Lanthier’s non-descript three seasons in Vancouver. So based on all of the above, the path is clear for 2026 second rounder Niklas Aaram-Olsen to rise to the top of this very select list. Unless, of course, Trey Fix-Wolansky surprises us all and parlays his free agent signing this season into the opportunity of a lifetime.

jeff putnam

@Putsky88