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JPat’s Monday Mailbag: Who will lead the Canucks in scoring next season?
Jeff Paterson's weekly Vancouver Canucks mailbag.
Jeff Paterson
Apr 20, 2026, 09:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 20, 2026, 03:01 EDT
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The games may be done for the season, but questions about the Vancouver Canucks will persist through the summer months. As such, we will continue to deliver Monday Mailbags here at CanucksArmy. We put out a call for your questions in the wake of Patrik Allvin’s dismissal on Friday and many of you responded with queries about the direction the hockey club should take as it seeks a new general manager. But the questions didn’t stop there. So settle in as we address many of the issues facing the hockey club as it begins its climb from the depth of the NHL standings. 
I still want to believe that this will be an actual rebuild, but was mildly troubled by Jim Rutherford’s assertion that by injecting three young players, a couple of vets and getting a healthy Thatcher Demko back that this team can be appreciably better than this past season. Now, it’s important to remember that Rutherford has bosses who want to hear that. After all, they’ve got tickets to sell.
But Rutherford also made it pretty clear that whoever is hired as the next GM needs to be prepared to buy into the rebuild. So surely that will be a focal point of all interviews with potential candidates. The organization has signalled that it’s all in on a rebuild and that ownership is finally on board with this direction. If that’s the case, then expectations for next season must remain low. That means that wins will likely be difficult to come by on many nights, but there should also be a level of improvement from within, especially from the key pieces the club is looking to build around.
I’m sure some in the fan base would love to see the core of the 2011 team reunited and put in charge here, but I’m not sure I share that sentiment. I just want the Canucks to find the best people for the job regardless of past affiliation with the organization. Of the group mentioned, only Roberto Luongo has spent a significant amount of time in an NHL front office. Alex Burrows has dabbled in coaching, the Sedins in player development and Kevin Bieksa has found a noble calling as a broadcaster. This isn’t a popularity contest.
This is the Canucks setting their course for the next 10 to 15 years – if all goes well. They need to conduct a thorough job search, leaving no stone unturned, in an effort to find the right person for this job. If one of the former players you mentioned is identified as the best possible candidate for a role here, fine. But I certainly wouldn’t be in any kind of rush to get the band back together just for feels. That doesn’t seem like a sound business decision.
Sure, if there were a dedicated practice facility, they could use. But as we await an official announcement and a formal groundbreaking ceremony, the Canucks aren’t really in a position to give their players reason to stick around in the offseason. Players are free to scatter for the summer with the understanding that they report to training camp and meet the basic thresholds of fitness the team has set out for them. I don’t know that spending more time in Vancouver would lead to better training for the players.
They are sent home after exit meetings with fitness plans and can easily remain in touch with the hockey club’s training staff over the summer months. Where there may be some benefit is having players return to Vancouver sooner than usual to begin late summer skates together as a group. Again, that would be so much easier if the players knew they had a facility available to them with year-round ice installed. Otherwise, you have to treat players as the adults they are and trust them to put in the offseason work necessary to be ready for training camp. 
Let’s go with Marco Rossi. He had 20 points in 25 games after the Olympic break which was second on the team only to Brock Boeser’s 23. A fully healthy Rossi emerged as a significant part of a power play that was second in the league over its final 25 games (32.8%). He’s settled now after dealing with the mid-season trade that brought him to Vancouver. If Elias Pettersson continues to scuffle offensively, Rossi has a chance to take over as the team’s top centre for next season. So I’m going to say Marco Rossi will be the Canucks scoring leader next season.
I don’t think Allvin’s dismissal will alter the Canucks approach to the draft. At the moment, the scouting staff remains in place. The team has conducted its various scouting meetings through the year. Allvin certainly had a heavy scouting background as he ascended through the ranks before taking the job as Canucks GM. So I don’t want to diminish his role in the process. But drafting is never on just one person. I think the Canucks will stick to the lists that they’ve built throughout the season and will continue to shape through the NHL combine and then take to June’s draft. I don’t think Patrik Allvin was going to have any influence on the lottery balls that will determine where they will select at the top of the first round. So it should be all systems go for the Canucks with a new general manager leaning on Director of Scouting Todd Harvey to make the picks when the Canucks are on the clock.
Wow, that’s a lot of ifs. I need a moment to process those possibilities. Okay, I’m ready to play this game. If all of those suggestions come to pass, I think the Canucks could jump as high as fifth in the Pacific Division and 25th in the overall standings. This season the Florida Panthers finished 25th with 84 points. That would represent a highly unlikely 26-point jump for the Canucks year over year. But you asked, so I am trying to answer. A fully healthy Demko has the potential to make the biggest difference, but unless the defensive environment in front of him improves significantly, it’s fair to wonder just how much of a difference he can actually make in terms of turning losses into wins and helping the Canucks add points in the standings.
The leading rookie scorer in the league this season was Montreal’s Ivan Demidov with 62 points. Let’s say lottery balls willing, McKenna has a 50-point rookie campaign on a rebuilding Canucks team, that would be a massive success, but it wouldn’t likely translate into a bunch of wins on its own. And I’m having trouble seeing Filip Chytil staying healthy all season, but if he does he’d give the Canucks far more depth down the middle than they had at any point this season. So if all those things came together and remained in place for the bulk of the season, I could see this team jumping up six or seven spots in the standings. Now to be perfectly clear, this is not me predicting that. This is my answer to a question about the absolute best case scenario.
Marco Rossi
Elias Pettersson
Michael McCarron
Teddy Blueger
Right now, I’m expecting the Canucks to jockey with the Rangers, Kraken, Flames and maybe even the Maple Leafs for top odds in the 2027 draft lottery.

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