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JPat’s Monday Mailbag: Who’s ready for the new Canucks season?
Jeff Paterson's weekly Vancouver Canucks mailbag.
Jeff Paterson
Sep 8, 2025, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 7, 2025, 22:07 EDT
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The Vancouver Canucks will be out in full force at the team’s annual Jake Milford Golf Tournament in Cloverdale today. By week’s end, a group of prospects will be suiting up in Canucks uniforms for a pair of games against Seattle Kraken hopefuls. And beyond that, it won’t be long now until the big league roster touches down in Penticton for the start of training camp. So welcome to the start of a new hockey season. Optimism abounds at this time of year, but there are still many unanswered questions about this season’s Canucks. With that in mind, we launch into a new season of Monday Mailbags where we do our best to answer many of the questions that are clearly on your minds.

So the Abby Canucks won the 2025 Calder Cup. I'd like to know what specific and definable impact that championship will end up having on the Vancouver Canucks. We already know Silovs won't be part of their future, but are there other players or impacts resulting from that that we will see?

— Robin Bougie (@robinbougie.bsky.social) 2025-09-06T17:44:46.554Z

I think there are a number of tangible takeaways from Abbotsford’s climb to the top of the AHL mountain. First, Manny Malhotra proved that he was the right man for the job. And, in time, it’s possible he’ll be the right man for the organization’s big league job. But that time is not right now. The Calder Cup playoffs provided a number of the team’s top prospects with valuable experience in high stakes hockey games. Those players now know just how hard it is to string together 16 post-season wins.
Hopefully many will have the chance to apply those learnings in the Stanley Cup Playoffs soon. While most will point to players like Linus Karlsson, Arshdeep Bains, and Max Sasson because they’re the most NHL-ready prospects likely to push for jobs starting next week, the Calder Cup advanced the development curve for rookies like Ty Mueller and Kirill Kudryavtsev, allowing them to prove they could more than hold their own as first year professionals. It’s going to be fun to chart their progress this season.
Allow me to lump those questions together and tackle them as one. Yes, it’s an issue. But just because the Canucks haven’t solved their second line centre issue in the off-season doesn’t mean they won’t next week or next month or at some point along the road this season. They know it’s still an issue. Clearly they haven’t found a deal to their liking just yet and so they seem content starting into training camp with the centres they’ve got on the roster. Now, if it becomes abundantly clear early on that their centre options don’t measure up, that ups the pressure on management.
‘But the Canucks found themselves in the same situation with goaltending at training camp last year. With Thatcher Demko still injured, it was obvious to anyone who watched camp that the Canucks needed goaltending help. And the team addressed it. They are clearly rolling the dice with the centre group they’ve got, but I’d be shocked if the centres that show up at training camp are the same ones they go through the entire season with. 
In his 15 games after the trade, Filip Chytil posted encouraging underlying numbers. In 197 minutes at 5-on-5, the Canucks controlled 54.8% of all shot attempts and 55.58% of expected goals with Chytil on the ice. Additionally, they outshot opponents by 20 (100-80) and had an additional 25 scoring chances (102-77). Yet, the Canucks were outscored 8-3. So Chytil did some very good things and was fairly unlucky with an on-ice shooting percentage of just 3.0% and an on-ice save percentage of 90.0%. But being a shutdown centre in the NHL is a big ask. It requires being able to withstand nightly physical match-ups against some of the toughest customers in the game.
Chytil is 6’2” and 210 pounds, so he has decent size, but he is not physically imposing. And we know staying healthy has been his biggest issue to this point in his young career. Also, he is a career 41.7% face-off guy and that would need to improve considerably before anyone would consider him a shutdown option. So let’s slow any kind of roll about slotting Filip Chytil in to go head to head with Leon Draisaitl and Jack Eichel and the likes. Let’s let Chytil find his way through training camp and the preseason before asking him to do things he’s just not ready for – and may never be at the NHL level.
Well, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk, Evander Kane, and Conor Garland are all making the team. So right there are four guys ahead of Lekkerimäki on the depth chart. I think it’s safe to add Nils Höglander to that list. And then you’re looking at the likes of Kiefer Sherwood and Drew O’Connor. The Canucks have to decide what’s best for the 21-year-old. If he blows the doors off everyone in the preseason and makes the club in a top six role, great. But if he doesn’t, then is Lekkerimäki likely to develop more in a bottom six role in the NHL or as the featured forward playing big minutes in Abbotsford?
It feels like the organization is prepared to have him start the season in the minors and continue to grow out his game. And there’s nothing wrong with that strategy. It’s going to be interesting to see where Lekkerimäki is slotted at training camp and that could reveal much about the organization’s thinking with regards to its top forward prospect. As for left wing, sure, we see lots of forwards play on their off wing. But with DeBrusk, Kane and Höglander all natural lefties, Lekkerimaki’s path to full time employment with the Canucks is likely clearer on the right.
I really like the idea of a Nazem Kadri-type player for the Canucks. I  just don’t know that paying the acquisition cost for a player that turns 35 next month makes a lot of sense for the Canucks. Also, as you point out, Kadri has a full movement clause this season and then limited trade protection over the final three years left on his current contract that pays him $7M per season. The cap hit isn’t outrageous for a second-line centre that has produced 87, 56, 75, and 67 points the past four seasons. Plus, Kadri’s edge would be welcome in the Canucks’ lineup. If Kadri were 31, not 35, I’d think long and hard about that kind of move. But I don’t think it makes a ton of sense for the Canucks to part with significant assets for a player that would be the oldest forward on the roster.  
I hear you, but I’m not sure I’m fully buying what you’re selling. I want to see how Adam Foote fares in his first NHL head coaching role. I believe many people have significant concerns about Thatcher Demko’s ability to stay healthy and return to his 2023-24 level of performance. I think many also question the team’s ability to score with solid, but not elite wingers. On paper, the defence looks as good as it has in a decade and if Demko can stay healthy, then goaltending should be steady if not spectacular. But centre depth is a massive issue especially with questions about Elias Pettersson’s performance level, Filip Chytil’s health and Aatu Räty’s readiness to be an every day NHL’er. If any one of those issues persist through camp and the preseason, depth down the middle could put the Canucks behind the 8-ball to start the regular season. 

Which prospect do you feel will come out gangbusters at the start of this season?

— kenna (@sadiemayhem.bsky.social) 2025-09-07T04:09:52.760Z

I’m going to say Tom Willander only because there is a wild card factor to him. No one knows what he’ll look like making the jump from NCAA hockey to the NHL. Maybe he blows everyone away. The guys that were in Abbotsford last season have all given us glimpses of what they’re capable of. But no one has seen Willander at this level. I’m not making any grand predictions about what we’ll see from the 2023 first rounder, but in terms of any prospect turning heads at main camp, I have a sense that he may be the guy. And I’m sure the Canucks would be just fine with that.

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