Traded from the Minnesota Wild to the Canucks on December 12 as part of the Quinn Hughes trade, Rossi was brought in to try to fill the Canucks need for a centreman. The hope was that he could fill the 2C role behind Elias Pettersson, occupying the 1C role. After overcoming a slow start with his new team and dealing with injuries throughout the year, he proved his capabilities in this position.

By the end of the season, Rossi found his groove, picking up his offensive contributions and showing why the Canucks had been pursuing him for a year before eventually acquiring him.

Marco Rossi’s Season

Rossi’s season began with the Wild, where he tallied four goals and nine assists for 13 points in 17 games. He missed roughly a month of action with a lower-body injury before he was traded, making his last game with the franchise that drafted him November 11 against the San Jose Sharks.

Upon his arrival, Rossi was nearing a return from injury and made his Canucks debut alongside Zeev Buium and Liam Öhgren on December 14. He has since admitted to rushing his return because he wanted to make a good impression on his new team, which could help explain his slow start with his new franchise.

He played the rest of December, accumulating two points in eight games, before blocking a shot against the Philadelphia Flyers on December 30. That re-aggravated his previous injury, and he was forced to miss all of January and the first two games of February. Rossi was slotted back into the lineup after the two-week Olympic break, and after taking a few games to find his legs and playing with some new linemates, had a productive March.

Rossi started centring a line with Brock Boeser and Liam Öhgren, which has since been labelled the BRÖ line, and they showed instant chemistry. Across a five-game span in March, Rossi had a pair of three-point games, totalling 10 points over that stretch. By the end of the month, Rossi and his BRÖ linemate Boeser were tied for first among Canucks scorers that month at 13 points in 14 games played.

In April, Rossi maintained solid point production, totalling seven points in nine games. This put him in a three-way tie for second with Jake DeBrusk, who heated up towards the end of the season, and Filip Hronek. Boeser had sole possession of first with nine points in nine games in the month.

Rossi finished the 2025-26 season with 35 points in 50 games, 22 of which he tallied with the Canucks through 33 games. Had he been healthy and played an entire 82 games with the team, Rossi would have been on pace for 54 points. This is good enough to put him first for Canucks scorers, ahead of Elias Pettersson, who led the team with 51 points in 74 games this season.

Last season, Rossi set a career-high 60 points in 82 games with the Wild, showing he is capable of the type of production expected from 2C centres.

Making the switch from a strong offensive Wild team to the Canucks, who struggle offensively, would affect anyone’s game. Instead, Rossi joined a struggling team and showed himself as a key offensive factor, joining the first power play unit and elevating those around him, including a hot-and-cold Boeser.

He did all this while not playing at 100% health.

Since the season ended, Rossi has shared that he will not be representing Austria at the Men’s World Championship due to a foot injury sustained in the latter half of the NHL season. The same area as the injury he suffered from earlier in the year while playing for Minnesota.

Rossi’s final two months of the season were impressive in and of themselves, regardless of whether he was battling an injury or not.

The 24-year-old’s first season with the Canucks was short, but sweet. He is shaping up to be exactly the player the Canucks expected him to be and is finding chemistry centring the BRÖ line, a trio that could shape up again next season. Rossi is already proving to be a bright spot for the Canucks during their rebuild. And so far, he is showing he can be a centreman that the Canucks direly need now and in the future.

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