The Evander Kane trade hit the Vancouver market like a young Evander Kane once hit Matt Cooke.

Hard.

This deal came so out of left field, we’re honestly still processing it and what it might mean for the Canucks in the short- and long-term. But that doesn’t mean we can’t start talking practicalities, especially with so little space between this one and the team’s inevitable other summer transactions.

No one assumes that GM Patrik Allvin and Co. are done here. But with Kane now in the picture, we can at least begin to guess at how much work the Canucks’ front office realistically has left to do.

More specifically, in this piece we’re going to attempt to figure out where the Canucks’ 2025/26 roster stands now, and how many holes are left on it that need filling.

Let’s start from the crease on out. Here, the Canucks have no holes, and in fact have a surplus. One of Thatcher Demko, Kevin Lankinen, or Arturs Silovs is going to be traded this offseason, or Silovs is going to have to go through waivers in the preseason, which means another team is going to be taking him for free.

Suffice it to say that the Canucks are not on the lookout for additional goaltending at this time.

The same is probably true of their blueline, though it’s not quite as concrete. The Canucks have five full-time NHL defenders signed already in Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Marcus Pettersson, Tyler Myers, and Derek Forbort, and we should really be including the younger Elias Pettersson in this group to make it an even six.

Beyond that, we’ve got Tom Willander and Victor Mancini clearly ahead of the pack for the final RD position. Chances seem best that one of the two will get the spot, and the other will start in Abbotsford to avoid excessive pressbox time.

The Canucks could look to sign an 8D to occupy most of said pressbox time. Or, they could just look to promote an older Abbotsford player into that role, like a Jett Woo or an Akito Hirose. In any case, it won’t be a major priority this summer with the top-seven structure more-or-less locked into place.

Which brings us to the forwards.

Here’s the thing on Kane. Like him or lump him, he’s a player that pretty much has to be played in the top-six to be effective. He is, at the very best, average defensively, and doesn’t really fit in the bottom-six despite his physical nature.

In Edmonton, Kane has been relatively stapled to one of Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl (or both) over his four seasons there.

So, if he’s going to be a part of the Canucks’ plan for 2025/26, it stands to reason that he’s being penciled in to their top-six.

Joining Kane in that top-six are the senior Elias Pettersson, Jake DeBrusk, and (probably, by rights) Conor Garland.

That’s only four names so far. There are other names in the running for a spot in the top-six, including Filip Chytil, Nils Höglander, Dakota Joshua, or perhaps a younger option like Jonathan Lekkerimäki or Linus Karlsson. But it feels as though the Canucks need to do something more than just pick two of those names and cobble together a top-six.

What it really feels like is that there’s a major gap, either between Pettersson and DeBrusk or, at least, between DeBrusk and the rest of the forward corps that needs to be filled by an appropriately-skilled player. In other words, it seems like the Canucks are going to need to add talent to their top-six, and in the form of a player who is going to be at least their second or third most productive forward.

If that player ends up being good enough, the Canucks can then probably get by with a top-six of the new addition, Pettersson, DeBrusk, Kane, Garland, and then one of Chytil, Höglander, Joshua, Lekkerimäki, or Karlsson. For our money, it’s Chytil’s spot to lose, whether it be on the wing or at centre.

Which leaves us with the bottom-end of the forward corps to fill out. Or, in reality, to find already filled out, and perhaps a little overstuffed.

Assuming that one more player gets added to the top-six (and leaving Chytil in there as a placeholder for now), that leaves a group competing for spots that includes the aforementioned Höglander, Joshua, Lekkerimäki, and Karlsson, along with Kiefer Sherwood, Drew O’Connor, Teddy Blueger, Aatu Räty, Arshdeep Bains, and Max Sasson.

That’s nine names for seven spots, and that’s not even including some of the darkhorses, like Danila Klimovich or Nils Åman or (a re-signed) Phil di Giuseppe.

As we’ve written about recently, it would be somewhat disappointing if this already-limited selection of roster spots was made even more limited by bringing in depth UFAs, further reducing the opportunity the Abbotsford crew have earned to compete for spots.

Therefore, we’d make the argument that the Canucks only need to add a further top-six forward this offseason, and that the preference should be for competition from within for the rest of the roster.

So, if we go back to the question in the headline, how many spots do the Canucks have left to fill on the 2025/26 roster?

Not many. Right now, we’re looking at a depth chart something along the lines of:

That leaves us feeling like the Canucks should be putting all their focus on that one big addition to the top-six, and maybe a depth defender, and that’s it. Of course, if they trade away any players, the equation changes, but this is where they stand for right now.

With about $7 million in functional cap space on hand, that might be all they can afford, too.