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Scenes from practice: Karlsson & Sasson promoted to Canucks top six to fill in for new injuries
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Photo credit: © Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images
Jeff Paterson
Jan 1, 2026, 17:30 ESTUpdated: Jan 1, 2026, 16:54 EST
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The Vancouver Canucks rang in the new year with a Thursday morning practice at Rogers Arena. Unfortunately for the team, it will start the new year the way much of last year went – dealing with injuries to key players.

What we saw

With Marco Rossi and Conor Garland expected to miss at least a week, the Canucks will head into the weekend games against the Seattle Kraken and Boston Bruins with reshaped forward lines.
At practice, Linus Karlsson and Max Sasson were both promoted to top-six roles. Karlsson skated alongside Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk while Sasson centred veterans Evander Kane and Brock Boeser.
The latest injuries should provide Nils Höglander and Aatu Räty opportunities to see regular game action after being healthy scratches more often than not lately. Those two skated on a line with Liam Öhgren at practice while David Kämpf remained between Drew O’Connor and Kiefer Sherwood. That trio produced two of the team’s three goals in a 6-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
After practice, Adam Foote confirmed the club will recall a forward from AHL Abbotsford. With the injury to Rossi, don’t be surprised if he is replaced by another centre, likely Nils Aman, who leads the farm team in assists and is second in overall scoring. Lukas Reichel has also been playing centre in Abbotsford, so it’s possible he could return to the NHL club as well. Jonathan Lekkerimaki has been injured and has not played a game since December 20th.
The Canucks kept their top two defensive pairs together at practice and rotated Elias Pettersson, Tom Willander and P-O Joseph throughout drills. Joseph replaced Pettersson in the lineup against the Flyers. It’s unclear which of those two will be in uniform against Seattle on Friday night.
Prior to practice, Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk put in additional work along with Aatu Räty and P-O Joseph. Boeser is mired in one of the worst slumps of his career, with no goals and just one point in his last 14 games.
Both Rossi and Garland are fixtures on the Canucks power play, so their injuries forced the team to show new looks on both units at practice on Thursday. Kiefer Sherwood stepped into Rossi’s spot on the top unit with Pettersson, Boeser, DeBrusk and Zeev Buium. Drew O’Connor joined the second unit along with Evander Kane, Linus Karlsson, Aatu Räty and Filip Hronek.

What we heard

Adam Foote on injuries to both Marco Rossi and Conor Garland: “Both are at least a week, they’ll be evaluated in a week so we’ll just wait to hear that news. Garland was slewfooted and Rossi is a lower-body injury.”
Adam Foote on opportunities for players like Höglander and Räty: “Yeah, definitely. With these guys in and out or coming in and with the schedule the way it is, we need to use our depth. And we’re going to have to bring up a forward.”

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