Heading into Training Camp 2025, it’s safe to say that the Vancouver Canucks have no set forward lines as of yet. That’s true for both their 5-on-5 arrangements and their special teams.

In a perfect world, the Canucks would not be making any alterations to their penalty kill from 2024-25. Last year’s PK unit rose from relatively humble beginnings to finish as the third-best in the entire NHL, boasting an 82.6% success rate. But the Canucks’ top forward penalty killer, Pius Suter and his 2:17 of average shorthanded ice-time per game, have departed the organization as an unrestricted free agent.

Teddy Blueger was the next leading PKer up front, with an average of 2:06 of shorthanded ice-time per game. There’s little doubt that Blueger will once again feature on the PK1 unit, as he did for the majority of last season alongside Suter.

The question heading into camp is, who takes Suter’s place next to Blueger on that first penalty killing unit?

If we’re just going to go with the next-most-frequent PKer from 2024-25, then it’s Kiefer Sherwood, who averaged 1:28 in shorthanded time, albeit mainly on the second unit. There’s a lot to like about Sherwood here, including his speed, his willingness to put his body on the line, and some pre-established chemistry with Blueger, with the two having enjoyed some success together at 5-on-5 last season.

But if Sherwood is the leading candidate, he’s still not a lock, with several other worthy candidates challenging him for the spot.

When Drew O’Connor was brought in via the Marcus Pettersson trade and then extended for two years fairly shortly thereafter, it was clear that he was in the Canucks’ future plans. Part of the reason they targeted O’Connor was his shorthanded abilities.

With his large frame and better-than-decent wheels, O’Connor is a bit of a natural penalty killer who can really cover a lot of the ice. He featured heavily on Pittsburgh’s PK prior to the trade, and remains the Penguins’ forward with the second-most overall shorthanded time for 2024-25, behind Noel Acciari, who was there for the entire season.

O’Connor only skated an average of 1:11 shorthanded minutes per game for the Canucks post-trade, but then that was at a time when the Blueger/Suter pairing was really rolling. O’Connor being a bigger part of the PK in 2025-26 would not be at all surprising, and it could be down to a question of who clicks better with Blueger between him and Sherwood.

If we were on the lookout for the most direct Suter replacement, we have to mention that part of the success of the Blueger/Suter unit was that both of them were capable NHL centres. That gave their unit double coverage in the faceoff circle, and two players who were accustomed to patrolling the middle of the ice. On that front, Aatu Räty will have to be given ample consideration.

Räty’s lack of footspeed will hurt him here. But he’s a clever enough player who has had some success on the PK at the AHL level and should at least get a chance at the NHL level this season.

In Räty, Blueger would gain a shorthanded partner capable of taking faceoffs on Blueger’s offside (and winning most of them), which is a major plus for PK puck possession.

But then, if Blueger and Räty are both on PK1, one has to wonder about PK2, and specifically who is going to handle the centre duties there. The Canucks rolled out plenty of two-winger pairings last season, including Sherwood/O’Connor, but it’s less than ideal. Perhaps the more natural fit is to save Räty as the centrepiece of PK2.

But speaking of taking faceoffs shorthanded, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the forward Elias Pettersson. Amidst his well-documented struggles, Pettersson didn’t kill a whole lot of penalties last year, averaging just 37 seconds of shorthanded ice-time per game. But that hasn’t always been the case. The season before, he averaged 1:22. The season before that, as Pettersson was notching 102 points, he led Canucks’ forwards in shorthanded time with 1:48 per game.

Maybe it’s time for PK Pettersson to return. Last season, the thinking seemed to be that giving Pettersson another responsibility, when he was already failing to meet his offensive expectations, was counterproductive. But maybe it’s the opposite. Pettersson’s most productive seasons have come at a time when he was carrying a heavier PK responsibility. Perhaps it’s best for both the team and the player to have Pettersson, not Räty, be the second centre on the PK1 unit alongside Blueger – though one has to wonder about total ice-time, with Pettersson already set to take on more at 5-on-5 and the power play.

Another top scorer deserves mention here, and that’s Conor Garland. He’s somewhat quietly become the Canucks’ most consistent player at both ends of the ice over the past few seasons, and the underlying stats say he might be their best defensive forward overall. Garland only killed an average of 48 seconds per game last season, but that can change. Part of the success of the Blueger/Suter pairing was that Suter allowed for the duo to be reasonably dangerous shorthanded. Garland would make that even more so.

In the end, it’s probably down to how much Garland is going to play at 5-on-5. If he winds up with a top-six, or even top-line role, that will naturally limit his shorthanded minutes. If he’s lining up on the third line, however, there’s no real reason not to throw him a few extra seconds per game via the PK unit.

In those five – Sherwood, O’Connor, Räty, Pettersson, and Garland – we’ve covered the leading candidates to join Blueger on the Canucks’ top PK unit for 2025-26. And, in reality, special teams get switched up all the time, so we’ll probably see all five get turns there in the preseason, and perhaps into the regular season, too.

But if the Canucks want to truly build on their shorthanded success from last season, they’ll have to lean heavily on Blueger again, and one of the best ways to support him is to give him a consistent running mate.

The competition for that honour is wide open, and the competition starts next week.