Heading into the 2025-26 season, it looked like Nils Höglander was going to play a significant role for the Vancouver Canucks.

Höglander was looking to bounce back from a disappointing eight goals in 2024-25, and it looked like head coach Adam Foote was going to give him the opportunity to do so. He skated on a potential third line with Teddy Blueger and Conor Garland in training camp, then got an audition for a top-six role with Filip Chytil early in the preseason.

Unfortunately, that’s when an ankle injury and subsequent surgery sent him to the Canucks’ injured reserve for the first two months of the season.

Now that he’s back from injury, Höglander can’t get in the lineup. After watching the first 29 games of the season from the press box on LTIR, he’s watched the last three as a healthy scratch.

It’s a little bit baffling.

Höglander has been held off the scoresheet in his five games this season, but he’s played his usual high-energy game and has strong underlying numbers. It certainly doesn’t seem like he played all that poorly, and he came out of the lineup when the Canucks were in the midst of a winning streak, which isn’t typically a time when a coach likes to tinker too much with things.

The reason given for the first healthy scratch wasn’t about performance at all, but about load management for a player coming back from a significant injury.

“He’s been out a long, long time, and three [games] in four [nights] is hard for a guy coming in with that much time out, in my opinion,” said Foote. “We’ve got to still get him up to speed, so I thought it was a good call.”

Höglander has certainly had plenty of rest now; he hasn’t played in nine days.

So, what’s the deal?

While it’s easy to look at Höglander being a healthy scratch for three-straight games and wonder what’s going on, the Canucks have a bit of a logjam at forward at the moment.

The Quinn Hughes trade added two new forwards, and Elias Pettersson just returned from injury, so the Canucks are carrying 14 healthy forwards at the moment, with Aatu Räty sitting in the press box with Höglander.

Typically, you’d look to the bottom of the lineup for who to take out, but there’s just one problem with that: the forwards at the bottom of the lineup are the only ones scoring.

Linus Karlsson has three goals and five points in his last five games. Liam Öhgren has three points in those five games and is establishing himself in the lineup since coming to the Canucks in the Hughes trade. Drew O’Connor might be a candidate to be scratched, but now he has two goals in his last two games.

The players who aren’t scoring are at the top of the lineup, but Höglander isn’t going into the lineup ahead of Brock Boeser or Jake DeBrusk. Nor will he go in for Evander Kane, as much as some Canucks fans might want him to.

He’s also not going to take the place of centres David Kämpf or Max Sasson — if either of those two players comes out, it will be so Aatu Räty gets into the lineup.

Where does that leave Höglander?

One might have to wonder if Höglander could be the next Canuck on the trade block. After all, if there’s no spot for him in the lineup, why wouldn’t the Canucks see what they could get for the 25-year-old winger?

Höglander showed up in trade rumours last season; could those rumours find firm purchase this season?

On the other hand, if the Canucks wanted to move Höglander, wouldn’t they want him in the lineup, proving that he has recovered from his ankle surgery and building up his trade value? Perhaps we’re looking at this all wrong.

What if the reason Höglander isn’t in the lineup is that the Canucks need to boost the trade value of other players?

The likes of Drew O’Connor, Evander Kane, and Kiefer Sherwood are likely to be on the trade block for the Canucks as they look to add draft picks, prospects, and younger players to their rebuild/hybrid-retool.

If O’Connor can extend his goalscoring streak past two games, Kane can get hot alongside the returned Pettersson, and Sherwood can add to his team-leading 16 goals, that will make it easier to extract a higher draft pick or better prospect from another team. But they can’t put the puck in the net from the press box.

Höglander, then, just has to be patient. He’ll get his opportunities to get back in the lineup, whether because of injuries or because trades open more permanent spots on the wing. At this point, his spot in the press box might actually mean he’s less likely to be traded.