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What does the future hold after Nils Höglander’s worst career season?: Year in Review
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Photo credit: © Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images
Michael Liu
Apr 30, 2026, 18:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 30, 2026, 16:57 EDT
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Suffice it to say that Nils Höglander did not have a good 2025-26 season.
Even in the backdrop of a historically bad season for the Vancouver Canucks, it was difficult to watch the Swede struggle in the way that he did. The preseason ankle injury ensured that his campaign would be abbreviated no matter what, and unfortunately, that came back to haunt Höglander in a big way.
The team itself did nothing to help him, but at the same time, at the age of 25 and on a $3 million AAV deal, one would’ve hoped that Höglander would take the next step to become an important depth contributor for this Canucks team. That simply didn’t happen this past year, and it now puts into question what the future might hold for the 2019 second-rounder.
So how did this 2025-26 season actually look for Nils Höglander?

Nils Höglander’s season

Going down in preseason was not an inauspicious start to things for Höglander. With a slightly down 2024-25 campaign that saw him take a step back from his previous career high in goals, the hope was that the winger could turn that trajectory back around with a strong, bounce-back 2025-26 year, just like the rest of the team. With Höglander able to step back into 20-goal form, who knew what the Canucks could have in store?
Unfortunately, that just wasn’t the case. That ankle injury and subsequent injury cost Höglander about 8-10 weeks, meaning that he wouldn’t see his first game action of the 2025-26 season until December 8th against Detroit.
It was clear that the injury cost Höglander important preparation time. He looked disjointed and not quite up to game speed, which makes sense, given the inability to actually do much skating or other hockey activities in relation to what he had hurt. However, Höglander was also done no favours in terms of the deployment that he received. Until January 13th, after 12 games played, Höglander never saw more than 14 minutes of TOI in a single game.
In fact, the majority of his time in the lineup was spent buried in the bottom 6, playing alongside players that don’t exactly drive play, making it difficult for a complementary winger like Höglander to get anything going. And that was if he played, as Höglander also found himself in and out of the lineup with scratches. Given the fact that he was already struggling for rhythm, being a scratch on some nights and then reinserted a couple of nights later surely didn’t help matters.
Ironically, Adam Foote’s reasoning for this was for Höglander to find reliability and consistency. “He did a lot of great things offensively, down low,” Foote said to Patrick Johnston of the Province back in March, when talking about the winger. “There’s a (few) things: getting caught in double-ups, losing possession in the offensive zone and/or managing the puck at the offensive blue line. Things that we want to snuff out, will make him more consistent and more reliable.”
By the end of the season, the counting numbers weren’t kind to Höglander at all. In 38 games played, the Swede only managed to record 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points, finishing as a -4 on the season as well. Not numbers one would’ve been hoping for out of him, especially with the hope that he would take a step back to his 2023-24 form.
But doesn’t that sound like a common theme for this entire organization going into 2025-26?
Consistency and reliability were hard to find for the entire Vancouver Canucks organization throughout this past year. It’s hard to truly fault Höglander for being a symptom of the problems that plagued this whole team, and that abbreviated start to the season surely didn’t help matters at all. Was this season a disappointment for him? Absolutely – but the exact same thing could be said about the entire roster around him.
At the very least, Höglander’s attitude can’t be faulted. He has taken his scratches on his own back and was putting in the work to return to being an everyday player in the Canucks lineup. And, he’s someone who has said that he’s excited to be around for the rebuild, something that Vancouver finally stared down the barrel and got around to doing after this tirefire.
It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for him. Höglander was just named to Team Sweden’s World Championship roster, which could bode well for him to build some more confidence and get some more high-level game action.
But going into 2026-27, Höglander’s name is definitely going to be tossed around in more trade conversations. The Canucks have a variety of options for what they could do with him, from keeping him through the rebuild to see if he can find his game again, or ship him off to get even younger. It’s hard to really get a gauge of whether Höglander is part of their long-term plans. He’s still relatively young, all things considered, but depending on what window the Canucks are trying to aim for, especially with some higher selections in this upcoming draft, Höglander could find himself expendable.
Whichever is the case, the 2025-26 season for Nils Höglander individually is certainly not going to factor positively into these conversations. Career lows and being in and out of the lineup, after a pre-season injury – this is the kind of year that most players want to flush from their memory.
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