The Vancouver Canucks, as of Tuesday, had played half of their four preseason games for the 2026-27 season. As of Wednesday morning, they’d completed about half of their required cuts before opening night.

The Canucks started Training Camp 2026 with a roster of 57 players. After Wednesday’s round of cuts, that number was already down to 31.

Those 31 remaining players are:

Forwards: Arshdeep Bains, Brock Boeser, Filip Chytil, Braeden Cootes, Paul Cotter, Jake DeBrusk, Brendan Gallagher, Linus Karlsson, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Mackenzie MacEachern, Drew O’Connor, Liam Öhgren, Elias Pettersson, Aatu Räty, Marco Rossi, Max Sasson, Matthew Steinburg, and Akil Thomas.

Defencemen: Guillaume Brisebois, Zeev Buium, Filip Hronek, Victor Mancini, Jamie Oleksiak, Elias Pettersson, Luke Schenn, Jack Thompson, and Tom Willander.

Goalies: Thatcher Demko, Chris Driedger, Kevin Lankinen, and Nikita Tolopilo.

From that list, Mackenzie MacEachern, Akil Thomas, Jack Thompson, and Thatcher Demko are injured. That means the Canucks have just 27 active players remaining in camp. That’s four cuts away from the maximum opening night active roster of 23. And that means the Canucks are close to done here – and certainly close enough that we can start to get a clearer picture of what that opening night roster will look like.

A full 23-player active roster is typically made up of two basic configurations: 14 forwards, seven defencemen, and two goalies, or 13 forwards, eight defencemen, and two goalies. (Sometimes, it’s 13 forwards, seven defencemen, and three goalies, but that’s rarer.)

Most often, the Canucks have gone with the 13F, 8D, choosing to carry one extra forward and two extra D. But this season, it seems like the Canucks are setting themselves up for a 14F, 7D situation.

They’ve got 16 forwards and eight defence remaining on the active roster. That seems to imply two more forward cuts and one more D cut to get down to the opening 23.

Despite many folks expecting a transition to the wing, Filip Chytil is starting the season at centre, specifically at 3C. It seems as though the Canucks will attempt to put together three different scoring units built around each of Elias Pettersson, Marco Rossi, and Chytil.

If Chytil is at 3C, that would likely leave Braeden Cootes at 4C if he were on the NHL roster, and indeed that’s where he’s been lining up at the most recent on-ice sessions. Most would agree that the fourth line isn’t an ideal place for a 19-year-old to develop.

That would seem to indicate that Cootes is likely on his way down to Abbotsford eventually, where he’ll get plenty of minutes as the presumed 1C.

The fact that the Canucks already cut both Ilya Safonov and Ty Mueller in this latest round of transactions means that neither will be starting the year as 4C. That job should go to Aatu Räty now, completing a centre lineup of Pettersson, Rossi, Chytil, and Räty, at least for now.

And, honestly, Räty seems like the better fit to centre what is sure to be an energetic and antagonistic fourth line, likely winged by Paul Cotter and Brendan Gallagher.

Jonathan Lekkerimäki had his last season ended early by shoulder surgery, and that no doubt had an impact on his offseason training. With that in mind, it was likely that Lekkerimäki was going to get a little extra grace and space this camp, and, indeed, it seems like that’s what he’s getting.

Lekkerimäki is currently lining up on one of those aforementioned three scoring units, specifically on Chytil’s wing. One might even argue that including Lekkerimäki in the top-nine is required to have three true scoring units.

That said, Lekkerimäki still has one more preseason game left to play. He hasn’t exactly impressed as of yet, so if he has another unimpressive performance there, it’s possible he slides out of the opening night lineup. In that scenario, Gallagher probably slides up and Max Sasson slides onto the fourth line to start.

Victor Mancini has already played his two preseason games, and he did not exactly cement his position on the team. Despite that, he’s survived this latest round of cuts.

That tells us a few things. It tells us that Kirill Kudryavtsev is seen as the more important one to develop at the AHL level this year, presumably in the 1D role, and that Mancini is instead going to sink or swim at the NHL level, which makes sense, given that Mancini is the older prospect.

Still, Mancini does have a bit of waiver-exemption left, so the Canucks could have sent both down if they wanted. That tells us that the Canucks probably believe they can get Mancini plenty of reps at the NHL level, presumably because they plan on Luke Schenn sitting out every so often.

If Mancini were going to be permanently condemned to the press box, it would make more sense to demote him and employ the veteran Guillaume Brisebois as the 7D. Instead, Brisebois seems to be the final cut, and Mancini sticks around for now.

The Canucks have two more forward cuts to make. One is probably going to be Cootes. The other will be down to a battle for the final extra forward position between Arshdeep Bains and Matthew Stienburg. Both have already played both of their allowed preseason games, so it’s down to a battle of practice performances.

Most would agree that Bains has the edge thus far, with three points in his two games. But then again, he’s flashed an awful lot of chemistry with Cootes, which may lead to his being reassigned to Abbotsford for the express purpose of joining Cootes on the first line. Stienburg does have more of a traditional bottom-six profile.

As we mentioned above, it is possible that Lekkerimäki exits the lineup before opening night, becoming an extra forward himself and allowing Sasson into the mix. It is also possible that Cootes remains on the roster, at which point both Bains and Stienburg are likely cut, and then Räty probably starts as one of the extra forwards.

But the odds are still best that it’s Sasson and one of Bains or Stienburg as the 13^th and 14^th forwards on the roster.

GM Ryan Johnson has already spoken about his desire to not have young players “yo-yo” between Vancouver and Abbotsford. That implies that some of the younger demotees, like Kudryavtsev and Cootes, will probably have extended stays in Abbotsford for the purposes of development, and that short-term injury replacements will probably instead be covered by veteran call-ups.

Those veteran call-ups will probably be whichever of Bains or Stienburg doesn’t make the opening night roster for forwards, and Brisebois for defence.

There are other possibilities, including some of the injured folks like Thomas and Thompson, but Bains, Stienburg, and Brisebois have put themselves at the front of the line for now.

The goaltending situation is the easiest to figure out. Kevin Lankinen and Nikita Tolopilo will be the duo to start, with Demko on IR. Unless, of course, something better were to come the Canucks way, perhaps through the waiver wire.

That leaves PTO Chris Driedger as the presumed final cut from the crease.