The 2026-27 Vancouver Canucks season is progressing more or less as planned so far. But, like with The Robert Cray Band, this forecast called for pain. And losing so handily to a returning Quinn Hughes and the Minnesota Wild this past weekend was undoubtedly one of the more painful moments to date. For some, it was downright demoralizing.

What better time to check in on the bright side of things?

There are plenty of things going right for the Canucks, even as they’ve sunk to one of the all-time worst winning percentages in NHL history. The rebuild isn’t just on; it’s taking some positive steps forward all the time. Stuff that matters more in the long term than in the short term. Here, today, we’re talking about those positive steps that have either already been taken or are in the process of being taken.

There is no more positive story on the Canucks this season than the younger Elias Pettersson. Sure, the elder Elias Pettersson is also playing pretty darn well, but when we’re talking potential impact on the rebuild, it’s “D-Petey” suddenly playing like a top-pairing two-way stud who will really matter in the long run.

Enough ink has already been spilled on the quality of Pettersson’s play, but just to briefly summarize, he’s leading the blueline in virtually all analytic categories, including Corsi, expected goals, scoring chances, and high-danger chances. He’s doing that while playing consistent top-four, and occasionally top-pairing, minutes, and all the while facing an ever-increasing quality of competition. And he’s only gotten more physical along the way.

Heading into the year, some saw Pettersson’s long-term role with the team in question, but that question mark has been replaced by an exclamation mark. Now, the question is less whether or not Pettersson can play a long-term role and more how large that role will be.

Coming up right behind Pettersson on the positive news priority list is the long-awaited arrival of Jonathan Lekkerimäki as an every-night NHL player. Lekkerimäki has looked good from the preseason onward, and that’s despite an incomplete offseason due to surgery recovery. GM Ryan Johnson and coach Manny Malhotra expressed belief in Lekkerimäki regardless, and they’ve been rewarded for that faith.

Lekkerimäki sits second in team scoring, behind the senior Pettersson, with four goals and nine points in 13 games. That might not sound like a blistering pace, but that’s been achieved on a team that has struggled to score on some nights. More important than the numbers is the fact that Lekkerimäki has looked not just like a full-time NHLer on most nights, but someone who outright belongs in an NHL top-six.

It’s such a big step forward, it might as well be a leap. And as the Canucks attempt to get their hands on as many additional first-round picks as possible, it’s extremely convenient to have one of their past first-rounders start working out so well.

Leevi Meriläinen is a case of found money for the Vancouver Canucks. Plucked from the waiver wire from the Ottawa Senators, the Canucks gave up no assets in exchange for Meriläinen, and he’s rewarded them with the best goaltending this team has seen since Thatcher Demko’s Vezina-nominated season.

As of this writing, Meriläinen has the 14^th-best save percentage in the NHL at a .918 and a respectable goals against average of 3.12, made all the more respectable by the fact that the Canucks as a whole have given up an average of 4.56 goals against per night. Beyond the numbers, Meriläinen has made a number of goal-saving stops and given his teammates a degree of additional confidence that is hard to come by in a season dedicated to losing.

The Canucks have only added one NHL player to their roster since Training Camp began. But that player has been a difference-maker, and they didn’t have to pay a single draft pick to acquire him.

The first three entries here are all different variations on the theme of young players stepping their game up. And, in a rebuild, that’s an important and expected part of the process. But the step-ups of Pettersson, Lekkerimäki, and Meriläinen each represent more than standard player growth. They represent gaps in the Canucks’ long-term depth chart being potentially filled in.

Heading into 2026-27, there were two defenders on the blueline seen as definitive long-term pieces in Zeev Buium and Tom Willander. Their own development hasn’t been as direct or notable as Pettersson’s in the early going, but they’re each still considered to be cornerstones. If the Canucks can effectively add Pettersson to that group after sustaining some of this performance, well, now they’ve potentially already got three of their long-term top-four defenders in the fold, and that’s not just a crucial step for a rebuild; it’s a step that many rebuilds don’t even reach.

Similar could be said for Lekkerimäki. Heading into the year, the Canucks may have had one long-term piece on the wings in Liam Öhgren and another in the system in Adam Novotný. Many had begun to write Lekkerimäki off as a long-term piece himself, being on his Draft+5 season without much in the way of NHL success.

But if Lekkerimäki can continue playing as a top-six quality winger night in and night out, that’s another important piece of the Canucks’ puzzle put into place. Something that matters all that much more given Öhgren’s own struggles in the early going.

In terms of goaltending, there was no clear future plan for the Canucks prior to 2026-27. The organization had clearly lost what faith it had in Nikita Tolopilo, and none of the prospects were beating down the door or even developing in a way that pegged them as definitive future NHLers.

In comes Meriläinen and, in the early going at least, he has the appearance of a could-be goaltender-of-the-future. That gives the Canucks both a long-term option and, if Meriläinen doesn’t quite pan out into that, it at least buys more time for the prospects to continue to develop.

In summation, the Canucks are turning some of the biggest question marks on their long-term depth chart into potential answers. Better than that, they’re answers from within (or, in the case of Meriläinen, brought in at no cost). That’s the lifeblood of a rebuild.

Of course, as well as some of the Canucks’ pieces are developing right now, they’re still an overall talent- and asset-poor franchise, at least for now. Their biggest priority has to be adding high-quality prospects to the system, and the only real way of doing that is by drafting as high as possible.

The Canucks are well on their way to getting the best odds in the draft lottery once again. As of this writing, they’ve sunk to a point percentage of just .192, which is considerably worse than their pace last year, and once again has them in last place by a considerable margin, especially for this early in the year.

Things can change, and as Canucks fans know all too well, even finishing in last carries no guarantee of the top pick. But it does carry a guarantee of a top-three draft pick, and the Canucks already look like they’ve got that almost in the bag.

For a team that is technically doing worse than it was last year, the Canucks sure seem like a more positive bunch this season. There’s been a clear shift in team culture, and that shift has survived at least this first chunk of the season, ten straight losses and all.

Even the few points of frustration, like Brock Boeser’s recent comments about the Canucks not listening well enough to the coaches, are continually growth-oriented and directed at the whole team, as opposed to any individuals. These Canucks seem to understand, as a group, that it’s these long-term steps forward that matter so much more than any short-term gain in the standings. That’s a tough truth to swallow for competitive hockey players, but thus far the Canucks are sticking together and staying resolute.

Which is good, because that team culture is going to have to bear a lot more losing than this before the rebuild can be called anything close to complete.