No one is yet sure what a ‘hybrid rebuild’ might look like, but everyone is pretty sure it equates in some way to an outflux of veterans and an influx of youth into the roster of the Vancouver Canucks. But not everyone fits so neatly into that vet/youth binary, and so there are some players for whom the future is especially unclear at this point.

That is perhaps most true for Nils Höglander.

If we’re talking pure biographical details here, then Höglander is still a young player. Though he already has more than 300 NHL games under his belt, Höglander started early, and he just turned 25 a few weeks ago. Yes, he’s a fair bit older than the truly youthful core of Zeev Buium, Tom Willander, and Braeden Cootes that the team is hoping to start building around. But Höglander is also two years younger than the older Elias Pettersson, three years younger than Filip Hronek, and four years younger than Thatcher Demko. In other words, age is not the sole factor that will determine whether Höglander stays or goes moving forward. It’s not quite that simple of a decision.

So, how about performance?

The Canucks are not having a season to remember, but Höglander is especially having a season to regret. After Saturday’s shutout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Höglander hit 11 games played in 2025-26 without a single point. And that’s unfortunately part of a clear downward trend in his production.

Höglander famously experienced a breakout campaign in 2023-24, his fourth partial season in the NHL, with 24 goals and 36 points in 80 games. But he followed that up with just eight goals and 25 points in 72 games last year. Toward the end of the season, Höglander showed a few positive signs of a rebound, and some folks were optimistic heading into the 2025 Training Camp. But then Höglander got hurt in the exhibition schedule, was on IR before the regular season even began, and wound up missing the first ten weeks.

Since returning, Höglander has not just struggled to get back up to speed; he’s struggled to make any real on-ice impact at all. He’s averaging just 11:35 a night right now, and not doing all that much to earn any more minutes.

What do the Canucks do with a player like Höglander?

He’s certainly not high on the list of pieces the Canucks need to sell off immediately. The pending UFAs will come first, and Höglander is still under contract at $3 million a season for this year and two more. And even if the team explores trading some players with term, it stands to reason that a veteran defender or a forward like Drew O’Connor is probably more likely to be dealt.

But maybe it’s less about whether the team needs to trade Höglander, and more about whether the team needs to hang on to him.

The general thinking has to be that Höglander is approaching ‘needs a fresh start’ territory — the proverbial ‘change of scenery’ situation. Höglander has been trying to rebound in Vancouver since about September of 2024, and maybe it’s time for him to try to do it somewhere else.

But a litany of factors prevents this from being an easy call.

Höglander has done little to earn the trust of two successive coaches in Rick Tocchet and Adam Foote. But then again, if one were to pick out two NHL coaches who were unlikely to mesh well with Höglander, those would be two strong candidates. Given that, there might still be some desire to see if Höglander can’t re-breakout under a new head coach, like perhaps Manny Malhotra.

Then again, is hoping for something like that a little futile at this point? Höglander isn’t old, but he isn’t young, either. At 25, he’s expected to be ensconced in his prime years already, and that’s especially true for someone who arrived in the league at 20, as Höglander did. Is it foolish to invest more time and salary into an asset that is becoming increasingly unlikely to yield anything significant moving forward?

Those still hoping for a Höglander resuscitation have more to hang their hats on than pure hope. In his 11 games this 2025-26 season, Höglander has managed to put together a fairly sparkling array of fancy stats – like a 56.95% Corsi, a 53.52% expected goals rate, and a 54.72% control of scoring chances – that really stand out in a Canucks lineup that has struggled in this regard this year.

But then, those numbers have been achieved in very limited and very sheltered minutes, and such theoretical numbers only ever hold so much value. The truth of the matter is that Höglander has been on the ice for just one Vancouver goal since returning (and two against). Until he gives Foote more reason to put him out there, he’s going to have a hard time turning any of those expected goals into actual goals. And until he starts putting up some actual numbers, he’s going to have a hard time finding minutes. It’s a bit of a Catch-22 at the current moment, and it is hard to see how Höglander is going to break free from it – aside from that aforementioned ‘fresh start.’

But if we’re talking about that fresh start, then we’d better talk about the factor of a potential trade return. Few Vancouver assets are in as much of a ‘sell low’ position as is Höglander right now. One has to imagine that any trade offers received would be minimal, especially given that Höglander has two more years remaining on his contract at a not-totally-insignificant cap hit.

At this point, we would be shocked if the Canucks could get back the same second-round pick they once used to select Höglander. We’d be surprised if they could even get a third. Last year, the Canucks traded Vasily Podkolzin – selected at 10^th overall in the same draft as Höglander – to the Edmonton Oilers for a fourth-round pick. Höglander has a stronger track record of production, but Podkolzin was still seen as the player with the higher upside and has gone on to demonstrate some of that in Edmonton.

It’s hard to see Höglander holding any more value at this point. It’s a mid-round pick return at best, or perhaps a similarly-aged and similarly-stagnant asset.

With a return that low, and with Nils showing at least some analytical signs of life, the temptation is strong to just ‘Hold on Höglander,’ especially with that alliteration in play.

There are certainly those who wish the Canucks had ‘Paused on Podkolzin.’ In fact, there are generally two camps of thought: those who wish the Canucks had held on to Podkolzin a little longer to see if he’d have a similar progression with Vancouver as he did eventually in Edmonton, and those who believe he needed the trade and the fresh start to achieve that progression. Those will probably be the same two camps that folks fall into with Höglander.

If there’s one major difference in the situation, it’s time. Podkolzin was traded at a point at which the Canucks were still pretending they could be competitive. They’ve now embraced at least a short period of non-competitiveness, and thus they’ve got extra time on hand to wait around for Höglander to step it up.

But one thing they may not have extra of moving forward is roster space.

The Canucks can only dress so many forwards. Yes, they’ll be selling some off between now and the 2026 Trade Deadline, but not all of them. And there are definitely some new forwards who will be pushing for spots as of 2026-27, including Cootes, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, and, ideally, a player selected near the top of the 2026 Entry Draft.

The real question is whether the seemingly slim chances of Höglander rebounding are worth giving him ice time and opportunities that might be better spent on players with a better chance of making a long-term impact.

Is hanging on to Höglander worth it if it means Lekkerimäki gets sent down again after a strong training camp? Or if it gives the coaching staff more reason to scratch Aatu Räty?

If that’s going to be the case, then maybe the Canucks are truly better off with the mid-round pick and the extra roster and cap space.

In the end, we might cheekily suggest another ‘hybrid’ approach. Really, there’s no reason the Canucks have to make this decision within the 2025-26 season. It might be wisest to sell off some forward pieces like Kiefer Sherwood and Evander Kane, and then give some of that opened-up ice-time to Höglander, before folks like Cootes and Lekkerimäki re-enter the scene. It’s a convenient chance to give Höglander one more chance to re-find his game in Vancouver.

Then, if that doesn’t work out, his value in the offseason will be about the same as it is now, and the Canucks can choose to cut bait just as easily ahead of the 2026-27 start.

So, to answer the question in the headline, what the Canucks should probably do with Höglander for now is hold…but not for too terribly much longer.