The 2025 Trade Deadline has come and gone. The 2024/25 Vancouver Canucks remain much the same. But the 2025/26 Canucks are also starting to take shape, and that shape will, ultimately, not be the same.

In what has turned into a little post-deadline series, we’ve been looking at what the Canucks have on the books for next season (both in terms of roster and salary), and what their primary needs might be on top of what they’ve already got.

We ended up with a roster featuring 19 of 23 spots already more or less spoken for, and some $14.7 million in available cap space to fill those other four spots. Or, if the team chooses to move on from Thatcher Demko (and doesn’t bring back any salary when they do so), it’ll be some $19.7 million in available cap space and five spots to fill (including a replacement backup).

We also found a roster with a clear-cut need for an upgrade or two to their forward corps.

For the time being, that mock roster does not contain any pending UFAs, so no Derek Forbort, no Pius Suter, and, most importantly, no Brock Boeser.

That leaves a rough top-six of Elias Pettersson, Jake DeBrusk, Filip Chytil, Conor Garland, Dakota Joshua, and Jonathan Lekkerimäki. And while we meant ‘rough’ in the sense that we’re just estimating, we could also mean it in the sense that this group looks a little rough. The Canucks’ offence wasn’t good enough at, really, any point throughout 2024/25, and that was an offence that including Boeser and, for most of the season, JT Miller.

If the Canucks want to move closer to contender status, they will need improvement, and at least some of that improvement will have to come from outside the organization.

Here, that $14 or $19 million or so will really come in handy, but it won’t provide an easy fix. It’s both a lot of money and not a lot of money at the same time. NHL salaries will inflate as the cap ceiling increases this summer. UFAs are set to cash in. The Canucks will have some space with which to spend on free agents, but so will everyone else. And that presents a challenge.

If the Canucks truly want to get better, than most would reason that they need to add someone even better at providing offence than Boeser. But at that point, they’re UFA big-game hunting, which will cost some serious cash.

Many of the UFAs we’ll discuss in this article will incur AAVs in the range of $10 million or more. Sign just one of these players, and the Canucks will be left with about $1 million or so each to fill out the remaining spots on their roster. That’s a big gamble to make on a single player.

So, the question we have to ask is: Are any of these premium, big-name UFAs going to be worth that commitment for GM Patrik Allvin and Co.?

Back when Mikko Rantanen was still on the market, it was a bit of a two-horse race for the status of top available UFA. With Rantanen now a committed Dallas Star, that distinction clearly goes to Mitch Marner.

He’s long been a divisive player in Toronto, one whom fans often accuse of not being able to win in the playoffs despite a litany of regular season points. But perhaps Marner changed that perception with a strong showing at the 4 Nations Face-Off, including that heroic game-winning pass to Connor McDavid in the final. (It’s also a bit of a falsity, anyway, as Marner has some 25 points in 25 playoff games over the past three seasons.)

Marner is once again on pace for more than 100 points, so if we’re talking about adding offence to a team, he’s the premium option and the only one that could be called ‘elite. ’ But given that and the state of the market around him, we can also assume that Marner will be far and away the most expensive UFA available.

We’ve heard the number $13 million thrown around. Rantanen himself just signed for a $12 million AAV, and that was while negotiating with only one team (in a low-tax state, to boot). No one would be surprised to see the bidding on Marner become astronomical.

There’s also a question to be asked about whether Marner would even want to leave Toronto just to move to another pressure-filled Canadian market. And then there’s the question about how wise it might be for the Canucks to burn all of their offseason cap space in one singular player.

But there are no doubts about Marner being the best player available, nor about his making the Canucks a better team if they were able to sign him. It’s the signing part that will prove difficult.

There is a noticeable drop-off in both talent and scoring from Marner to Sam Bennett. But perhaps not that large of a drop-off in overall impact on the game.

Bennett is about as well-rounded as they come. He’s able to play at any forward position, is a dog on defence, is enormously physical for his size, and he gets under opponents’ skin with ease.

It’s the offensive side of things that is in question. This is Bennett’s third season in a row of 40-something points in 60-something games, and he’s only ever topped out at a career-high of 28 goals and 49 points in 71 games. Those aren’t exactly premium numbers.

But then one must consider that, over the last two playoff runs, Bennett has accumulated 29 points in 39 games, including some big-time goals (which extends to the 4 Nations).

The real trouble is that suitors will negotiate for Bennett as his playoff best, which could lead to some preposterous bids.

Is a $10 million salary too much for a player who will likely never crack 60 points in a season? Yeah, objectively speaking, it is, and the cap ceiling increase won’t do that much to change the perspective. Are all the other things Bennett can contribute enough to make up the gap in value? That remains to be seen.

As far as a Miller replacement goes, there won’t be a finer one found on this market. Then again, if the Canucks choose Bennett as their big-ticket add, one might argue that they’d still need to add more offence – and they’d have a lot less cash on hand to do so.

Nikolaj Ehlers’ name has been connected to the Canucks for years now, but a trade has never even come close to fruition. Now, the Canucks will have the opportunity to pursue Ehlers as a free agent – but, then again, so will everyone else.

Ehlers picked a damned fine time for a career season. This is his only point-per-game effort thus far, and it’s happening on one of the best teams in the NHL. That’s going to pay off; there can be no doubt about that.

Ehlers does have a reputation as a bit of a playoff flop, with only 14 points in 37 career postseason games. But a good run with Winnipeg this year could change that perception, and then Ehlers will really find himself cashing in.

We would assume that the Ehlers bidding starts at that $8 million the Canucks offered Boeser, and goes up from there. As a straight-up Boeser replacement, he makes ample sense. But it’s questionable how much of an upgrade he would be, especially if he comes at a significantly higher price tag.

The drop-off gets even steeper here, and that’s with all due respect given to Matt Duchene. From being bought out two years ago to putting up just his third point-per-game season at the age of 34 is rather impressive. But it’s that ‘34’ bit that has us questioning the wisdom in handing a large contract to Duchene this off-season.

We suspect the question is largely moot because Duchene seems happy in Dallas and is likely to re-sign there at a bit of a discount. If he makes it to market, however, expect some teams to throw big, short-term money at him all the same. From where we’re sitting, the Canucks should not be one of those teams. The age just doesn’t work, and the risk of Duchene’s numbers plummeting outside of Dallas is too great.

We don’t have any Canucks pajamas to work with here, but we are attempting to confirm rumours that Tavares once slept with a Fin plushie.

In all seriousness, there’s little chance of Tavares signing anywhere but Toronto this offseason. He cashed in on one of the biggest UFA contracts of all-time already and didn’t quite deliver on that promise, so it feels like he’ll take a discount to remain a Maple Leaf.

Should the situation change, Tavares remains a game-changer, but he’ll also be 35 by the time 2025/26 starts. His scoring has rebounded nicely this season after a dip last year, but that dip feels a little frightening at his age – and so, too, are the two points Tavares put up in seven 2024 playoff games.

If he goes to the open market, Tavares will still incur a cap hit of at least $8 million. That’s really not worth the Canucks while, even if the notion of ‘Mats Sundin 2.0’ is kind of fun.

Okay, we’re being silly at this point. Or…are we?

Chances are good that Marchand either stays in Florida or heads back to Boston this summer. But maybe, just maybe, he was invigorated by being cheered on by all of Canada at the 4 Nations. And maybe, just maybe, he’s looking to sign with a Canadian franchise now to finish out his career.

Were that the case, we have to imagine Connor McDavid’s wing would be Marchand’s top choice. And given the history, we have to imagine that Vancouver would be near the bottom of his list – probably right below Toronto and Montreal.

But, hey, stranger things have happened, and if there’s one thing that’s guaranteed in the Vancouver market, it’s controversy. What would be more controversial than one of the franchise’s greatest all-time villains joining the team? What better final villainous arc of Marchand’s career than “overpaid, underperforming UFA”?

This one won’t happen. But imagine if it did.

In reality, this list probably could have been capped off at Ehlers. Which is a message in and of itself: if the Canucks are going to go big game hunting this summer, they’re going to have to choose from a very limited number of targets.