The wildly swinging nature of the Vancouver Canucks’ first two games of the 2026-27 season almost necessitated that their lines be thrown in a blender, and that continued into Friday practice ahead of a weekend back-to-back. Head coach Manny Malhotra tried out some new combinations, and one of the more interesting was a move of Marco Rossi from the centre position to Elias Pettersson’s wing on the top line.

This is a move that some have suggested before, so it doesn’t come entirely out of nowhere. That said, we’re not really sure how much of a ‘move’ it is as of yet. Malhotra suggested the media not read too much into practice line combos, and we don’t yet know whether Rossi will stay on the wing into the weekend games, let alone beyond that.

Honestly, it might not be the best short-term fit for the Canucks in this present moment. Rossi on the wing means the centre depth after Pettersson goes Paul Cotter, Max Sasson, and Aatu Räty, which seems less than ideal, even for a rebuilding roster.

But a true rebuild should mean always thinking a few years down the road. And in the long run, Rossi moving over to the wing could be exactly what the Canucks need.

It’s not that Rossi is a bad centre. Far from it. Through parts of five NHL seasons, he’s established himself enough at that position to state that he’s already of at least 2C quality. Rossi was drafted with 1C potential, and there are some who still believe he might have that in him.

But the Canucks also find themselves in need of some eventual space at the centre position. Two of their top prospects, Caleb Malhotra and Braeden Cootes, play at centre and seem quite likely to stay there long-term, even as they join the big league ranks. Both Malhotra and Cootes project to join the roster full-time as soon as next year. That probably means that, sooner rather than later, the Canucks are going to want to move a centre out.

This is all further complicated by the uncertain future of the aforementioned Pettersson. Until the team knows the extent of his reboundability, they won’t really know whether he’s going to be a veteran fixture or a trade chip for the rebuild or none of the above. That probably means the team has to consider trading Rossi at some point. Especially given that, for all his positive qualities, Rossi’s size makes him a tough individual to build a winning playoff centre corps around.

But what if, instead of trading Rossi to make room for incoming centres, the team really embraced the possibilities of him on the wing?

There’s an inherent logic to it for a team that is already seemingly well-stocked on future top-six, or at least middle-six, centres, but still rather low on wingers of the same ilk. If we’re looking several years down the road, the Canucks have Adam Novotny, Liam Öhgren, and maybe Jonathan Lekkerimäki in place on the wing. Other pieces could rise to the forefront there, but it’s clearly a spot where the Canucks will need to add eventually.

If Rossi, who just turned 24, can transition into a full-time winger, however, maybe that need is lessened. Rossi as a first- or second-line winger could not only be a long-term fit for the rebuild, but fit a long-term need, too.

As we’ve mentioned before, it’s a career shift that Rossi’s former teammate, Mats Zuccarello, once made. There are some obvious parallels between Rossi and Zuccarello, with both being on the shorter side of things and hailing from non-traditional NHL countries. Like Rossi, Zuccarello started out his career at centre, back in his days with the New York Rangers. But by the time Zuccarello had made it to Minnesota, he was more-or-less a full-time winger. On top of that, he was an incredibly successful winger, rising to a career high of 79 points in the 2021-22 season. Even when the Wild outright lacked for centres in recent years, Zuccarello stayed on the wing.

If Rossi could become anything like the asset that Zuccarello became for the Wild, that would obviously mean positive things for the Canucks. Not the least of which would be a high-quality winger to start pairing with the likes of Malhotra and Cootes when they hit the NHL level, which should help in their own development and progression.

That’s especially true given that Rossi has already shown some chemistry with Pettersson as his linemate and has seemed to bring more out of his game, especially on the power play.

There are some downsides to moving Rossi to centre, like the current level of depth on the roster and the possibility of it reducing his overall trade value. But if the Canucks are considering keeping Rossi around for the duration of the rebuild, instead of trading him, it’s probably the right long-term decision.

Slide Rossi over to the wing, where he joins Öhgren and Novotny as they ideally continue their paths toward top-six success, and are ideally joined by another piece or two from the prospect cupboard and the drafts yet to come. Get Malhotra and Cootes on the NHL roster and developing toward some top-six status of their own. Either keep Pettersson around, if he’s able to resuscitate his career over the course of 2026-27, or convert him into a trade chip that yields more potential pieces. Do all that, and the Canucks can almost see the outlines of a rebuilt forward corps taking place.

Is more truly top-end talent eventually needed for them to actually compete one day? Probably. But that doesn’t take away the potential impact of Rossi becoming a successful long-term top-six winger for them. That’s a vital component on any roster, and if the Canucks can essentially find one of their missing pieces already in their own depth chart, it’s basically playing with found money.

That’s why, for our money, trying out Rossi on the wing right now isn’t just an instance of line-shuffling. It’s a move that could pay off big time for the Canucks down the road, as they approach the end of the 2020s and the start of the 2030s, with the intention of not just returning to the playoffs, but making some noise when they get there.

We’re not sure if we believe in Rossi still being a Canucks centre when that happens. But we can probably get the idea of him still being a Canucks winger, and a strong one at that.