We’re still a long way off from the start of the 2026-27 season – more than three months, as of this writing – but the majority of the happenings in the 2026 offseason have already happened. The 2026 NHL Entry Draft is in the books. The first few days, and first couple hundred signings, of the annual Free Agent Frenzy are complete. And so, too, is the temporary trade madness that seemed to sweep up the entire league over the past couple of weeks.

The Vancouver Canucks are probably not done. Certainly not in the long-term sense, where they’ve got miles to go yet before this rebuild can truly said to be off the ground. And perhaps in the short-term sense, too, as GM Ryan Johnson and Co. attempt to put together, if not the best possible Canucks roster for 2026-27, then at least the right one.

Earlier in the week, we attempted to create an updated, post-July 1 depth chart for the Canucks. Today, we’re taking another look at the results of that, and asking ourselves if the team might still need to make some subtractions from the roster before the regular season kicks off in October.

As we said in that article, no one really knows how things are going to go in the Vancouver crease this season, but the pieces are technically in place already. Thatcher Demko will attempt to return to starting; the plan is to have Kevin Lankinen back him up, and Nikita Tolopilo is around, too – though unable to be sent down to the minors without waivers.

In a perfect world, the Canucks would be able to move one of Demko or Lankinen this summer and have Tolopilo slide in as their natural replacement. But the amount of uncertainty around Demko’s health, Lankinen’s performance, and Tolopilo’s experience makes that a difficult choice to make right now, to say nothing of the difficulty of moving either Lankinen or especially Demko’s contract.

The most likely scenario here is that the Canucks go into at least Training Camp and preseason with all three goalies in place and see what happens. It’s also a possibility they continue to roll into the regular season with all three, just so that Demko has the maximum amount of coverage available. Either way, we don’t see a subtraction coming just yet here.

The blueline feels just a certain, and a little more complete. While some are still hoping the Canucks cash in on the enormous chip that is Filip Hronek, it’s becoming increasingly clear that he won’t be traded anytime soon. That leaves a clear-cut starting six of Hronek, Zeev Buium, Tom Willander, Jamie Oleksiak, Elias Pettersson, and Luke Schenn.

The Canucks already have a handful of defenders in the minors who would fit in as seventh or eighth D, and two in particular who need more NHL minutes sooner rather than later: Victor Mancini and Kirill Kudryavtsev.

It seems like an intentional balance of youth and experience, of talent and truculence. The Canucks brought in Oleksiak and Schenn to provide support, mentorship, and protection to the likes of Buium, Willander, and Pettersson while Hronek continues to eat up that 1D deployment.

The top-six is set in stone; the top-eight could still see some shuffling, but the Canucks certainly have no need to make any subtractions from their blueline at this point.

But the forwards might be another story altogether. When we attempted to put together a depth chart for the current Canucks’ forwards, in the form of some soft lines, we ended up with this:

It does, on first blush, look a little overstuffed. There are a few minor quibbles or changes that might be made, including having a Braeden Cootes or a Ty Mueller make the team over newcomer Ilya Safonov down the middle. Still, the larger issue seems to be the amount of bodies on the wing.

For the sake of the rebuild, Jonathan Lekkerimäki – still probably the team’s top wing prospect prior to the 2026 draft class – needs to get plenty of opportunity this year. And it’s hard to imagine him getting that right off the bat with so many names already packed into that top-six.

The uncertain status of Filip Chytil complicates things. Were he to be at full health and guaranteed to stay that way, he’d be an automatic staple in the top-six. But that’s just not the case. Many have speculated that Chytil’s future lies on the wing, where he doesn’t have to carry the puck through the middle of the ice so much. Others wonder how much longer he realistically has left in his playing days. It all makes it a little tricky to place him in the lineup, and to know whether or not his spot is ‘up for grabs’ in the short-term.

If Chytil is going to stay and play, we’d argue that this forward group needs at least one subtraction. That might allow for Lekkerimäki to be an everyday part of the group from the get-go, and perhaps to get him some reps in the top-six and on the power play.

The most obvious piece to subtract is Jake DeBrusk, and his comments on a potential rebuild only underline that. The word on the street is that the Canucks are still trying to move DeBrusk and that there are still numerous interested parties. Chances seem good that he’s dealt between now and October, and then everything can shuffle.

Lekkerimäki could take DeBrusk’s spot in the top-nine neatly enough. Others could shuffle around and shuffle up, including Drew O’Connor, someone who the team probably wants to juice the numbers of ahead of the 2027 Trade Deadline.

Other deals could have the same effect, but seem less likely. Trading Brock Boeser would open up a spot on the right side, specifically, which is where Lekkerimäki naturally lines up. It could also mean more minutes for Linus Karlsson, still technically an up-and-comer as an NHL sophomore. But moving Boeser seems a lot more difficult, and a lot less probable, than moving DeBrusk at this point.

Getting some sort of clarity on Chytil could also have an impact here, but it seems unlikely that said clarity comes before October. All indications are that Chytil is going to give a comeback his best shot.

A subtraction of one more body before Training Camp seems best here, and the most likely outcome is still definitely a DeBrusk trade. To call it a ‘need’ is a little much, but it’s a ‘strong want’ at the very least. (Especially if a few more top-50 draft picks are part of that equation.)

Beyond that, we’d probably suggest the Canucks hold. They’ve already done some other cutting earlier in the offseason, by letting folks like Teddy Blueger go and trading Nils Höglander. Sure, they could still look to trade multiple other forwards this offseason, and it probably wouldn’t impact their record too much next season. But at the same time, there aren’t many forwards in the system ready and willing to take on more NHL minutes.

Cootes and Mueller are probably best suited getting more development in Abbotsford. Caleb Malhotra is off to the NCAA and won’t be a factor for at least a year. Nobody else seems particularly ready. The subtraction up front is about creating a little more opportunity for some key names, but that’s about all the Canucks need right now.

As such, we’d say that Johnson’s offseason business is almost complete, but not quite. Expect at least one more major move, and perhaps a little shuffling around beyond that, before the summer of 2026 formally concludes, the 2026-27 regular season begins, and the rebuild of the Vancouver Canucks can continue in earnest.