Welcome back to WWYDW, the only hockey column on the internet with so sense of finality.

Speaking of finality, we’ve reached the finality of the 2025 offseason, and the 2025-26 is finally here! Yes, by the time you are reading these words, we will be one week or less away from opening night for the Vancouver Canucks.

You’ve seen some rookie exhibition games against the Seattle Kraken. You’ve seen Training Camp in Penticton. You’ve seen most, of all, of the preseason by now. It’s all been fun, but now the games are going to be fun and matter.

Canucks Hockey is back, and it’s good to be back with you.

Here, on the cusp of the 2025-26 campaign, we’re going to keep things relatively simple.

This upcoming Monday, October 6, NHL teams must submit their ‘opening day’ rosters. Three nights later, the Canucks will make it really official as they drop the puck on their Thursday, October 9 home opener against the Calgary Flames.

But before we get to that, it’s your time to name the as-of-yet unannounced participants.

This week, we’re asking:

Let it be known in the comment section.

You answered below!

I predict similar results to last year. 10th in the Western Conference.

First in the division.

Seems crazy but I stand by the prediction.

Reasons? Two good goalies splitting games fairly equally, solid productive defence, top notch PK, decent PP, and well-balanced scoring upfront.

And I expect some in season trades, as usual.

86pts.

Hughes gone.

Difficult to decide whether they will get 81 or 82 points. So, I’ll be optimistic and say 82 points, 6th in Pacific, 10th pick in the draft, and that depends on Demko being healthy. If he’s hurt, they are even worse than that: 7th in the division, ahead of SJ Sharks.

With everything so dependent on three or four players, it’s difficult to predict. If EP bounces back. If Demko and Chytil stay healthy. If Hughes has another great year. I’m going to say they will squeak in the last wildcard position. Likely wishful thinking, but who knows? Stranger things have happened.

Noox are gonna finish 3rd in the Pacific with 99 pts.

We’re talking playoffs, baby!!!

Tough question. Miller played 40 games in achieving last season’s 90 points. This year’s roster up front is still well short of what it was through Miller’s 40 games. I also don’t think they have anyone as effective as Suter to take his place. I thought about Joshua. Given all the time missed and rather poor play when he returned, don’t see a drop off from last year.

There are positives. A healthy Demko, a refurbished EP40, and significant upgrades to Desharnais, Soucy, Juulsen, Heinen, and Brännström. We will see some progression from the top forwards coming up from Abbotsford. Hopefully the top players are a little healthier this season.

On paper I’d say a modest improvement to 94 points is likely. A swing of eight points either way is up to the coaches. If Foote can get his team to close out leads and use his faster players more in OT, going over 100 points is possible.

A real wildcard in all this is a trade. If the Canucks are able to acquire a higher-end, top-six player well before the trade deadline, 100+ points becomes a probability.

The ‘23-24 PDO Party was one hell of a shindig. ‘24-25 was just a bad hangover, with everyone feeling out-of-sorts, cranky, and missing work.

This season will likely be a tame evening out, with some good stories, a few laughs, and some disappointing things on the menu.

I can’t see the Canucks being anything other than a wildcard team… without too many disasters, they could be comfortably in the first wildcard; with the usual injuries and not many career years the team could be on the bubble for the second wildcard.

I’ll go with 95 points and 8th in the conference.

110ish points and first in the division!

I don’t know how the Canucks will replace guys like Miller and Suter unless they make a monster trade and it seems people forget that other teams in the Western Conference didn’t just sit still they made improvements to their team. Also, Anaheim has to be considered a wild card because they hired Joel Quenneville. Even though he shouldn’t be coaching anymore, he’s a damn good coach and he finds ways to take any roster to the playoffs. Every team he’s ever coached has made the playoffs in his first season as head coach.

If the Canucks can’t find suitable players to make up for the lost production from Miller and Suter, then their season will depend on Demko and Lankinen standing on their heads and they might just barely squeak into the playoffs; otherwise, it will be a 12th place finish for this team.

If everyone stays healthy, I predict 102 points and third in the Pacific. I think they may surprise the doom and gloom posters here.

Behind Vegas and Edmonton…Gonna be a battle between LA, Calgary, Vancouver, and Seattle.

The Canucks position in the standings is very hard to predict since there are a lot of factors that affect the team.

-Will Adam Foote be an effective coach with a system that the team buys into?

-Will the team stay healthy?; Pettersson, Kane, Hronek, Chytil, Demko all have injury history that can derail the team.

-Can the team thrive with no real second line centre?

-Will the rookies (Räty, Karlsson, Bains, D-Petey, Mancini) rise to the occasion, or flounder?

-Will the team thrive as a team, or will there still be divisions in the locker room?

The Canucks have an excellent defense; the best defense it has had in over a decade.

The Canucks have an excellent goaltending duo; best duo since 2011.

The Canucks forward lines are not stellar, but there is a good distribution across the four lines.

If things go well, I think this is a 100-point team, but injuries can quickly derail the team.

I think the team will finish between 92 and 100 points in the standings.

I think this group will be firmly in a playoff spot come American Thanksgiving, which will make the naysayers on here irate, and the amount of content unavailable will be record breaking…

On paper, they are the second best team in the Pacific, and if they get EP40 as the player we all think he is, Demko playing 50 games like his average career to date, and don’t suffer major injuries to anyone making more than $5 million, then they will challenge all year for better than that.

People never seem to look at the holes in the other teams in the league (like, fact: Oilers are thinking of putting one of two AHL players with lower point totals than Linus K on their first line to start the season. Or that Nurse may still get top-four minutes…)

If Demko stays healthy, the Canucks are in the playoffs 100%. This is “the Demko Difference.”

I don’t think they’re a lock, but I also think that they’re very likely to be playing playoff hockey come Spring. LA is older and slower and still banking on Doughty and Kopitar to carry too much as they approach 40. Edmonton sat on their hands. Calgary rode a rookie goalie and are likely to move their top RHD. Dallas looks terrible on the right-side D.

To me, I hope the Canucks make the playoffs, but that they do so with eyes to the future. This means selling Kane at the deadline, and making space for Mancini in the everyday lineup without stealing time from EP25 and his development.

Canucks finish the season in the 9th to 11th spot in the conference.

Oilers, Vegas, and Kings get division playoff spots.

The Wild and the up and coming Utah Mammoth squeak out the wild card spots.

The answer is in where every other team in the West will finish.

In the Pacific, Vegas and the Oilers are near certainties. The Ducks and Flames will provide stiff competition for us, with the Ducks likely to surprise with their new additions and coach. The Kings will likely regress this season. Seattle and the Sharks haven’t done anything to suggest they will contend.

Forget about a wild card position, Central has a number of teams challenging…Jets, Stars, Avs, and I expect the Blues to be in the mix. Utah and the Wild will be close.

So, where does that leave us…aiming for the third spot in the Pacific, but this time getting bumped by the Ducks and the Flames into fifth.

I hope I’m wrong. I do see the “team” coming together as a band of brothers fighting for each other, but this really depends on key players staying healthy. A “team” can beat a few elite individuals, but that probably won’t get us all the way to the Cup.

Well, I feel the PK won’t be quite as good. PP the same. Offence should be better. Defence maybe a tad better. Goaltending hopefully better. Coaching a big question mark. Seems like the players are more fit this year. Preseason seems more organized than last year. I’m going to give them 96 points. Fringe playoff team.

I figger its gotta fall somewheres between the last two years. I’ve never seen a team that seemed as badly snakebitten as the Canucks last year, and the year before was the opposite in that almost everything broke their way. This season, a hundred points for both the team and for Pettersson would be exactly what they need to send the Athletic writers searching for answers back under their bridges.

Sixth in the division.

This team should be hard to score on. They’ll be in the hunt for the Jennings trophy. Reversion to the mean will kick in for Petterson and Boeser. So that figures to get them in the playoffs.

But!

I’m curious to see how the swarming defence approach plays out. If two or three swarm an opponent, they better get it right, or there’ll be a boatload of odd-man rushes. That blows out the Jennings theory.

So I really don’t know! I think it’ll either be a solid playoff spot or a major disappointment. No mushy middle here.

It is unlikely the dominoes will fall as poorly as they did last season for the Canucks this year. Just the locker room drama being lessened will be a huge boost for morale. Van will place third or second in the Pacific…book it.

I have no idea where they will finish, but it should be fun to watch.