{"id":819604,"date":"2026-07-23T22:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T22:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/819604\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T22:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T22:45:10","slug":"projecting-vancouver-canucks-lines-for-the-2026-27-season-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/819604\/","title":{"rendered":"Projecting Vancouver Canucks lines for the 2026-27 season | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"

For perhaps the first time this century, the Vancouver Canucks will enter next season without any talk from management about being a playoff team.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly a breath of fresh air for a fanbase that wanted a rebuild more than a decade ago; however, it might not make for the most thrilling on-ice product.<\/p>\n

That being said, the lack of star power on the team does create a lot of interesting lineup decisions for Manny Malhotra and the Canucks coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Vancouver doesn\u2019t roster any bona fide, top-line calibre players. They also have just one defenceman who would be a surefire, top-four mainstay on a playoff-bound squad.<\/p>\n

So, how will Malhotra and his staff amalgamate the Canucks roster? Here\u2019s our first crack at predicting the first iteration of Vancouver\u2019s lineup for opening night.<\/p>\n

Forwards<\/p>\n

Liam Ohgren \u2013 Marco Rossi \u2013 Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk \u2013 Elias Pettersson \u2013 Linus Karlsson
Paul Cotter \u2013 Aatu R\u00e4ty \u2013 Drew O\u2019Connor
Max Sasson \u2013 Ilya Safonov \u2013 Brendan Gallagher
Extra: Trey Fix-Wolansky<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Marco Rossi, who should enter the season as the Canucks\u2019 de facto number one centre.<\/p>\n

After an injury hampered the beginning of his Canucks career, Rossi was clearly Vancouver\u2019s best centre down the stretch<\/a>. He developed chemistry with Brock Boeser and, to a lesser extent, his old Minnesota Wild teammate, Liam Ohgren. Keeping that trio together makes sense based on how they played towards the end of the 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

Linus Karlsson was statistically Vancouver\u2019s best forward at five-on-five last season. He led the Canucks with 24 points at five-on-five despite finishing 15th among regular forwards in ice time at evens. He\u2019s earned a shot in the top-six.<\/p>\n

\"linus<\/a><\/p>\n

Linus Karlsson deserves to be in the Canucks top-six. (Bob Frid\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Jake DeBrusk hasn\u2019t been good at five-on-five alongside Elias Pettersson, but the Canucks might want to keep him in the top-six in hopes of boosting his trade value. Also, DeBrusk, Pettersson and Karlsson did control 60.6 per cent of expected goals in their time together last season.<\/p>\n

Based on last season\u2019s stats, no one on the Canucks roster likes to throw hits more than Paul Cotter and Aatu R\u00e4ty. You could also argue that no one on the Canucks roster forechecked harder last season than O\u2019Connor. It\u2019s a line that lacks playmaking ability, but so does the forward group as a whole.<\/p>\n

If Filip Chytil isn\u2019t ready to go, then Max Sasson and Ilya Safonov are next in line to take over the fourth-line centre spot. Although Sasson played centre under Malhotra in Abbotsford, he looked more comfortable on the wing last season. Brendan Gallagher probably doesn\u2019t deserve to be ahead of Boeser, Karlsson, or O\u2019Connor on the depth chart at this stage of his career.<\/p>\n

In terms of Chytil, he has been working out this offseason<\/a>. But, much like the Tucker Poolman situation from years ago, penciling him in before he proves he can stay healthy seems overly optimistic.<\/p>\n

This initial roster omits Braeden Cootes and Jonathan Lekkerimaki. While both certainly have a chance of making this paper-thin lineup, there\u2019s an argument that both are best served playing big minutes in Abbotsford. Lekkerimaki may not need it as much as Cootes, but we should see how he looks at camp after undergoing shoulder surgery in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trey Fix-Wolansky, Arshdeep Bains, Mackenzie MacEachern, Akil Thomas and Ty Mueller are other forwards on the roster who would battle for an NHL spot if Chytil isn\u2019t healthy.<\/p>\n

Defence<\/p>\n

Zeev Buium \u2013 Filip Hronek
Jamie Oleksiak \u2013 Tom Willander
Elias Pettersson \u2013 Luke Schenn
Extra: Victor Mancini<\/p>\n

Zeev Buium spent almost half of his five-on-five minutes alongside Hronek last season. Although the duo had a heavy dose of offensive zone starts, they controlled 53.1 per cent of shot attempts when they were on the ice together.<\/p>\n

Jamie Oleksiak might not be as stout defensively as Marcus Pettersson was, but you can almost guarantee he\u2019s going to play a top-four role for the Canucks. Tom Willander also showed enough last season to warrant more top-four minutes. He also struggled when paired with either one of Buium or defenceman Elias Pettersson.<\/p>\n

\"elias<\/a><\/p>\n

Can Elias Pettersson rediscover some of his rookie success under Malhotra? (Bob Frid\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

While there isn\u2019t a lot of puck moving with a bottom pair of D-Petey and Luke Schenn, at least the duo isn\u2019t sluggish. Even though D-Petey is a physical, stay-at-home defender, he\u2019s surprisingly quick for his size. His top skating speed last season ranked in the 84th percentile among NHLers.<\/p>\n

Victor Mancini is a wild card coming into training camp for the Canucks. His defending was chaotic in the NHL last season, but it\u2019s worth noting he played arguably the best hockey of his career under the tutelage of Malhotra and Jordan Smith in Abbotsford.<\/p>\n

Goaltending<\/p>\n

Thatcher Demko
Kevin Lankinen
Extra: Nikita Tolopilo<\/p>\n

Thatcher Demko believes he\u2019s found the answer<\/a> to his injury woes. But even if he is healthy, the Canucks can run him like a workhorse starter. However, he\u2019s easily the most talented goaltender in the Canucks organization, and one of the NHL\u2019s best when healthy.<\/p>\n

Kevin Lankinen struggled last season after a stellar start to his Canucks career in 2024-25. He also dealt with some undisclosed personal matters, which resulted in him leaving the team temporarily last November.<\/p>\n

Although a chaotic defensive environment didn\u2019t help Lankinen, he was still outplayed by rookie netminder Nikita Tolopilo.<\/p>\n

Even if Demko is healthy, keeping a three-goalie rotation makes sense for the Canucks, especially considering that Tolopilo is waiver-eligible. If Vancouver did lose Tolopilo on waivers, and Demko got injured again, the next goalies on the depth chart are Ty Young and Aku Koskenvuo.<\/p>\n

Keeping all of Demko, Lankinen and Tolopilo on the NHL roster seems like a prudent move for the Canucks, both as an insurance policy and to see if any of them can parlay strong performances into something of value on the trade market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For perhaps the first time this century, the Vancouver Canucks will enter next season without any talk from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-819604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}