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It is June, we must note, and so that means that everything that is to follow should be read as “unsurprising.”
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Unsurprising in the sense that the NHL draft is still two weeks away and we are deep into fill-the-air time.
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A lot of names get bandied about as we all try to figure out what NHL management teams will get up to at the draft and in the days that follow to reset their rosters for the 2026-27 season.
Colleague Bruce Garrioch in Ottawa suggests that the Ottawa Senators are the latest team to ponder adding Vancouver Canucks winger Jake DeBrusk.
DeBrusk has five years left on a relatively modest deal, with a $5.5 million annual cap hit. In a league where the salary cap is exploding, a guy who can play on your second line and be a handy power play weapon and who is on a low salary? Teams should be lining up out the door if his future isn’t in Vancouver.
As several sources around the league said to me when I put the Ottawa question to them said: “Makes sense.” Makes sense in that Ottawa is after a top-six winger (and a top-four defenceman, but who isn’t looking for that) and DeBrusk very much fits the bill.
Sources think the Canucks could lean even more heavily into their rebuild and trade more of their remaining senior players. DeBrusk isn’t the only one: Many have wondered if Elias Pettersson might also be on the move.
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For the here and now, though, let’s stay focused on the DeBrusk question.
He’s scored more than 20 goals five times in his career, including a career-high 28 in 2024-25, his first in Vancouver. You may recall that season was an unbelievably fractious one but newcomer DeBrusk rose above the chaos and was a remarkably reliable player.
Jake DeBrusk of the Vancouver Canucks plays the Colorado Avalanche in the third period at Ball Arena on Dec. 2, 2025, in Denver. Photo by Matthew Stockman /Getty Images
He signed in Vancouver to play in the playoffs, to help the Canucks get a step closer to contender status. Instead, everything fell apart.
Now the team is in an official rebuild. As we have all pondered more than once, how much stomach does he really have for another season or two of mostly losing, with management building a new future and taking near-term blows in exchange for long-term gains?
And that, also, assumes management can deliver on those rebuilding ambitions. DeBrusk turns 30 in October. If he’s a guy who plays to win, and there’s every reason to think he is, how does he weigh his current reality vs. the maybe of the Canucks future vs. what we can see in a place like Ottawa, which looks much like the Canucks team DeBrusk thought he was signing on with two years ago? Is he willing to bank on the efforts of some-well-regarded good guys now running the Canucks who, we must remember, have never actually done this before?
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