The 2025–26 NHL season is one step closer to arriving, as the Vancouver Canucks’ 2025–26 pre-season begins later today with a 5:00 pm PT matchup against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.
Many things are expected to come out of the Canucks’ pre-season. Elias Pettersson (D) is the current favourite to make the main roster out of training camp, joining a D-core made up of what is expected to be captain Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Tyler Myers, Marcus Pettersson, and Derek Forbort. Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil are expected to slot in as first and second-line centres respectively, while Aatu Räty will likely fit somewhere on the third or fourth line. Let’s take a bolder look at whether these things could be the case by the end of the season or not.
While new head coach Adam Foote is no stranger to the Canucks, having served as former head coach Rick Tocchet’s assistant for two years, new defensive coach Kevin Dean is. Dean, who has worked with the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, and Team USA as an assistant, may want to experiment with some new pairings — especially since there is one spot on the blueline that is currently unclaimed.
If Pettersson does end up making the roster out of training camp, he’ll be one of four left-shot defencemen on the Canucks’ blueline. Because of this, this configuration favours fellow roster spot contenders Victor Mancini and Tom Willander, both of whom are right-handed shooters. In his time with Vancouver last season, Mancini played primarily with Forbort on the third pairing, but also spent a little time with Hughes and Marcus Pettersson. To minimize the switching — of both the pairings and players’ natural handedness — it would make the most sense for the team to stick with Mancini in the group. However, with how Pettersson has looked during the 2025 Prospect Showcase, as well as his impressive audition last season, it’s likely that he claims the final spot instead.
In this event, the likely scenario is that either Forbort or Pettersson switches to their right, and the rest of the pairings remain the same. Pettersson did spend the majority of his 2024–25 season playing alongside Forbort, though he also ended up on a line with Hronek quite often. Pettersson also logged some of his best offensive stats with Hronek, putting up a 4.94 xGF in the 86 minutes that the two were paired up for as well as a 55.49 corsi-for — the highest he registered alongside an active Canucks defenceman. While offence is not Pettersson’s main responsibility, in the event that Hughes gets moved around, this pairing is something to keep in mind.
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One of the most interesting names on the list of players who could push for a roster spot is Lekkerimäki, who is most likely to spend most of his season with the Abbotsford Canucks in 2025–26. The 2022 first-round draft pick sat for parts of Abbotsford’s Calder Cup run last season and looked a little out of it at times. However, coming into the 2025 Prospects Showcase, Lekkerimäki really put himself out there, showing off some physicality and finding a good fit with Vilmer Alriksson. He also showed flashes alongside Chytil and Evander Kane during training camp.
Even with his successes, and some of the movements that will likely take place throughout the lineup during pre-season, Lekkerimäki may not end up making the final cut for the team. Realistically, it makes more sense for the young forward to spend more time developing in the AHL alongside Abbotsford, especially if he won’t be promised a decent amount of playing time at the NHL level. There are still some small details he’ll have to hone — something that was also presented during the prospects showcase — but the forward has still shown some progress.
It’s unlikely that Lekkerimäki starts the season with Vancouver, but given the opportunity presented by pre-season play, it won’t be surprising to see him dress for all six of the Canucks’ games. Regardless of the result, the experience will be important for a player like Lekkerimäki.
As it stands, Vancouver’s centre depth chart consists of Pettersson, Chytil, and some variation of Teddy Blueger, Aatu Räty, Nils Åman, and Max Sasson. It’s perfectly acceptable for the team to ice a forward core led by an assortment of these players, which they kind of did at one point last season, but many fans are holding their breaths in anticipation for another move. Historically speaking, the Canucks have not shied away from making their moves early on, whether those have been cap disposals or player acquisitions.
The Canucks have taken small gambles in the past closer to the start of the season, with some of them panning out and some not. Acquiring Sam Lafferty in 2023–24 resulted in the team having added depth and speed in the bottom six, while trading for Erik Brännström gave them more options on defence that ultimately helped them obtain both Chytil and Mancini. With $3.27M in projected cap space remaining to start the season, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Vancouver made one more move before the start of the 2025–26 season.
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