Vancouver Canucks

Is the Canucks’ Rebuild as Bad as It Looks?

A Canucks roster review sees a team badly built for Manny Malhotra. But maybe Vancouver is building for something else.

by
Old Prof
September 13, 2026

Vancouver’s bringing in Manny Malhotra as the team’s new head coach. According to a recent breakdown from Luca Pampena’s Pacific Division Preview 2026-2027, his whole approach is built around a heavy, defensively structured game. He hopes to clog passing lanes, limit high-danger chances, and run a slow, methodical cycle offence that dumps pucks deep and controls possession rather than pushing the pace. In theory, it’s a sound system. The problem is, Vancouver’s roster is about as difficult as Malhotra could have inherited for that system.

The Problem with the Canucks Defence

Here’s the issue. This same breakdown ranks Vancouver’s defensive core dead last in the entire NHL. As Pampena puts it, Filip Hronek is the only genuinely good defenceman on the roster. And even he’s flagged as more of a number-two guy, being miscast as a number-one, with real defensive limitations of his own. Zeev Buium just got a big extension. But the read here is that he currently projects more like a number-three defenceman being handed number-one minutes as a 20-year-old. He skates well but, according to Pampena, still has trouble holding up physically at the NHL level. And the presumed bottom pairing of Luke Schenn and Jamie Oleksiak is expected to be one of the worst pairings in the league, according to Pampena.

So you’ve got a coach whose entire system depends on structure, discipline, and defensive solidity, trying to install that on a blue line that’s short on exactly those qualities. That’s not really a coaching problem. That’s a roster problem Malhotra’s being asked to paper over.

The Canucks Forwards Aren’t Much Better

Up front, things aren’t much better. Elias Pettersson’s gone from a 100-point superstar to what’s described as, at best, a second-line center on a massive contract. He seems to lack confidence more than talent right now. Brock Boeser’s 40-goal season increasingly looks like an outlier rather than a new baseline given his ongoing health issues. The one real bright spot is Linus Karlsson. He quietly broke out in a bottom-six role and could push for real top-six minutes this year.

Even the goaltending, historically a strength, is shakier than it looks. Thatcher Demko’s talent isn’t in question. However, staying healthy for a full season clearly is. And Kevin Lankinen hasn’t proven he can reliably cover for him.

The Big Question for the Canucks Is Malhotra’s Structure

Put it all together, and if Pampena is right, the real story in Vancouver isn’t really about wins and losses this season. It’s about whether Malhotra’s structure can squeeze enough defensive stability out of a genuinely thin roster to make Vancouver’s young players more valuable trade chips heading into the deadline. Right now, patience and lottery balls look like the actual plan.