Elias Pettersson made his long-awaited return to the Vancouver Canucks lineup on Saturday night after missing eight games with an upper-body injury. Not
They say history repeats itself. Team Canada came dangerously close to reliving a painful one-year anniversary nightmare, but managed to avoid another stunning upset.
The Vancouver Canucks are finally getting their number-one center back. Elias Pettersson will re-enter the Canucks’ lineup for Saturday’s game against the San Jose Sharks after missing Vancouver’s last eight games with an upper-body injury.
It’s been just over two weeks since the Vancouver Canucks dealt their captain and all-time defenceman scoring leader Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild.
NHL head coaches have to hire good assistants. They have to set an overarching philosophy, juggle lineup configurations, and do the kind of “man management” that is impossible to track statistically.
The Canucks will get some much-welcomed help down the middle tonight against San Jose. Speaking with reporters after practice today (Twitter link), center Elias Pettersson confirmed that he will make his return to the lineup.
After a brief holiday break, the Vancouver Canucks (15-18-3) return to work tonight when they host the San Jose Sharks (17-17-3) at Rogers Arena. The game is set for a 7pm puck drop.
Tonight’s game against the San Jose Sharks arrives at an odd moment in the Vancouver Canucks’ season — one where clarity hasn’t followed change, but resilience has followed loss.
A lot has happened for the Vancouver Canucks since Elias Pettersson was last in the lineup. Pettersson last played on Friday, December 5, against the Utah Mammoth.
What a year 2025 was for the Vancouver Canucks. A captain traded. A rebuild retool retool with a hybrid form. And of course, a feud between two star players, leading to one getting traded.
The Christmas gifts have been handed out. The turkey dinner has been eaten. Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy one of the most anticipated stretches of hockey on the calendar — the U20 World Junior Championship.
For the Vancouver Canucks, the defining moment of their season arrived the day Quinn Hughes was traded. From that point on, pretending this was still a normal season became a kind of polite fiction.
The Vancouver Canucks have to embrace the rebuilding process. There's no other way for the franchise to go after moving on from their best player and captain, Quinn Hughes.
I spent part of this morning doing what I usually do before sitting down to write — reading around, listening carefully, trying to figure out what other people think the story is before deciding whether I agree with it.
When the Vancouver Canucks traded Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild, the reaction was immediate and emotional. Franchise defencemen don’t get traded quietly, and they don’t get replaced easily.
The Canucks’ front office has started talking about a “hybrid rebuild.” On first listen, it feels like jargon—something to make headlines. Analysts and insiders are having a difficult time figuring out exactly what it means.
Hockey moves fast, and sometimes you don’t see the consequences at the time. Brock Boeser’s seven-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks made sense when he signed it.