Canucks News & Rumours: Rossi, Buium & Growing What Works

Rossi may be the more immediate test. He has already shown he can produce, including a 60-point season with the Minnesota Wild in 2024-25 and a strong stretch after the Olympic break last season. But he isn’t likely to have the same offensive support in Vancouver that he had in Minnesota.

That makes this season important. If Rossi breaks out, it won’t necessarily mean he suddenly became a different player. It might simply mean the Canucks have given him enough responsibility and opportunity to show what was already there. His production also depends on whether the players around him can finish the chances he creates.

Buium may ultimately be the more important player to watch. Moving from 26 points as a rookie to 40 would be a significant step, but the bigger question is whether he begins to look like the kind of defenceman who can eventually drive Vancouver’s transition game and power play. If he earns those responsibilities, the Canucks will have something much more valuable than another 40-point player. They’ll have a young defenceman who could become part of the foundation of the next good Vancouver team.

The Canucks Already Found Something That Worked. Now They Need to Grow It

The Canucks weren’t a particularly good team last season, but something encouraging happened late in the year. Their power play suddenly became a real weapon. Over the final 25 games, Vancouver converted 19 of 58 opportunities, a 32.8-percent success rate that ranked second in the NHL during that stretch. That’s far too small a sample to declare the problem solved, but it’s large enough to make you wonder whether they found something they should carry into the new season instead of starting over.

The encouraging part is that the Canucks don’t have to build the group from scratch. That successful unit featured Elias Pettersson, Rossi, Filip Hronek, Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk. Each player brought something different. Pettersson and Rossi provided playmaking from the half walls, Hronek worked from the point, Boeser supplied the shooting threat, and DeBrusk provided the net-front presence.

DeBrusk led the group with eight power-play goals during that stretch, while Boeser added four. There was some balance to the unit, and perhaps more importantly, there was a reason for each player to be there.

That’s important for a rebuilding team because Vancouver doesn’t have to discover everything at once. If the Canucks can turn the power play into a dependable strength, it gives them something to build around while the rest of the roster develops. A 32.8-percent power play over 25 games doesn’t mean Vancouver has suddenly solved its five-on-five offence. It does mean the organization has seen that this group can work together. Now the goal is to recognize what was already working and make sure it doesn’t disappear or get tossed away.

The Canucks Don’t Need to Have Everything Figured Out Yet

That’s probably the encouraging part of where Vancouver sits right now. They aren’t close enough to assume that every piece of the roster will eventually fit, but they’re also not starting with an empty sheet of paper. Rossi and Buium offer two different pieces of the future, while the late-season power play success provides a glimpse of what the team might be able to do right now. The next step is figuring out which of those developments are real and which were simply promising moments.

A rebuilding team needs young players to take meaningful steps and needs the coaching staff to recognize what works. If that happens, the Canucks may discover that rebuilding isn’t always about finding the next great player. Sometimes it’s about recognizing that the next good team is already taking shape.