What happened around the Pacific Division this offseason, and how does it impact the Canucks?

There were numerous avenues the Vancouver Canucks could have taken this offseason. But few could have guessed what actually transpired.

Heading into the offseason, the belief within the fan base was that the Canucks would trade their 15th overall pick, along with other assets, to acquire a second-line centre. And in doing so, they would not have the cap space to re-sign their longest-tenured player, Brock Boeser.

However, the exact opposite happened. The Canucks held onto their first-round pick and selected Braeden Cootes, and then, at the 11th hour, they circled back and managed to extend Boeser to a seven-year, $7.25 million average annual value (AAV) contract. We can’t imagine many fans had that on their bingo card.

Outside of trading a fourth-round pick to the Edmonton Oilers for Evander Kane and the Thatcher Demko and Conor Garland extensions, there really wasn’t much else going on in Canucksland.

But there was a fair share of other moves in the Pacific Division. So what did the rest of the division do this offseason, and how do those moves impact the Canucks for the 2025-2026 season?

Anaheim Ducks

Players in: Mikael Granlund (DAL), Petr Mrazek (DET), Ryan Poehling (PHI), Chris Kreider (NYR)

Players out: Isac Lundestrom (CBJ), John Gibson (DET), Trevor Zegras (PHI)

The moves the Ducks made this offseason just kind of seem like a wash. Some of the moves they made seem like marginal upgrades on some of the players they already had.

Moving a 24-year-old Zegras who has all the skill in the world and can play on the wing and centre, to bring in an older, less flashy yet more productive Granlund seems even offensively. Defensively, Granlund is a significant upgrade on Zegras. The same can be said for swapping Lundestrom for Poehling. Both bottom-six defensive centres, but, for our money, the edge would go to Poehling.

It was only a matter of time before the Ducks found Gibson a new home. And with the emergence of Lukas Dostal, now was the time to do so. Getting Petr Mrazek to be a 1B/backup option keeps their tandem strong.

The biggest offseason addition has to be Kreider. The Ducks’ offence needed another goal scorer, especially one who can help as a netfront presence on the power play. Anaheim was abysmal on the man-advantage last season, converting at just an 11.8% clip. Kreider has scored 149 goals over the past four seasons, 58 of which came on the power play.

Impact on the Canucks

The Canucks fared well against the Ducks last season, finishing with a 3-1 record and outscoring them 16-10.

Heading into 2025-2026, the Ducks project to be a more defensively sound team with some of their additions. Granlund and Kreider are going to help both special teams units. But did they do enough to threaten the Canucks in the standings? Last year proved that they’re taking steps in the right direction, but too many lateral moves likely keep them a step behind Vancouver next season.

Calgary Flames

Players in: Ivan Prosvetov (KHL)

Players out: Anthony Mantha (PIT), Dan Vladar (PHI)

It’s been an awfully quiet offseason for the Flames.

Calgary lost Vladar to free agency and replaced him with Prosvetov, who has spent the previous two seasons playing overseas. During his time in the NHL, however, Prosvetov holds an 8-9-2 record, with a 3.70 goals against average (GAA) and a .881 save percentage (S%).

Losing Anthony Mantha isn’t a huge loss necessarily, considering he only played 13 games with the Flames last season.

Impact on the Canucks

The Canucks outdid the Flames last season, finishing with a 2-1-1 record, but an even goal differential (13-13).

Calgary was expected to be a bottom-feeding team, yet they finished six points ahead of Vancouver, and one point shy of the final Wild Card spot in the West. Given they did not make any moves to improve the team this offseason, one could expect a similar ending. Or, if they don’t get outstanding goaltending again from rookie standout Dustin Wolf, they could regress to what many believed this team would be heading into last season as a team heading in the wrong direction and not pose as a threat to Vancouver’s playoff chances.

Edmonton Oilers

Players in: Andrew Mangiapane (WSH), Curtis Lazar (NJD), Isaac Howard (TBL)

Players out: Connor Brown (NJD), John Klingberg (SJS), Corey Perry (LAK), Sam O’Reilly (TBL), Viktor Arvidsson (BOS), Evander Kane (VAN)

The Oilers had quite the roster turnover this offseason. But that was to be expected with the cap crunch they were in.

Up front, they lost Kane and Arvidsson as cap casualties, only fetching a fourth- and fifth-round pick in return. They also lacked the cap space to retain Brown and Perry, who were key depth contributors this past season, which has been a significant challenge the Oilers have faced throughout the years.

Bringing in Mangiapane is a nice add, and Lazar will help defensively in the bottom-six. But now, they’re going to have to, again, rely heavily on the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to carry the offensive load. Adding the reigning Hobey Baker Award winner, Isaac Howard, as a cheap top-six replacement for Kane was a massive grab for the Oilers.

Impact on the Canucks

After sweeping the Oilers in 2023-2024, the Canucks struggled to a 1-2 record against their biggest rivals this season, and were outscored 15-8.

No matter what happens in an offseason, if you have McDavid and Draisaitl on your team, you’re going to be a perennial Stanley Cup contender. The biggest question is what’s their plan in net? Currently, they haven’t made any moves to improve the crease, but they’ve made the Cup Finals in back-to-back seasons with the tandem they have now. So don’t expect much to change in Edmonton; they remain one of the more formidable opponents for the Canucks moving forward.

Los Angeles Kings

Players in: Corey Perry (EDM), Joel Armia (MTL), Brian Dumolin (NJD), Cody Ceci (DAL), Anton Forsberg (OTT),

Players out: Vladislav Gavrikov (NYR), Tanner Jeannot (BOS), David Rittich (NYI), Jordan Spence (OTT)

Oh boy, the Kings stole the show in free agency…but for all the wrong reasons.

Los Angeles lost two defencemen, but quickly replaced them. However, the two they brought in are considerable downgrades to the ones they lost. Gavrikov was viewed as the best defenceman to hit the market, and Spence has a high offensive upside, but got squeezed out because of Drew Doughty and Brandt Clarke. Sure, Ceci and Dumoulin will help defensively, but at this point in their careers, the Kings have gotten older and slower on the backend.

Despite his older age of 40, Perry proved this past postseason that he can still contribute up and down your lineup. Armia is a strong defensive forward who, if paired with former teammate Philip Danault, will be one of the best shutdown defensive lines in hockey.

Their biggest win might be the fact they did not sign Jeannot. Not because he’s a bad player, but because they dodged the five-year, $3.4 million price tag that came with it.

Impact on the Canucks

The Canucks performed well against the Kings with a 2-1 record, despite losing the goal differential (8-9).

Heading into this postseason, the Kings were a popular pick to take down their first-round kryptonite, the Oilers. They finished second in the Pacific Division and took advantage of home ice, going up 2-0 early in the series before ultimately losing four straight. And, unfortunately for the Kings, that was likely their best chance to break through, especially after the moves they made this offseason.

On paper, the Kings got worse. Did they get worse enough for Vancouver to potentially take over that third spot in the Pacific Division? Up front, the Kings are better and deeper. But the massive steps back they took on their blueline certainly opened the door for the Canucks to earn more than a Wild Card spot next season.

San Jose Sharks

Players in: John Klingberg (EDM), Philipp Kurashev (CHI), Adam Gaudette (OTT), Dmitry Orlov (CAR), Alex Nedeljkovic, Ryan Reaves (TOR), Nick Leddy (STL)

Players out: Walker Duehr (WPG), Henry Thrun (TOR)

The Sharks might be one of the biggest winners to come out of the Pacific Division this offseason.

Sure, they didn’t make any big splashes to improve the team drastically, but they didn’t make massive mistakes that so many teams tend to make on July 1.

San Jose paid Klingberg and Orlov over $10 million on the market and brought in Leddy at another $4 million. However, they needed to spend up somewhere to hit the cap floor. They might not be needle movers, but considering what they had on their blueline last year, at least now they have some NHL talent on their blueline. And if they don’t work out, you ask? Well, Klingberg and Leddy are only on the books for one season and Orlov for two.

Even adding Kurashev and Gaudette are NHL-calibre players who can bring some offensive pop to their bottom-six, who come in at cheap deals.

Impact on the Canucks

The Canucks came out perfect against the Sharks last season, winning all four of their meetings, outscoring them 11-7.

The Sharks are clearly still in the middle of their rebuild, and project to have another high pick next season. The work that GM Mike Grier is doing in San Jose is impressive, and they’ll likely finish higher than dead last in the league in 2025-2026, but they aren’t close to being good enough to compete for the playoffs yet.

Seattle Kraken

Players in: Ryan Lindgren (COL), Matt Murray (TOR), Frederick Gaudreau (MIN), Joe Veleno (CHI), Mason Marchment (DAL)

Players out: Michael Eyssimont (BOS), Andre Burakovsky (CHI)

Even since joining the NHL in 2021, the Kraken seem to make the same moves every offseason.

They made big swings last summer by signing Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson, but their roster just consists of middle-six wingers through lines 1-4, and that’s no different this season.

The Kraken made a fantastic trade to take advantage of the cap-strapped Dallas Stars, bringing in Marchment for third- and fourth-round picks. Don’t get me wrong, Marchment is probably one of their better wingers, but he’d likely be categorized as yet another middle-six forward. Gaudreau was another cheap addition, costing just a fourth-round pick. But again, he probably slides in as your third or fourth line centre. None of these moves up front necessarily move the needle for what this team needs.

Lindgren will bolster the blueline, but he has taken a step back from his outstanding defensive performance in 2022-2023. Bringing in Lindgren is essentially a Will Borgen replacement – funny enough, he was traded to the New York Rangers as a Lindgren replacement. To which could be considered a downgrade.

Impact on the Canucks

The Canucks lost the season series to the Kraken with a 1-2-1 record and got pummeled in the goal differential category (11-19).

The moves the Kraken made this offseason made them a bit better up front, but as mentioned, nothing they did helped them get over the hump of being in the mushy middle. They will remain a thorn in the side of the Canucks, but will likely be closer to the Ducks’ range than the Canucks’ range.

Vegas Golden Knights

Players in: Mitch Marner (VGK), Jeremy Lauzon (NSH), Colton Sissons (NSH)

Players out: Tanner Pearson (WPG), Nicolas Hague (NSH), Nicolas Roy (TOR)

Okay, maybe we spoke too soon. The Golden Knights had the best offseason in the Pacific Division.

It starts and ends with them bringing in the biggest fish on the market by acquiring Marner from the Leafs with a sign-and-trade. They had to part with Nicolas Roy in the deal, which hurts, but they needed to clear the cap room somehow. The duo of Eichel and Marner is going to be one of the deadliest in the league next year.

The trade Vegas made with Nashville was a fantastic piece of work. Replacing Hague – who was due a healthy raise – with a heavy-hitting Lauzon, and bringing in Sissons to fill Roy’s spot down the middle for $2 million less than what Hague signed for, keeps their depth strong while helping make room to bring in Marner.

Their most significant loss is the news of Alex Pietrangelo. Reports have come out that he will miss the 2025-2026 campaign, with his career potentially over due to the various injuries he’s played through over the years. They are currently $7.6 million over the cap, but with his $8.8 million headed to LTIR, Vegas will be cap compliant come the start of the season.

Impact on the Canucks

The Canucks were swept 4-0 by the Golden Knights this past season and were outscored 13-5.

With the moves the Golden Knights made this offseason, Vegas remains Vancouver’s biggest challenge in the division. They will likely be the favourites to win the Pacific Division next season, and will be an even tougher matchup for the Canucks in 2025-2026.

What do you think, Canucks fans? How do you think the Canucks project for 2025-2026, given the moves from the rest of the Pacific Division this offseason?