Canucks Live: Kraken and Bruins come to town as Canucks deal with injuries, trade rumours and power failures

Welcome to Canucks Live. Here we’ll highlight some of the news that drops daily about the Canucks. Come back throughout the day as we update with all the news you need to know. If you haven’t done so already, sign up for our Canucks Report to get our stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Things may be starting to feel normal as the holiday season bleeds into a weekend before the long, depressing climb to spring starts next week. In the meantime the Canucks host the Seattle Kraken tonight and the Boston Bruins tomorrow at Rogers Arena as they begin their depressing climb to spring and early tee times.

On the good news front, at least for him, Kevin Lankinen has been named to Finland’s Olympic squad, so at least you’ll have something to cheer for when the games start next month in Italy.

Ahead of today’s announcement of Lankinen making the team, Steve Ewen spoke to him about what it would mean to him to be part of the games.

“Yeah, of course. It’s a big goal of mine this year,” Lankinen, 30, said with a grin when asked about his excitement level regarding the pending roster declaration.
Lankinen signed a five-year deal with a cap hit of $4.5 million last February. Fellow netminder Thatcher Demko, 30, inked a three-year extension with a cap hit of $8.5 million that kicks in next season. He’s currently in the final year of a five-year contract with a $5 million cap hit.
That’s got them slated to work in tandem for an extended period.

“We’re good buddies and we chat a lot,” Lankinen said of Demko. “He’s got some really good elements in his game that I can mimic and integrate into my game. It’s working really well.” 

At the start of the year it would have been reasonable to suggest both Canucks goalies would be at the Olympics. But whether it is just pure competition or a lack of reliability due to his horrid injury history, Demko won’t be going.

The last time Demko represented Team USA was at the IIHF World Championship in 2019, in which he won both of his games and posted a 2.00 GAA and .920 save percentage. He was also named to the U.S. U20 roster twice, playing in four games in 2015 and putting up a 1.74 GAA and .934 save percentage.

With Demko not on the Team USA roster, their goaltending cabinet will instead feature Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman. The Team USA roster has been highly contested as of late, as many were surprised that Rangers defenceman Adam Fox did not make the lineup. Many were also shocked that former Canucks forward J.T. Miller made the team in place of players like Jason Robertson and Cole Caufield.

This will also be former Canucks captain Quinn Hughes’ first time representing the U.S. since 2019, when he played in both the IIHF World Junior Championship and World Championship. Hughes was named to Team USA’s 4 Nations Faceoff roster, but ultimately did not play due to injury.  

It’s quite shocking that Demko, who is truly an elite goalie, hasn’t been on a U.S. roster for seven years. That’s so telling of his bad luck with injuries. Also notable that a team littered with Americans has no representation at the Olympics.

If you are going to Rogers for either of the games over the weekend, you won’t see Marco Rossi or Conor Garland as they’re both out at least a week with injuries.

If you missed Patrick Johnston’s column on the state of the Canucks while you were wrapped up with New Year revelry, you should check it out as it’s a great gauge setter for where this team is right now.

It was not a year where you could say the ship was pointed in a direction anyone wanted.

And the cherry on top was Bo Horvat being named, correctly, to Team Canada on Wednesday.

There will be at least three ex-Canucks (Horvat, Miller, Hughes) playing prominent roles at the Olympics, and none of them necessarily had to leave.

A different historic course, both in the years leading up to a failed contract negotiation, as well as in the final months of his ultimate departure, could have changed the course for Horvat.

There once was a dream to somehow have all three of Horvat, Miller and Elias Pettersson in the same stable. It would have been hard, but given all that happened this year, you can’t help but ponder what might have been.
Vancouver finishes the year with ownership having jacked ticket prices again and the team having won only four games out of 17 at home this season.

Four.

They have not been this bad at home through Christmas since the mid-1980s, before Pat Quinn showed up to fix, well, everything. In those days, the Canucks were drawing flies to the Pacific Coliseum. Today, somehow, they have still got people willing to show up and spend $20 on a beer and then watch a team that seems bound to lose.

With trades still being central to Canucks conversation the rumours will continue to fly around Kiefer Sherwood and Evander Kane at minimum. Those two restricted free agents are expected to be shipped out to someone looking for physical playoff pieces. In the meantime, the Athletic has done a fun piece looking at buyer’s remorse, flimsily linked to holiday spending, but looks at players that GMs may be regretting sinking a cost into, and yes of course there’s Canucks content.

Evander Kane, Canucks
On some level, bringing in a hometown veteran in the twilight of his career makes a certain amount of sense, even if the $5.1 million cap hit was always going to represent a gamble. Unfortunately, Kane hasn’t been worth the price, with just six goals on the season. But the bigger problem is that the plan has clearly changed in Vancouver, where the focus has shifted to the future. Kane is a pending UFA, so if they can flip him for decent assets between now and March, maybe it all washes out in the end. That might be easier said than done, though.

Nicolas Roy, Maple Leafs
Matias Maccelli, Maple Leafs
Dakota Joshua, Maple Leafs
We’ll group these three, because fairly or unfairly, they can be viewed as the Leafs’ attempt to spread Mitch Marner’s cap hit into a deeper roster while recreating at least part of the departed star in the aggregate. The three forwards account for a total cap hit of almost $9.7 million while accumulating a total of 37 points. Roy and the now-injured Joshua at least bring some defensive upside, but it’s fair to say that Brad Treliving’s off-season spending hasn’t exactly yielded any home run swings. 

In case you weren’t aware with all the holiday confusion, it’s Friday, that means it’s NHL Power Rankings day. Let’s see if anyone has any foresight beyond putting the Canucks last.

ESPN adds a factoid of each team’s most intriguing January game to their rankings this week.

32. Vancouver Canucks
Previous ranking: 32
Points percentage: 44.9

Jan. 3 versus the Bruins: Hey, it’s the 15-year anniversary of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final between the Canucks and Bruins. Neither team appears too likely to return to that stage here in 2026, but it’s fun to reminisce.

Next seven days: vs. SEA (Jan. 2), vs. BOS (Jan. 3), @ BUF (Jan. 6), @ DET (Jan. 8) 

Sportsnet are much more charitable, maybe it’s the rights-holder thing, putting the Canucks at 30th, ahead of the Blackhawks and Jets.

30. Vancouver Canucks (16-20-3): Hey, if you’re going to trade a captain with major NHL hardware on his shelf, it’s always nice to land a return package that offers hope for the future. At least 2026 — unlike ’24 and ’25 — won’t be defined by endless speculation about serious stars moving on from the team.  

CBS Sports has the Canucks at the same mark.

30. Canucks. Demolition After years of holding onto a team that was competitive but not a true contender, it’s time for the Canucks to burn it all down. Find young stars to put alongside Zeev Buium and Marco Rossi and build a new foundation. 

Check back for more Canucks news throughout the day …