VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Canucks’ winter of upheaval threatened to seep into summer when the National Hockey League team announced on April 29 that former coach of the year Rick Tocchet had chosen to leave the organization.

If even Tocchet didn’t want to stay with the Canucks, why would anyone else?

Free agency loomed menacingly with long-tenured goal scorer Brock Boeser expected to lead others out the door. The glaring hole at centre ice left by January’s trade of J.T. Miller was exacerbated by uncertainty and uneasiness over the likelihood of Elias Pettersson returning to form and Filip Chytil returning to health.

And there was growing angst about the Vancouver future of superstar Quinn Hughes and other key players with contracts coming due in the next year or two.

But a little more than two months later, the vibe around the Canucks has improved immensely. 

The organization has built what appears to be a solid coaching staff around Tocchet’s replacement, Adam Foote, who has focused his early weeks on bringing his leadership group together. Pettersson has apparently bought in.

Boeser did re-sign, and Conor Garland and Thatcher Demko eagerly agreed to extensions a year in advance — an indication of how much Canucks players still believe in the team.

General manager Patrik Allvin even managed to pump up his forwards group by adding winger Evander Kane, albeit with some baggage, from the Edmonton Oilers in a cap dump.

No one is predicting a Stanley Cup or another 109-point year for the Canucks next season. But as the NHL’s summer lull approaches, there is far more positivity and possibility around the team than just a couple of months ago.

Jake DeBrusk-Elias Pettersson-Brock Boeser

Evander Kane-Filip Chytil-Kiefer Sherwood

Dakota Joshua-Aatu Raty-Conor Garland

Drew O’Connor-Teddy Blueger-Nils Hoglander

Quinn Hughes-Filip Hronek

Marcus Pettersson-Tyler Myers

Derek Forbort-Elias Pettersson (Junior)

Total forward cap hit: $52.46 million

Total defencemen cap hit: $27.21 million

Total goalie cap hit: $9.5 million

Cap space remaining: $845,000

What’s left to do this summer

Be patient and keep looking for centre depth

Two summers ago, the Canucks didn’t sign Pius Suter until August when the free agent’s price had dropped by half. With 25 goals and 46 points last season in exchange for a $1.6-million salary, Suter became a reclamation success story in Vancouver. The centre was so good he was impossible to retain in free agency after the Canucks recommitted to Boeser for seven years and $50.75 million.

Even before Suter signed in St. Louis, the Canucks were pounding the trade market for a top-six centre. With Pettersson trying to rebound from an alarming 45-point season, and Chytil coming back from another concussion, the Canucks are operating without a safety net down the middle. As team president Jim Rutherford told reporters at his year-end press conference, acquiring a centre would be difficult and expensive. But not acquiring one would also be costly.

Explore cap-space creation

If the Canucks are to add a significant centre — or any other impactful player — they will have to create cap space. The two most likely candidates to be moved for spending room are winger Dakota Joshua (three more years at $3.25 million) and centre Teddy Blueger (one year at $1.8 million).

Besides the cap implications, Vancouver needs roster spots so minor-league prospects like Aatu Raty, Max Sasson, Linus Karlsson, Arshdeep Bains, Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Victor Mancini can compete in good faith for NHL employment next fall after helping the Abbotsford Canucks win the Calder Cup in June.

But the Canucks better be awfully careful with both Joshua and Blueger. Joshua was an emerging power forward who scored 18 goals in 63 games in 2023-24 before he missed the start of last season due to testicular cancer. And Blueger is a popular teammate and dependable checking centre who was first out on every penalty kill last season for a team that finished third in that department.

What is the market for Arturs Silovs?

You couldn’t help but feel good for the Canucks’ third-string goalie, who quickly played his way back to the American Hockey League with a disastrous start to the NHL season in Vancouver (2-6-1, .861 save percentage) but rebuilt his game in the minors and led Abbotsford to its first championship. Silovs, a hero in Vancouver’s 2024 playoff run, was named the AHL’s playoff MVP with 16 wins and a .931 save rate.

But Silovs’ impressive run was quickly followed by the Canucks re-signing of Demko to a three-year extension that starts in 2026. The organization doubled down on plans for a Demko-Kevin Lankinen tandem that should be one of the best in the NHL next season. At age 24, Silovs is no longer waiver exempt, which is why the Canucks must try to get something for him rather than lose the Latvian for nothing. Clearly, Silovs remains a legitimate NHL prospect, but his time with the Canucks may be up.

The Canucks not only have a new head coach in Foote, but a largely rebuilt coaching staff with respected, longtime NHL assistant Kevin Dean, Minnesota Wild minor-league coach Brett McLean, and veteran player-personnel director Scott Young joining the staff. That’s a lot of experience, which is good because Foote himself has very little beyond the last 2 ½ seasons as the top assistant in Vancouver. But there is a pile of game-planning, systems refinement, and role-defining to do, in addition to the unglamorous logistical work of preparing for training camp and an 82-game season.

Grading the off-season: B

We considered docking management one letter grade for allowing Tocchet to leave against their wishes, essentially as a free agent, but we like the promotion of Foote and its potential impact on continuity, trust and player relationships. 

Re-signing Boeser as free agency opened felt like a lottery win, and adding an ornery 25-goal scorer in Kane, who should be extremely motivated to earn another contract after next season, boosts the top six. The sensible extensions for Demko (three years at $8.5 million) and Garland (six years at $6 million) were encouraging, as was the Calder Cup run in which several of the organization’s top prospects sparkled.

The Canucks even had a positive entry draft, actually using picks in the first three rounds and selecting two-way centre Braeden Cootes with their top choice at No. 15.

Losing Suter could hurt more than people expect, and management’s main blemish to this point is that Rutherford’s wishful end-of-season pledge to acquire a top-six centre in a trade has not been executed, nor does it seem likely to be given the Canucks’ cap situation, the NHL’s economic revolution with escalating payrolls, and league premiums at the position.