Canucks Hire Brett McLean, Scott Young As Assistant Coaches
The Vancouver Canucks are nearing the finalization of their coaching staff for the 2025-26 NHL season. The organization announced that it has hired Brett McLean and Scott Young as assistant coaches, and confirmed a report from a few days ago, indicating that Kevin Dean would also be joining the staff.
McLean earns his first stint back in the NHL since his time as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild from 2020 to 2023. He’s spent the last two years serving as the head coach for the AHL’s Iowa Wild, managing a 54-74-10-6 record in 144 games.
Young is the only one of the trio who’s not an outside hire. He’s spent the last three years as the organization’s Director of Player Personnel, after joining Rick Tocchet‘s staff during the 2022-23 campaign. Before his tenure in Vancouver, Young had served as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Director of Player Development, joining the team the year after Tocchet had departed in 2017.
Although the Canucks’ on-bench coaching staff is taking shape around Adam Foote, some non-bench coaches aren’t expected to return next season. According to Rob Williams of Daily Hive Vancouver, development coach Sergei Gonchar and video coach Dylan Crawford won’t be a part of Foote’s staff.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Gonchar join Tocchet’s staff with the Philadelphia Flyers in a similar role. The two have inconsistently coached together since the 2015-16 season in Pittsburgh, with Gonchar joining Tocchet upon his move to Vancouver in 2022-23.
Flyers Hire Yogi Svejkovský, Jay Varady As Assistant Coaches
June 5: The Flyers made Svejkovský’s hiring official while also naming Jay Varady as an assistant coach, per a club announcement. Varady, 47, had spent the last three seasons with the Red Wings as an assistant coach and survived their in-season coaching change, but now finds himself on the move. He spent the four seasons prior in the Coyotes organization, including three years as the head coach for AHL Tucson and one year as an assistant on the NHL bench, during which he worked under Tocchet.
June 4: The Flyers are bringing over Canucks assistant coach Jaroslav “Yogi” Svejkovský to join ex-Vancouver bench boss Rick Tocchet in Philadelphia, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK reports.
Svejkovský and Tocchet developed a “great relationship” during the duo’s three seasons together with the Canucks, Dhaliwal writes. While Vancouver didn’t grant permission for Svejkovský to interview elsewhere, it doesn’t appear they had much of a choice. Dhaliwal reports that Svejkovský had some form of an out clause in his contract to allow him to leave for Philly.
The former NHL right-winger had only spent one year behind the Canucks bench as an assistant with Tocchet. His prior two seasons with the NHL club saw him work as a skills coach, not working directly on Tocchet’s staff.
Svejkovský, 48, has been working in the Vancouver area since 2006, when he started as an assistant coach with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. The Czech native transitioned into a skills coach role with the junior club in 2014 before leaving altogether four years later. He resurfaced as a skills coach with the Canucks’ AHL affiliate in Abbotsford in 2021-22 before getting the call to join the NHL staff the following season.
His responsibilities in Vancouver included supervising the power play, a significant issue for the Flyers for the last four years. Their 15.0% success rate this season was third-worst in the league, ahead of only the Islanders (12.6%) and Ducks (11.8%). The Canucks’ 22.5% conversion rate with the man advantage was still close to average at 15th in the league but a marked improvement over what Philadelphia’s been able to produce in the past few years.
Svejkovský will be the first assistant named to Tocchet’s staff. None of Philadelphia’s three assistants under John Tortorella last year are returning to the club.
Canucks Set To Hire Kevin Dean As Assistant Coach, Update On Suter Contract Talks
- The Vancouver Canucks and new head coach Adam Foote continue to overhaul the coaching staff and are expected to hire Kevin Dean as an assistant coach, per Thomas Drance of The Athletic. Dean, a former assistant for the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins, is known for his ability to coach defense, something that Foote is clearly familiar with as well. With Vancouver having a host of young, talented defenders, it makes sense that they would go after Dean, who Drance notes was highly sought after this spring.
- While defensively responsible forwards like Yanni Gourde and Noah Cates are landing lucrative deals around the league, there appears to be no progress between the Canucks and pending free agent Pius Suter on a new contract, Drance reports. Suter, who recorded a career high 25 goals and 46 points this season, is perhaps best known for his strong defensive play, highlighted by receiving Selke Trophy votes for the first time in his career. Coming off his first 20-goal season, Suter now brings the kind of versatility that could make him one of the more sought-after names on the open market. While Vancouver has a little more than $12 million in cap space (per PuckPedia), they will likely have to cut that figure in half if they hope to retain Suter.
Vancouver Canucks Sign Derek Forbort To One-Year Deal
The Vancouver Canucks will have some added continuity to their defensive core next season. Vancouver announced they’ve re-signed defenseman Derek Forbort to a one-year, $2MM contract.
Forbort’s new deal won’t have any negative side effects on other defensemen on the roster, but it likely spells the end of Noah Juulsen‘s tenure in British Columbia. The Canucks now have seven defenseman signed through the 2025-26 season, including youngsters like Victor Mancini and Elias Pettersson.
He was as advertised for the Canucks this season. Injuries limited Forbort to 54 games played, yet he still scored two goals and 11 points, making for one of the better point-per-game metrics of his 10-year career. Despite the increased offensive (for his standards), Forbort missed the playoffs for the first time in five years.
Still, if the Canucks could make a move for another right-handed defenseman, Forbort represents a nice defensive option to place next to Tyler Myers in the bottom-pairing. He’s a like-sized blue liner who takes care of the puck in the defensive zone, as evidenced by his 46.4% CorsiFor% at even strength and 90.6% on-ice save percentage at even strength.
Unfortunately, retaining Forbort won’t help what plagued Vancouver this season. The Canucks boasted one of the top penalty kills, and had a respectable goals-against average, but their lethargic offense cost them dearly. Now that the defensive core is settled, the Canucks can spend the rest of the summer re-imagining their forward core.
Pagnotta: Demko Open To A Trade This Summer
The offseason has already started for 30 of the NHL’s 32 teams, and David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period believes the busiest teams from that group has been the Vancouver Canucks. In one matter in particular, Pagnotta reports that Canucks netminder Thatcher Demko is open to a change of scenery this summer.
It’s a stark contrast from Jim Rutherford‘s expressed desires at the end of the season. Rutherford bluntly said, “We would like to extend him.” Pagnotta’s report could indicate that Demko isn’t on the same page as the Canucks, is open to being traded if there isn’t an extension by the end of the offseason, or it’s just plain conjecture.
Canucks Aren't Drawing Much Interest From Free Agents
It could be a long summer for the Vancouver Canucks. After a disappointing 2024-25 campaign in which they fell short of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the team lost their head coach and could have a few key players leave via free agency. It seems they will struggle to find suitable replacements on the free agent market.
Earlier today, Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic passed along a note from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman articulating why top free agents don’t seem interested in joining the Canucks. Friedman points out that the internal rift between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller has steered players away in recent years, and captain Quinn Hughes‘ pending unrestricted free agency in a few years is the other reason.
Any top free-agent signing in Vancouver would undoubtedly want Hughes to be part of the team for the long term. He has proven to be one of the best defensemen in the NHL and would significantly enhance the competitiveness of any team. Unfortunately, the Canucks are unable to provide a definitive answer this summer, as they cannot negotiate an extension with Hughes for another year. Additionally, there has been no indication of whether Hughes is interested in extending his contract with Vancouver.
Offseason Checklist: Vancouver Canucks
The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those already eliminated through the first couple of rounds. Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Vancouver.
While there were some questions about the Canucks heading into the season despite a solid showing in 2023-24, this past season was a strange one. From struggles to injuries to in-fighting, the team never found its footing, missed the playoffs, and couldn’t come to terms with Rick Tocchet on a contract extension, leading to a coaching change with Adam Foote being promoted into the top job. Even with that item checked off, GM Patrik Allvin has some work to do in the coming months.
Add Impact Center
With the J.T. Miller situation coming to a head midseason, the Canucks were able to get a center back as part of the return in Filip Chytil. But with all due respect to Chytil, the two players are at considerably different levels. One has been a recent top liner, the other more of a middle-six piece with a concerning concussion history. If they were mapping out more of their ideal center situation, Chytil would probably head into next season as a third liner. They have Elias Pettersson locked up long-term (more on him shortly) but there’s still a need for a top-six middleman.
In terms of internal options, Aatu Raty should be a full-time NHL player soon but he’s more of a bottom-six option himself. Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger are capable bottom-six pieces but don’t produce enough to be a top-six piece. Pius Suter acquitted himself quite well this season and stepped into a bigger role, scoring 25 goals. However, he’s a pending unrestricted free agent and his market should be much stronger than it was two years ago when the Canucks got him on a low-cost deal that proved to be quite the bargain. Basically, there is no internal option beyond hoping Chytil can stay healthy and find a level he has yet to reach offensively.
Team president Jim Rutherford suggested earlier this month that the team might look to get the bulk of its spending done before free agency opens up. Accordingly, they may be intending on trying to acquire another middleman via a trade, a lofty goal considering few impact centers are typically made available. Unless the Canucks are looking to make another core-shaking swap, they may have some difficulty finding a fit in a trade.
The good news is that, at least for now, the UFA market down the middle is a bit deeper than usual. There are short-term options like John Tavares and Claude Giroux on expiring deals. Matt Duchene, Brock Nelson, Mikael Granlund, and Ryan Donato could plausibly command multi-year agreements though nothing overly long-term. Sam Bennett will land a lucrative long-term deal that probably won’t age the greatest but he’s out there too. It’s never easy to add a key center but the free agent route may make more sense for them to go here.
Examine Pettersson Options
Having just gone over how Vancouver already needs one top-six center, it feels a little counterintuitive to suggest they also need to look into their options with the one top-sixer they have in Pettersson. But after the way his season went, it feels like this is something they have to look into.
The 26-year-old signed an eight-year, $92.8MM contract in early March 2024, the first season of which is now in the books. At the time he signed the deal in 2024, he had 75 points in 62 games, a pace that would have given him a shot at a second straight 100-point season. After that point, he limped to the finish line with just 14 points in his final 20 outings.
Unfortunately for him and the Canucks, that proved to be a sign of things to come. This season was nothing short of disastrous. On the ice, Pettersson put up the lowest full-season point total of his career with only 15 goals and 30 assists in 64 games. Effectively, he was giving them second-line numbers while playing top-line minutes and making $11.6MM, making him one of the top-paid pivots in the NHL. And, of course, there was the off-ice issue of his feud with Miller that ultimately led to the veteran being moved away while the distraction seemed to linger all season long, even after the trade.
While Pettersson’s value is far from its peak (given the contract, it might be at its worst), Allvin will still likely look into what options might exist. As players who aren’t UFA-eligible aren’t eligible for trade protection, Pettersson still has another month and a bit without any sort of restrictions until July 1st at which point, a full no-move clause kicks in for the life of the contract. At that point, dealing Pettersson would become harder with his ability to veto deals, something that isn’t the case for the next five weeks and change. Getting them to retain significant salary is unlikely with seven years left on the contract but if there’s a big shakeup option out that would see them get an impact center back as part of the return, it would behoove them to look into it at the very least.
Replace Boeser
The last few months have been a little strange when it comes to winger Brock Boeser. He looked like a strong candidate to be moved before the trade deadline with Vancouver being out of the playoff picture and the two sides not close on an extension but a move never materialized. Allvin then took the rare step of admitting that the offers for the pending UFA were not particularly strong, a decision that some interpreted as trying to push back against a higher asking price from Boeser’s camp.
Then, at the end of the season when pending free agents generally at least say they’d like to return, Boeser stated that it was unlikely that would happen, suggesting he fully intends to hit the open market. While there’s still time for things to change on that front – Allvin suggested as much recently – that doesn’t seem likely to happen. Accordingly, this is an instance where the focus is likelier to shift to replacing the 28-year-old, not re-signing him.
Vancouver enters the offseason with around $16.7MM in cap space, per PuckPedia. With no impactful restricted free agents to deal with and a handful of roster spots to fill (including a spot or two on the back end), they have enough flexibility to make at least one addition of note. However, if their big add is down the middle, they might not be able to aim at a player in Boeser’s tier to replace him, one that’s likely to cost somewhere around the $8MM mark which might take Nikolaj Ehlers off the table.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Canucks are looking for someone more around the $5MM range, allowing them to spend a bit of money on those final spots on the back end. Options around that price point could include Kyle Palmieri, Jonathan Drouin, Patrick Kane, and former Canuck Andrei Kuzmenko. To be able to afford that top tier on the wing, they’d likely have to commit to re-signing Suter as their other center before getting to July 1st. Otherwise, who they bring in probably won’t be as good as the winger they’ll be losing.
Demko Extension Talks
This was a tough season for goaltender Thatcher Demko. His injury from the playoffs lingered, resulting in him missing the first two months of the season and getting a pretty light workload beyond that point as he made just 23 starts. The 29-year-old also posted a career-low .889 SV% while Kevin Lankinen, brought in early in training camp as insurance, wound up getting a five-year extension in-season, cementing him as part of the plans moving forward.
Demko is entering the final season of his contract next season and considering the year he just had, it would make sense for both sides to see how 2025-26 plays out or at least starts before entertaining the idea of an extension. However, Rutherford made a point of saying back in April (video link) that it’s something they intend to look into:
We would like to extend him. It’s going to be a matter of how much risk is the team willing to take and how much risk is he willing to take as to the term of that contract.
Going into this season, Demko’s contract looked like a team-friendly one. Signed at a $5MM price tag and coming off a year as a Vezina runner-up, it looked like he could be heading toward top-end territory. Based on recent comparables, that would push his AAV past the $8MM mark on a long-term deal. But with the uncertainty around his injury and the year he just had, Demko isn’t in a spot to command that.
While Rutherford expressed optimism that a different approach to training should help keep Demko healthy moving forward, this feels like a case where they’d likely prefer a shorter-term agreement. Speculatively, it wouldn’t be shocking if their target price point was around the current one, keeping their combined goalie spending around the $10MM mark. Unless Demko is worried about his struggles carrying over, it would be surprising to see something get done here but considering it’s a stated goal of the organization to work on this summer, it warrants the final spot on this list.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports.
Canucks Won't Sign Lucas Forsell
- Per a report from Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic, the Vancouver Canucks are content with letting 2021 seventh-round pick, Lucas Forsell, join a different organization this summer. Vancouver selected Forsell with the 201st overall pick of the 2021 NHL Draft, and he’s been playing SHL’s Färjestad BK since. Still, it’s unlikely Forsell will gain much traction once his contractual rights expire on June 1st, given he’s failed to score more than 10 points in any SHL season since being drafted.
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Canucks Agree To Terms With Anri Ravinskis On Entry-Level Contract
4:30 p.m.: According to PuckPedia, Ravinskis will make an NHL salary of $775K in each year of the deal, with a signing bonus of $97.5K, and an unspecified games-played bonus of $102K, bringing his cap hit to $872.5K and his AAV to $975K.
2:09 p.m.: The Canucks announced today they’ve agreed to terms with undrafted forward Anri Ravinskis on a two-year, entry-level contract starting in 2025-26. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Ravinskis, 22, just wrapped up representing his native Latvia at the World Championship. He registered a goal and an assist in all seven group stage games as the Latvians failed to qualify for the quarterfinals for the second year in a row after winning bronze in 2023.
A 6’3″, 201-lb winger, Ravinskis isn’t a stranger to North American hockey. He played U18-level hockey in the Toronto area in the 2019-20 season before returning home when COVID hit. He returned to play at the major junior level with the QMJHL’s Blainville-Boisbriand Armada in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns, recording a 29-25–54 scoring line in 98 games. He was also on the Latvian Division IA World Juniors team in 2022 that won promotion to the top-level WJC, where the country remains through at least 2026.
Since heading back to Europe following the conclusion of his junior career with Blainville-Boisbriand, he’s spent time in Finland in the HPK organization. After splitting the 2023-24 season between the junior level and the professional second-tier Mestis, he made his top-level Liiga debut this season and impressed with an 8-9–17 scoring line in 27 games. Over the last two seasons, he’s also scored 22 goals and 51 points in 68 games with Kettera, HPK’s Mestis affiliate.
Ravinskis was under contract for two more years with HPK. It’s unclear if his deal carries a European assignment clause that would force the Canucks to loan him back to HPK if he spends too much time in AHL Abbotsford without an NHL call-up. Regardless, it’s unlikely he’ll go straight from logging significant time in second-tier European professional hockey to even limited NHL minutes the following season.
Ravinskis will be a restricted free agent when his deal expires in the 2027 offseason. Vancouver will control his rights through the 2029-30 season.
Rutherford: Canucks May Spend Cap Space Before Free Agency
- The Canucks have $16.72MM in cap space to burn this summer and no notable free agents to retain outside of forwards Brock Boeser and Pius Suter, both of whom are unrestricted. The former appears set on testing the market despite Vancouver’s desire to talk extension, meaning Vancouver will have a decent amount of flexibility to improve their stagnant offense this offseason. Speaking on Canucks Central today, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford told Dan Riccio and Satiar Shah that “we’re going to be in the free agent market if we still have cap space at that time – but we may get our work done before then.” Reading between the tea leaves – expect some trade rumors from Vancouver this summer.