As the preseason rolls on and we get closer and closer to opening night against the Calgary Flames, I will continue to get you set for the 2025-26 season with the Vancouver Canucks player preview series, which got started early in the offseason with Aatu Raty and recently featured Filip Chytil. Next on the docket is someone who impressed in the Canucks’ first preseason game against the Seattle Kraken, Victor Mancini.
Victor Mancini
- Age: 23
- Drafted: Round 5, 159th overall by the New York Rangers in 2022
- How Acquired: Trade with the Rangers on Jan. 31, 2025
- 2024-25 Stats: NHL: 2 goals and 8 points in 31 games; American Hockey League (AHL): 4 goals and 13 points in 30 games
- Career Stats: NHL: 2 goals and 8 points in 31 games; AHL: 4 goals and 16 points in 37 games
- 2025-26 Contract Status: Year two of a two-year entry-level contract (ELC) worth $870,000 average annual value (AAV)
2024-25 Season Recap
Before being acquired by the Canucks at the end of January in the trade that sent J.T. Miller back to the Big Apple, Mancini bounced between the AHL and NHL. A product of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, where he spent three years and tallied four goals and 23 points in 110 games, he made his NHL debut on Oct. 9, 2024, after making the Rangers’ opening night roster. He played the first nine games of the season before being sent back to the Hartford WolfPack, and then got sporadic call-ups over the next few months. He played his last game in a Rangers uniform on Dec. 14 against the Los Angeles Kings, spending the next 22 games in the AHL before he was traded to Vancouver.
Mancini was immediately sent to the Abbotsford Canucks after the trade, where he got into five games before getting called back up to the NHL. He made his debut on the road in Utah and played 13:56 in a 2-1 loss to the Hockey Club. The Canucks kept him in the rotation for the rest of the season, as he impressed with his skating, physicality and hockey IQ. He finished with a goal and three points, along with a minus-6 in the plus/minus column.
Related: Canucks News & Rumours: Prospect Deals, Chytil’s Health & Kane’s Mission
After Vancouver’s regular season ended, Mancini was sent back to the AHL to help Abbotsford in their run to the Calder Cup Final. He played a top-four role, logging heavy minutes in all situations, and became one of their most important blueliners. By the end of the playoffs, he had three goals and eight points in 24 games and a Calder Cup on his resume.
2025-26 Season Role/Expectations
Heading into training camp and the preseason, all eyes were on youngsters Elias Pettersson and Tom Willander for the final spots on the blue line. For some reason, Mancini became a bit of a forgotten man in that battle. That’s no longer the case. He is firmly in the conversation now, maybe even the frontrunner, following his performance in the Canucks’ first preseason game against the Kraken. While his team lost 5-3, he was arguably their best defenceman, leading all blueliners in ice time with 23:21, well above his partner Pettersson, who logged 21:52. He was all over the ice, showcasing his skating and physicality, stepping up to demolish Berkly Catton early in the game, and then scoring a power-play goal to tie it at one off a deft pass from Braeden Cootes.
Mancini has a leg up on his competition, being a right-hand shot, and the fact that he’s a bit more offensively inclined than Pettersson and Joseph. Willander is a rookie and hasn’t particularly stood out yet, so, at this point, he has pulled ahead in the race for one of the remaining spots, either next to Derek Forbort or as the seventh defenceman. If he does end up making the team, he will be expected to continue building on the potential he’s shown so far as a physical, two-way defender capable of pushing the play up the ice.
Mancini might not have been the centrepiece of the Miller trade, but with every game he’s played, he’s showing why the Canucks wanted him in the deal. He has the ceiling of a top-four defenceman that can play in all situations and put up a decent amount of points. He does have to work on his defensive game, but that will come with time and teaching.
In terms of this season, if Mancini continues to build on his first preseason game, he will make the team alongside Forbort for opening night against the Flames. If that happens, he will spend most of the season in Vancouver and put up a modest three goals and 15 points.
Quotables From Training Camp/Preseason
“My goal is to make the team, but again, that falls on me. First of all, I gotta go out and do all the right things. I want to be able to contribute each and every single day. I want to be able to play for my teammates. I want to be able to do the right things and help this organization in any way I can,” – Mancini during training camp.
“It was a good start for me in the pre-season…I can work on my game and develop more as the season goes on. I know the base, defending hard and moving my feet, will be the foundation. I want to show my confidence with the puck” – Mancini after the Canucks’ loss to the Kraken (from ‘Kraken 5, Canucks 3: Towering goalie Nikita Tolopilo measured up, Ty Young didn’t,’ The Province, 9/21/25).
“He’s powerful and came into camp in good shape. And when he got his goal, the juice got going and we have to calm some things down in the neutral zone,” – Head coach Adam Foote after Mancini’s performance on Sunday.
Other Canucks 2025-26 Player Previews
- Aatu Raty
- Kiefer Sherwood
- Vitali Kravtsov
- Nils Hoglander
- Linus Karlsson
- Teddy Blueger
- Drew O’Connor
- Conor Garland
- Filip Chytil
