It’s the dog days of the summer, but the Vancouver Canucks have managed to stay in the news and rumours lately with their trades of Dakota Joshua to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Arturs Silovs to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, the focus is on what general manager (GM) Patrik Allvin will do with his newfound cap space. Is the signing of free-agent centre Jack Roslovic his next move? Or will he turn to the trade market? The 2025-26 schedule was also released for all 32 teams, and fans have some games to look forward to in the first few months of the season, including return dates to Rogers Arena for former Canucks J.T. Miller and Pius Suter before the end of October.
Canucks Trade Dakota Joshua to Maple Leafs
On Thursday (July 17), the Canucks traded Joshua to the Maple Leafs for a fourth-round pick in 2028, freeing up $3.25 million of cap space. According to PuckPedia, they now have $3.27 million to play with, which may or may not be used to end their long-rumoured search for a second-line centre.
Related: Grading the Maple Leafs’ Trade for Dakota Joshua From the Canucks
Joshua is coming off a down season in 2024-25, where he scored only seven goals and 14 points in 57 games. It took him a while to get going after dealing with a health scare in the offseason, where he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and got a tumour removed. He is healthy now and should be able to bounce back to the player that he was in 2023-24 when he scored a career-high 18 goals and 32 points in 63 games. His physicality and grit should fit well with the Maple Leafs and former head coach Craig Berube, who he briefly played for in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Will the Canucks Sign Jack Roslovic Now?
As for what the Canucks will do with the $3.27 million of freed-up money, they are reportedly in talks with Roslovic, who is one of the remaining bigger-name free agents on the market. He matched his career high in goals (22) with the Carolina Hurricanes last season and is still looking for a home after the initial frenzy on July 1. A lot of teams are rumoured to be interested in him, but it appears he either hasn’t found a fit or the offers haven’t been to his liking yet.
Teams, including the Canucks, might be hesitant to sign him to a deal longer than two years. He hasn’t been the most reliable forward in recent seasons, bouncing between the Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers, and Hurricanes all within the last three years. While he scored 22 goals last season, he hadn’t scored more than 11 before that since he set his career-high in 2021-22 with the Blue Jackets. Is he really the answer to the Canucks’ hole at centre, or would he just be another unknown added to the plethora they have at the position already? Allvin would probably be better off waiting and keeping his eye on the trade market instead.
Trade Market Is Thin For Centres, But a Few Possibilities Are Out There
If the Canucks want a true top-six centre, and not an unknown stop-gap measure in Roslovic, there are some possible trade targets out there. I’ve spoken about Marco Rossi in the past, so I won’t go too deep here, but he remains someone to watch for. Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin reportedly wants a roster player in return, and Allvin’s latest offer was rumoured to be rejected (from ‘Canucks talked trade for Minnesota Wild’s Marco Rossi,’ The Province, 6/19/25). There’s always a possibility for a return to the negotiating table, but I feel that ship has sailed.
Another target is 22-year-old restricted free agent (RFA) Mason McTavish. The Anaheim Ducks have yet to re-sign their budding star to an extension, and insiders have started to change their tune on the possibility of him getting traded. The thing is, the Canucks don’t have the assets to compete with other teams that have deeper farm systems and depth in young talent. Having said that, if Allvin can somehow work out a trade, he’s the perfect player to go after. He has a lot of Miller in him and could compete with Elias Pettersson for the top-line centre spot in the future – maybe even this season.
Moving away from the RFAs, Jean-Gabriel Pageau (New York Islanders) and JT Compher (Detroit Red Wings) have also been rumoured to be on the block. Both of them would bring a solid two-way game to the top-six, but like Roslovic, they aren’t high-impact players. Pageau hasn’t scored 20 goals since 2019-20, and Compher, while good for double-digits every season, hasn’t hit the 20-goal plateau in his career yet. He had 19 with the Red Wings in 2023-24, but fell back to 11 last season. Their cap hits are also a bit high, with Pageau earning $6 million AAV for just this season and Compher at $5.1 million for the next three. If I had to choose one, I would go with Pageau, considering he will be a free agent next offseason, and they could trade him at the deadline if things aren’t working out.
Canucks’ 2025-26 Schedule Released
Another piece of news that came out this past week was the release of the 2025-26 schedule. The Canucks will open their 55th season at home against the Calgary Flames on Oct. 9, exactly a year after the Flames came back from 4-1 down to win in overtime in the first game of the 2024-25 season.
Here are a few highlights from the schedule.
- Their longest homestand is eight games, happening twice: Jan. 17-31 and March 2-26.
- Their longest road trip is six games from Jan. 6-15.
- They have 14 back-to-backs, including three in each of November, December, and January, as well as two in October and April, and one in March. Good thing they have two starting goaltenders in Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen that can shoulder the load.
- Suter and Miller will both make their return to Rogers Arena in the first month of the season. Suter and the St. Louis Blues are first on Oct. 13, and Miller and the New York Rangers are next on Oct. 28.
- Other former Canucks with return dates on the schedule include Rick Tocchet (and potentially Noah Juulsen) and the Philadelphia Flyers on Dec. 30, Silovs and the Penguins on Jan. 25, and finally Joshua and the Maple Leafs on Jan. 31. They could also see Sammy Blais, who was a key piece of the Abbotsford Canucks’ Calder Cup roster, when the Montreal Canadiens come to town on Oct. 25.
