We’re less than a month out from the opening of Vancouver Canucks training camp in Penticton.

At the start of the first intentional rebuild Canada’s west coast has seen in a generation, Vancouver’s lineup projects to be overmatched on more nights than not when the NHL season begins. That much is obvious enough. From our vantage point, however, what’s more interesting is the question of how exactly new Canucks bench boss Manny Malhotra will deploy these players at the outset of this Vancouver rebuild.

Who is Vancouver’s first-line centre? Who will be paired with Filip Hronek? Which dark-horse candidates have a chance to earn a premium offensive opportunity to open next season? How will Vancouver go about insulating their young defencemen?

Let’s get into those questions at greater length by focusing in on five jobs that look to be up for grabs when camp opens on Sept. 17.

1. First-line centre

The favourite: Elias Pettersson
The contender: Marco Rossi

Are we quite sure Elias Pettersson is still going to be Vancouver’s first-line centre when the puck drops on the 2026-27 campaign? Because I’m not sure we should be.

Marco Rossi is among the NHL’s most underrated players, and provided a significant reminder of that last season once he returned to full health following the Olympic break. In the final 23 games of the year, while playing third-line minutes behind both Pettersson and Teddy Blueger, Rossi produced 20 points — a 71-point pace extrapolated over 82 games — and helped Vancouver get outscored by a lesser margin at five-on-five than in both Blueger and Pettersson’s five-on-five minutes.

At five-on-five, in those 23 games, Rossi scored four goals and paced Vancouver with nine total points. In contrast, Pettersson didn’t score a single five-on-five goal and managed just four assists (three of them secondary).

Rossi is, simply put, the more dynamic attacking threat of the two centres at the moment based on current form. Pettersson’s defensive game, however, is probably the superior of the two.

So what will Malhotra weigh more heavily in determining his lineup, and what role will the value management factor play in how the Canucks line up this fall? Pettersson has proven difficult enough to trade if he’s playing top-line minutes. If he’s playing behind Rossi, does that make it even more difficult?

2. Top-pair left defence

The favourite: Zeev Buium
The contender: Jamie Oleksiak
Dark horses: Elias Pettersson, Kirill Kudryavtsev

Who will Malhotra put on a pair with top-pair defenceman Filip Hronek when the season begins? It’s a critical question, especially in the wake of trading veteran blueliner Marcus Pettersson to the New York Rangers for a first-round pick many years into the future.

Last year, Hronek played a roughly equal number of minutes with all of Zeev Buium, Elias Pettersson (the defenceman) and Marcus Pettersson at five-on-five, and the truth of the matter is that the results strongly suggested Vancouver’s younger left-handed defensemen weren’t quite ready to face top-of-the-lineup competition at this stage of their NHL careers. In Hronek’s minutes with Marcus Pettersson, Vancouver actually outscored its opponents at five-on-five. In Hronek’s five-on-five minutes with both Buium and Elias Pettersson, Vancouver was outscored by a two-to-one margin.

Vancouver brought in unrestricted free agent Jamie Oleksiak this summer, who has a ton of experience as a matchup defender in a top-four role, though his minutes and the difficulty of his deployment slipped significantly last season in Seattle. He’s not the calibre of shutdown defender Marcus Pettersson is, but Oleksiak is a capable, veteran blueliner.

Given the inexperience of Vancouver’s blue-line options, however, will Malhotra really be willing to load up on his top pair and count on a pair of younger defencemen — whether it’s Buium or Elias Pettersson with Tom Willander — to pair up in top-four minutes on a second pair? Or will he feel the need to spread his experience out throughout the lineup at five-on-five as a means of insulating the developing youngsters in this lineup?

Assuming it’s the latter, there were some underlying signs of chemistry between Buium and Hronek that look intriguing. Though Vancouver was widely outscored in its shared minutes, the Canucks actually managed to out-attempt their opponents with Buium and Hronek on the ice as a pair. The sample is small and Vancouver trailed constantly throughout last season, but given how ghastly this team’s underlying profile was throughout last season, that Buium and Hronek actually seemed to hold their own territorially as a pair feels notable enough to warrant an extended look early in the year.

3. Second-line left wing

The favourite: Drew O’Connor
Contenders: Paul Cotter, Filip Chytil, Liam Öhgren
Dark horses: Adam Novotný, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Max Sasson

The Canucks lineup is short at least one (and arguably two) top-six-calibre players going into this season.

If we assume the club’s five-on-five ice time leaders at forward going into the season project to be Pettersson, Rossi, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk and Brendan Gallagher, however, then someone will need to fill out the final spot in Vancouver’s ostensible top six.

The favourite to open the season should probably be Drew O’Connor. While Linus Karlsson was more productive and dynamic than O’Connor at five-on-five last year, it’s notable that he exclusively played on the right wing, while Vancouver’s top-six vacancy would seem to be on the left side.

In any event, only Karlsson outproduced O’Connor at five-on-five among Canucks forwards last season (yes, remarkably, that is an accurate statistic). And given the club has every incentive to provide O’Connor with every opportunity to enhance his marketability ahead of the trade deadline, he should probably be entering camp as a reasonably heavy favourite to play top-six minutes.

There are other contenders on the roster, however. Filip Chytil got chances at wing before the Olympic break last season, new free-agent addition Paul Cotter would add significant speed to the Canucks’ top-six group, and youngster Liam Öhgren flashed a middle-six skill level in fits and spurts down the stretch of his first Canucks season.

Among the dark-horse candidates, Max Sasson emerged as a real rush scoring threat last season — he has developed a legitimately efficient breakaway move that reliably worked to beat goaltenders five-hole — and seems to be finding a higher level of NHL consistency as a full-time winger. Jonathan Lekkerimäki is probably the highest-upside option to win this job, but is unlikely to have addressed his strength and speed issues this offseason given his injury recovery.

First-round pick Adam Novotný, taken in 2026, is worth keeping an eye on at training camp as well. The burly, skilled winger has NHL-ready size and one-on-one skills, but still has some sharp edges in his game in need of sanding down.

4. Third-pair right defence

The favourite: Luke Schenn
Contenders: Victor Mancini, Kirill Kudryavtsev

When we last saw Luke Schenn in Vancouver, he was earning tongue-in-cheek Bobby Orr comparisons from Bruce Boudreau and faring exceptionally well on Quinn Hughes’ right side.

That was three years ago, however, and Schenn’s effectiveness appeared to be diminishing significantly last season. Over the course of his season in Winnipeg and Buffalo, Schenn saw his minutes drop precipitously and he was a regular healthy scratch for the Sabres in the playoffs.

Schenn will bring size and reliable professionalism to the lineup in a third-pair role, and it’s worth noting that he’s turned back the clock and defied the odds before over the course of his impressive NHL career, but his days as an NHL-calibre regular may be in the past. Opportunity knocks for one of Victor Mancini or Kirill Kudryavtsev to perform well at training camp and turn the right-side job on Vancouver’s third pair into a rotation, or to earn the spot outright over the course of next season.

5. Extra forward

The favourite: Ty Mueller
Contenders: Akil Thomas, MacKenzie MacEachern, Ilya Safonov, Arshdeep Bains
Dark horses: Braeden Cootes, Adam Novotný, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Trey Fix-Wolansky

The Canucks have 12 forwards on one-way contracts, and another entry-level player (Öhgren) who we can safely pencil into Vancouver’s opening-night lineup.

Now, Vancouver has top waiver priority, so perhaps the Canucks will acquire an additional forward piece before the season begins and alter this equation somewhat, but for the most part the forward lineup appears to be relatively set barring injury or a late-summer free agent addition.

Given the Canucks start the season on the road and go on a difficult six-game trip in mid-October, the club will likely carry a 13th forward on its 23-man roster to begin the year. And while Arshdeep Bains would seem to be the favourite given he’s on a one-way contract, in truth the club would probably prefer to expose that contract to waivers and get off of a fully guaranteed NHL salary (for a player who hasn’t earned a guaranteed NHL roster spot) if at all possible.

This is where the competition at training camp will really occur, as some of Vancouver’s younger players, AAAA journeymen and veteran hopefuls scrap for a chance to stay in the league and earn their shot in a depth role.

Matt Cullen knew the exact moment he stopped being his sons’ favorite player.

It was around the end of his two-decade NHL career, when he joined the Pittsburgh Penguins for the 2015-16 season.

“Until then, the boys would always wear my jersey,” Cullen said, laughing. “Then we got to Pittsburgh and they wanted a (Sidney) Crosby jersey. One wanted an (Evgeni) Malkin. I’m like, ‘I’m out now.’”

Brooks, Wyatt and Joey Cullen had very unique childhoods, growing up around NHL dressing rooms. Matt, 49, said his sons were at the right age during the Penguins’ 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cup runs to be part of the pre-scout video when he was at home. They did online school while at Pittsburgh’s practice facility.

“If any of them got in any trouble, the teacher would make them run a lap around the rink,” Matt said. “(Penguins coach) Mike Sullivan would say, ‘Oh, Joey is in trouble today, he’s taking a lap.’”

Now, Cullen will get more than a front-row seat in helping his boys chase their own NHL dreams — it’ll be a hands-on role. Cullen was named director of player development for the University of Minnesota hockey team this past summer, joining new coach Brett Larson’s staff.

All three of Cullen’s sons have committed to the Gophers, with Wyatt and Brooks incoming freshmen this fall, and Joey, the youngest and a top prospect for the 2028 NHL Draft, to join after some time at the United States National Development Program.

It feels like a full-circle moment for Matt, whose father, Terry, coached him and his two brothers growing up in Moorhead, Minn. That experience helped shape how Matt navigated his own path with his boys.

“We grew up in a hockey house,” Cullen told me on a recent episode of the “Fellowship of the Rink” podcast. “My dad loved the game, teaching the game. We talked hockey a lot, had a backyard rink. Growing up in the background and the kids growing up in NHL locker rooms and being around playoff runs and watching everything I was doing and studying my teammates and living or dying with every season with every team I was on, they had some unique experiences.

“I was always happy they loved the game because that was all I could teach. They love the game, they love talking and watching hockey. It reminds me of my childhood, watching the boys grow up together and train together in the summer like I did with my brothers. The game has been great to us — I love being part of it with them.”

Cullen played 21 NHL seasons with eight teams, including his hometown Minnesota Wild. He won the Stanley Cup three times: twice with Pittsburgh and once, in 2006, with the Carolina Hurricanes. He’s been busy since his retirement, spending seven seasons as a development coach with the Penguins (and learning from different management groups) and then having a stint as an assistant coach at his old high school, Moorhead.

When Larson took over for Bob Motzko at Minnesota in March, he reached out to Cullen to see if he’d be part of his staff in some capacity. Cullen knew Larson from their connection at St. Cloud State, where Cullen played and Larson coached. Larson recruited Cullen’s sons Brooks and Wyatt, so he knows the family well.

Cullen said he first wanted to make sure it was okay for his boys if he was so active in the program, and they were “100 percent” behind it. And the role seemed like a great mix of what Cullen enjoys: one-on-one coaching and teaching with players, from on ice to in the video room.

“I’ve had a lot of different experiences since I retired, from coaching and managing and sitting in the player development group with the Penguins,” Cullen said. “So when this came up, it gave me the opportunity to use all the experiences I’ve had in the game, through playing and the other side of coaching. It gives me a breadth of experience to share with the guys. They’re all on a path, all want to make the NHL and maximize their time at the U and win a national championship. All these things are exciting to me.”

Cullen experienced a bucket-list moment in June when Wyatt heard his name called at the 2026 NHL Draft, getting picked No. 10 by the Nashville Predators. It brought Cullen back to his draft day 30 years ago, in 1996, when he was taken in the second round by Anaheim in a packed arena in St. Louis. Wyatt didn’t have to wait nearly as long to get picked, and that it was by one of Cullen’s former teams made it extra sweet.

“It was really cool,” Cullen said. “It was a lot bigger than I expected. It hits you pretty quickly — all of a sudden you’re in Buffalo. You go through that and it gives you an appreciation for how much goes into it. As a parent you see your kid go through a lot of ups and downs, and for Wyatt there’s been a lot of struggles the past couple years, being his first year playing against USHL competition as a 5-foot-8, 140-pound kid … You get to see everything they do behind the scenes.”

The Cullen family joined Wyatt, right, at the 2026 NHL Draft, where he was selected by the Nashville Predators. (Courtesy of Matt Cullen)

When asked about the strategy on recruiting son Joey, Cullen laughed: “Does he want dinner?”

Cullen said he gave his son some space when it came to choosing his own path, but his overall message to Joey is what he would tell any incoming recruit about coming to Minnesota.

“We talk about what we have and what we have planned from a development standpoint,” Cullen said. “What we’re trying to implement in Minnesota. We’re trying to make this as close to the NHL as you can make it at the college level. Yes, there are elements of school and guys take that seriously, but the rest of the time we’re trying to develop you into NHL players. Every player that comes to Minnesota, that’s their goal. My biggest job is to make sure the guys know they’ll get everything they need to go as far as they want to go. That’s the sell.”

The Gophers, just three years removed from losing in the national title game in overtime, are coming off a down season in which they went 11-22-3 and missed the NCAA tournament. That led to the departure of their long-time coach in Motzko. The program hasn’t won a national title since 2002.

While blue-blood programs like Minnesota in the past might have bet on most of the best players from their state coming there based on their reputation, the landscape is changing in the NCAA, especially with the transfer portal, NIL and eligibility of CHL players. Cullen said the NIL is a “whole other element,” and it’s “honestly like managing an NHL team — you have a little bit of a salary cap you’re working with and you have to be intelligent about how you go about it.”

Cullen knows the Gophers must adjust their recruiting philosophy if they want to reach that elite level.

“You have to,” Cullen said. “That’s one of Larson’s directives, is we have to do more. We want to be more active all over. The hockey world is more competitive now for players than it’s ever been. It starts at the junior hockey level. There are options for kids. It’s a great time to be a player because there are a lot of options.

“To compete at the college level now, teams are everywhere — they’re in Canada, they’re in Europe, they’re in Minnesota. For us to continue to be successful and take the next step, we have to be really active and I think that’s one thing Larson has really pushed. We have to put in a lot of work to get players. Probably years ago, when I was coming through, it was assumed you’d get the Minnesota kids. We have to put in the work to get them.”