Vancouver Canucks lines vs. Edmonton Oilers (Sept. 24, 2026)
After giving the Vancouver Canucks’ young prospects the first two games of the preseason on the road, head coach Manny Malhotra will finally put his veterans on the ice on Thursday night.
With the preseason shortened to four games and the new CBA restricting veterans to just two of those games, it’s not surprising that Malhotra would wait until now, especially with the Canucks’ third and fourth preseason games both on home ice in front of their fans.
Malhotra is itching to get going.
“Really excited,” said Malhotra. “Playing in front of our home crowd, getting down to close […] to an opening day lineup is exciting, and I think the players are excited just to get into game action. They’ve had enough of the camp skates and the summer skates and the drills. They want to get into some action here.”
There’s little time to get the players up to game speed. Opening night is just five days away.
“There’s a very clear understanding that there’s no dipping toes in this year,” said Malhotra. “You don’t have a long time to get yourself back to game shape or match that game intensity.
“So, my expectation is that the habits and the details that we’ve been harping on in camp are going to be on full display. We, as a staff, understand there’s going to be some hiccups; there’s going to be some sloppy plays, which is to be expected. But in terms of the effort and the tenacity with which we play, there’s no easing your way into things.”
Vancouver Canucks projected lines
With a hard practice schedule, Thursday’s morning skate was optional for the Canucks, but it was fully attended by all of the healthy players on the roster.
Here are the Canucks’ projected lines:
Jake DeBrusk – Elias Pettersson – Linus Karlsson
Liam Öhgren – Marco Rossi – Brock Boeser
Drew O’Connor – Filip Chytil – Jonathan Lekkerimäki
Paul Cotter – Braeden Cootes – Brendan Gallagher
Zeev Buium – Filip Hronek
Jamie Oleksiak – Luke Schenn
Guillaume Brisebois – Victor Mancini
Nikita Tolopilo
Chris Driedger
While these lines and pairings look a lot like what fans might expect on opening night, Malhotra recommended taking them with a grain of salt.
“I’m not married to any pairing or any line that we have right now,” said Malhotra. “We want to see the chemistry the guys are able to build on — through these next two games, especially — but we’ll let that play out in terms of who is working well together as we move on.”
Still, it seems like the Canucks’ top two lines are set, with Elias Pettersson centring Jake DeBrusk and Linus Karlsson on the first line and Marco Rossi centring Liam Öhgren and Brock Boeser on the second.
The third and fourth lines are where things get interesting, with Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Braeden Cootes looking to earn a spot in the opening-night lineup.
“We don’t need them to do anything extraordinary or outside the box,” said Malhotra of the two prospects. “We want to see their best game being put forward within our system and within our structure.
“That’s to say, if they come out and each have a hat trick, does that change our mindset? Probably not. We want them to display the habits and the game that is going to translate at the NHL level.”
The Canucks’ starting goaltender will be Nikita Tolopilo, with a chance that Chris Driedger, who is on a professional tryout (PTO) agreement, gets into the game partway through.
Edmonton Oilers projected lines
While the Canucks will dress an NHL lineup on Thursday night, the Oilers sent a much younger group to Vancouver.
Here are the Oilers’ projected lines via their website:
Isaac Howard – Owen Michaels – Quinn Hutson
Max Jones – Josh Samanski – Aku Räty
Eduards Tralmaks – Viljami Marjala – Seth Griffith
Connor Clattenburg – Rudolfs Berzkalns – David Lewandowski
Spencer Stastney – Ty Emberson
Riley Stillman – Tomas Cibulka
Atro Leppanen – Damien Carfagna
Tristan Jarry
Connor Ungar
While this isn’t a particularly strong Oilers lineup, they’ll be hungry to prove themselves, which can sometimes be enough in the preseason.
Aatu Räty’s older brother, Aku Räty, will be in the Oilers lineup, but the two brothers won’t get a chance to face each other. Aatu has played over 100 NHL games, so he is considered a veteran and is limited to two preseason games, which he has already played.
The Oilers’ starting goaltender is expected to be Tristan Jarry.