You will believe where experts predict the Canucks will finish this season
The Vancouver Canucks finished dead last in the NHL last season, and it wasn’t even close.
The Canucks finished 14 points back of the Chicago Blackhawks and had a minus-100 goal differential, 48 goals worse than the Blackhawks. If they were going to finish last in the league for the first time since 1972, they were going to do it with a vengeance.
So, what do the experts predict for the 2026-27 Canucks?
This won’t surprise you: nothing good.
The season previews from the experts and analytical models are almost universal in their predictions: the Canucks will once again finish last in the NHL.
| Publication/Model | Point Projection | Position in Pacific | Position in NHL | Playoff Odds | Stanley Cup Odds |
| The Hockey News | n/a | 8 | n/a | n/a | 1.1% |
| PlayNow Sports | 74.5 | 8 | 32 | 11.1% | 0.2% |
| The Athletic | 69.2 | 8 | 32 | 5.0% | 0.1% |
| Moneypuck | 77.3 | 8 | 32 | 8.7% | 0.2% |
| Evolving-Hockey | 71.1 | 8 | 32 | 1.3% | n/a |
| HockeyViz | 64.1 | 8 | 32 | 1.0% | n/a |
| Data Driven Hockey | 72.3 | 7 | 31 | 5.9% | 0.02% |
| HockeyStats | 74.0 | 8 | 32 | 2.0% | 0.0% |
This is great news for fans hoping to see the Canucks get the best odds at picking first overall in the 2027 NHL Draft, where defenceman Landon DuPoint is projected to be the top prospect.
All fans really want is a top pick and some progression from young players like Liam Öhgren, Zeev Buium, and Tom Willander. But it still might make for a long season.
The Hockey News predicts a last-place finish in the Pacific. Though they don’t provide point projections or league-wide predictions, it’s safe to say they’re bearish on the Canucks’ chances.
“It would take one of the biggest miracle seasons in hockey history for Vancouver to avoid the Pacific’s basement,” says Adam Proteau.
The sports gambling folks, who have a financial interest in being accurate with their predictions, are similarly down on the Canucks.
PlayNow Sports gives the Canucks fantastic odds …of finishing with the worst regular-season record. Their over/under for the Canucks’ point totals sits at 74.5.
The Athletic, using Dom Luszczyszyn’s model, gives the Canucks a 5 per cent chance to make the playoffs, but also notes, “Nobody is fooling themselves into thinking the Canucks are going to contend for a playoff spot this season.”
Longtime analytics site Moneypuck projects the highest point totals and chance to make the playoffs for the Canucks, but still predicts a last-place finish at 77.3 points.
The twin analysts behind Evolving-Hockey view the Pacific Division as the weakest in the league, but that will be no help to the Canucks, who are projected to finish in last place with 71.1 points.
“With veteran teams like EDM, VGK, and LA sitting at the top and very young, up-and-coming chaos looming below, I’m not sure there’s another division that will provide more entertainment than this one,” they add.
Micah Blake McCurdy, the mathematics PhD behind HockeyViz, provides some pretty wide error bars to accommodate the inherent unpredictability of hockey, but even with that in mind, the Canucks have little chance in his model.
In fact, the HockeyViz model projects the lowest point totals of any analyst at 64.1 points.
A couple of newer models threw their hats into the ring this year.
Data-Driven Hockey is the lone model to predict that the Canucks won’t finish last. Instead, they project that the Canucks will finish slightly ahead of their Pacific Division rival, the Calgary Flames.
Finally, there is HockeyStats, the site co-founded by popular hockey analyst on social media JFresh. Their model projects 74 points for the Canucks and, unsurprisingly, a last-place finish.