The Canucks appear to be taking a situational approach to learning how they want to defend.
Prior to the start of the 2025–26 NHL season, the Vancouver Canucks were considered one of the younger teams in the league with an average age of 27.7 (T-8th youngest). When you add their amount of career games played in the NHL, they appear even more inexperienced. Six of the players currently listed to their roster have played in less than 100 NHL games throughout their careers. With all this youth in their lineup, it’s safe to say the Canucks have been learning lots of lessons throughout the first 23 games of the season.
“When you’re thin with the injuries and you’ve got young guys, we want to teach when you think there’s got to be something sorted out,” Canucks Head Coach Adam Foote explained after Monday’s practice. “It just goes from day to day, or practice to practice. We just want to make sure that we had it clear where we were in, say, a certain situation on a climb, or, we were discussing when it’s passed to the point, or it’s climbed to the point, just to make sure that they’re real straight on it.”
One of the biggest lessons this young lineup has had to adjust to throughout the season is how to work the ice defensively. With more shutdown players like Teddy Blueger and Derek Forbort still out of the lineup, Vancouver has had to put much of the defensive load on Elias Pettersson. Players such as Aatu Räty and Max Sasson have had their looks, but aren’t getting the same defensive looks as the Canucks’ number-one center.
An indicator of Vancouver’s young players needing to tighten up defensively is the play of Lukas Reichel, who has spent virtually all of his time with the Canucks in the center position — one he’s not used to playing. Foote had noted last weekend that he sees Reichel as more of a winger at the moment, though part of that is due to his youth and inexperience on the defensive side of the ice.
“I’d say the defending part would probably be harder for him at this age, the strength, right? But as he gets older and gets stronger, the way he can skate and see the ice, and his hands, maybe that’ll change,” he had said at the time.
These lessons in defence extend past Reichel, however. With the Canucks at the bottom of the NHL in average goals allowed per game, the team’s defensive woes have been called into play. The outside critique is something Foote isn’t looking into — instead, he’s facing their play with questions of his own.
“Where are we defensively? We’ve got to close cycles, right? Probably, which the cycle is when a guy drops the corner, the next guy scoops it up. Are we there fast enough? Are we there identifying it? Are we there, able to close? What’s our technique?”
The nuances behind these situations are things that Foote believes comes with experience — not something that can be said outright.
“That really isn’t a structural thing. Some of it’s being young, some of it’s being young and maybe not strong. There’s a lot of different reasons, but it’s identifying it. Am I happy with our defence? Yeah, we allowed 12 scoring chances against [on Sunday]. That’s on 5-on-5. That’s not a lot. Four of them go in, they’re missed box-outs. Usually you pick those up quicker. But I don't want to over-analyze or talk about it, because that’s just where our young guys get another new game, and they’re doing great. I don’t want to bury a situation or overstep it. I want to teach how to have an advantage in that situation with the experience. And that’s what we try to do.”
In the NHL, youth can be viewed both positively and negatively. Foote is approaching his team’s inexperience in a positive light.
“Each player is different. Every team’s got a player that’s faster. Jamie Benn’s bigger than [Jason] Robertson. Robertson checks with his brain, his experience in his feet, where Benn will check with his physicality, just like Sherwood will check with his physicality,” he explained. “Everyone’s different. So we teach differently for different guys, but where we’re getting that is we’ve got to recognize getting into this sooner, to close sooner. Some of it’s just reps, some of it you have to go see live. Closing being weak on the cycle, or closing it fast has got nothing to do with structure. It’s got to do with what we’re discussing, and we’re going to keep on working with that part of it. There’s a ton of things, I don’t think I’m just positive, but there’s a ton of things I’m really happy about.”
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