Latest Report On Canucks Winger Jake DeBrusk Indicates He's Unlikely To Ask For Trade Request

A report by Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman indicates that it’s unlikely that Vancouver Canucks forward Jake DeBrusk will ask for a trade request. 

On Thursday’s episode of Friedman and fellow Sportsnet host Kyle Bukauskas’s podcast, 32 Thoughts, the insider gave a report on DeBrusk’s mindset as a member of a rebuilding Vancouver team. Many have pointed fingers at how DeBrusk doesn’t quite fit the Canucks’ timeline, and that his game may be better-suited to a team looking to contend sooner rather than later. That’s a point that Friedman highlights when explaining why it is that DeBrusk may not ask for a trade. 

“I don’t think anyone here is being immature or rude or trying to throw darts at anyone to say it hasn’t worked out the way anyone has expected,” said Friedman. “It hasn’t worked out for DeBrusk, and it hasn’t worked out for the Canucks. I just think DeBrusk, after what he went through in Boston, he doesn’t want to do that again. He wants to put on the best public face he can; he wants to help the Canucks the best way he can.” 

Notably, DeBrusk put in a trade request back during his time with the Boston Bruins. While he did catch some heat for the decision, he ultimately played out his time with the Bruins before signing with Vancouver as afree-agent during the 2024 off-season. 

“He went through a really hard situation in Boston where he asked out, and it’s the same thing that kind of Larkin went through this year,” he said. “A lot of these guys, when they ask for trades, they want it to stay private. Instead, they get really annoying people [...] who report this stuff, and it really turns their lives upside down.

“I think everybody understands that if there was another opportunity or there was somewhere for him to go, I think he would welcome it and I think the Canucks would do it,” Friedman continued. “But I think it’s really important for DeBrusk that this is handled in a certain way. There was a rumour going around last year at the Olympics that he’d asked for a trade, and that wasn’t true. I just think that after what he went through in Boston where he asked for the trade, he’s like, ‘I don’t want to go through that again, and whatever happens here, I want it to happen properly and with nobody thinking that I’m bailing on the team’ — because these guys, they do worry about stuff like that.”

DeBrusk currently has three goals and five assists in 12 games played with the Canucks through the start of the 2026–27 season. Vancouver has only won three of their past 14 to start the year. 

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