Jake DeBrusk is about to find out what a dead-last finish does to job security in Vancouver.
The Canucks limped through the 2025-26 season, going 25-49-8 for 58 points. That was good for 32nd overall in the NHL.
A minus-100 goal differential says everything. Vancouver was outscored 316-216, and no team in the league finished with a worse gap.
This summer, ownership wants the payroll down, and DeBrusk's $5.5 million cap hit puts him squarely in the crosshairs.
He is not some fading fourth-liner either. DeBrusk closed the year with 23 goals and 19 assists for 42 points across 81 games, playing a full slate on Vancouver's wing.
Look at his final stretch. Over his last 10 games, DeBrusk put up seven goals and eight points, and in his final five he scored four times.
That is a strange time to shop a winger. Teams do not usually pay full price for a player who just went cold, but DeBrusk did the opposite down the stretch.
Manny Malhotra's rebuild faces its first real test
New head coach Manny Malhotra took over on June 1, and he inherits a roster that finished with a minus-31 rating from its own trade candidate.
That number on DeBrusk is jarring for a 23-goal scorer. It tells you Vancouver's structure was broken, not just its record.
Trading DeBrusk clears the full $5.5 million against the cap. But it also strips away a guy who can still finish, and Malhotra needs scoring bodies more than ledger space.
Here is the tension nobody wants to say out loud. A team that just lost 49 games is trying to get cheaper before it tries to get better.
That is backwards, if you ask me. Cutting payroll on a rebuilding roster only works if the picks and prospects coming back are real, not just salary relief dressed up as strategy.
Vancouver picking DeBrusk to move is a bit like selling the one power tool that still works because the shed needs cleaning out. It solves a budget problem. It does not fix the shed.
DeBrusk is a proven finisher on a roster that scored the fewest goals of any bottom-feeder in the league relative to what it gave up.
Move him for the wrong price, and Malhotra opens his first full season with even less firepower on a team that was already minus-100.
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The Canucks have the summer to decide whether this is a real retool or just a number ownership wants to see shrink. Vancouver fans have seen this show before, and they know how it usually ends.
Should the Canucks trade Jake DeBrusk purely to cut payroll?
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