The Vancouver Canucks will be in the 2025-26 season in the hope of bouncing back from a campaign in which they fell from their Pacific Division Penthouse and the play-offs missed. After a relatively quiet low season where they have only added Evander Kane in the front and Pierre Olivier Joseph on defense, they will return to their core banks and return them to the status of the competition.
Related: 3 changes that the Canucks must make to return to the play -offs
As we get closer to the training camp, the preseason and finally open against the Calgary Flames, I will continue to set you for the 2025-26 season with the player Preview series, which started in the low season with Aatu Raty and recently Nils Hoglander. The next one on the Docket is Linus Karlsson, who played an important role in the Mars of Abbotsford Canucks to the Calder Cup and this season gets a big chance to become a full -time NHler.
Linus Karlsson
- Age: 25
- How acquired: Trade with the San Jose Sharks in 2019 for Jonathan Dahlen
- 2024-25 Statistics: 3 goals and 6 points in 23 games (Vancouver); 23 goals and 39 points in 32 games (regular season of Abbotsford); 14 goals and 26 points in 24 games (Abbotsford Calder Cup Playoffs)
- 2025-26 Contract status: Year one of a one -year contract with one -way law worth $ 775,000 average annual value (AAV)
2024-25 season Summary
Karlsson divided his time between Vancouver and Abbotsford last season and received a career-high 23 games in the NHL. He also scored his first three goals in the competition, on his first against Juuse Saros and the Nashville Predators on January 29, Finishing a nice feed from Tyler Myers At the lip of the fold. He usually played in the bottom six next to Teddy Blueger and Drew O’Connor (61:53 Ice Time) or Nils Aman and Jonathan Lekkerimaki (29:39 Ice Time). All in all, when he was in Vancouver, he was a utilities who showed flashes of offense, but nothing too special.
In the American Hockey League (AHL), however, Karlsson was a beast and often the best player of Abbotsford. He only played 32 games, but still set 23 goals and 39 points for an average of 1.21 point per game, making him almost 88 points on pace for a fully 72-game season. He now has 70 goals and 148 points in 164 AHL-Games-Allemem in Abbotsford-Waardoor he is the leading point-getter in the history of Abbotsford Canucks.
Karlsson then changed it to 11 in the Calder Cup play -offs and scored more than half of his regular seasonal goals in just 24 games. He broke a Swedish forward record With 14 goals, easily Andreas Johnsson and Mikael Andersson, who shared it with only 10. If he did not for the brilliant of Arturs Silovs, he would probably have walked away with the AHL MVP price. In fact, they should have split the honor, because without his consistent attack, Abbotsford would not have been Calder Cup champions for the first time in their history.
2025-26 Seasonal role and expectations
Karlsson will fight against Abbotsford teammates Arshdep Bains, Max Sasson, Nils Aman and Ty Mueller in training camp for a place in the opening night schedule. Even though he is hold a one -way contract For this season, that does not mean that he will not be placed remotely. Given that Bains, Aman and Kravtsov are also fighting to avoid that fate before the opener of October 9 against the Calgary Flames, he will have to show more of his AHL-himself instead of the average Bottom-Sixer that he was in the NHL last season. If he can, he adds much more two -way value than Aman and Bains (although you could probably also say the same thing about him), and it should be in the team.
If Karlsson makes a sufficient impression and one of the last places on the Roster protects, he could be a Breakout candidate this season. Although he has not yet solved the NHL puzzle when it comes to his attack, he has shown the progress every time he has been called to Vancouver. Former head coach Rick Tocchet even Compared it favorable with Tomas HolmstromOne of – if not the best – net front presence in the NHL history. That’s a lot of praise. Although we would not expect Karlsson to hit this ceiling this season, if he can show more of his Holmstrom side with the orca on his chest instead of Johnny Canuck, he could be a very valuable part of the Bottom-Six and second Power Play unit.
In short, at the age of 25 and with three solid AHL seasons under his belt, Karlsson is ready to take the next step in his development and it is expected that it is at least a full-time NHler in 2025-26, not the Jojo he was last season.
Final Station Spail
Karlsson has a very good chance of taking the last place on the fourth rule next to Blueger/Aatu Raty and O’Connor from training camp, line sizes that he has had in Abbotsford (Raty) or Vancouver (Blueger and O’Connor). Assuming he does that, and plays for most of the season, I project 10 goals and 20 points.
Other Canucks 2025-26 Player Previews
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