When you heard Jake DeBrusk talk about his first season with the Vancouver Canucks, you may have forgotten that he led the team in goals with 28, a new career-high for the 28-year-old.
Instead of patting himself on the back for the flashy totals, DeBrusk talked about creating more chaos, anticipating better, and no longer “waiting around” in an effort to score with more consistency. DeBrusk has long been known as a streaky scorer, and that’s a label he seems eager to shed as he continues his career with the Canucks.
Where DeBrusk can improve is what he’s able to bring to a game when he’s not scoring. As he puts it: creating chaos. That’s sometimes hard to contextualize, and DeBrusk may be being a little too hard on himself, but it’s an admirable goal nonetheless.
So what are some appropriate goals and expectations for DeBrusk in 2025-26? Let’s examine this as we dive into another one of our player season previews here at CanucksArmy.
DeBrusk’s most common centre at 5v5 in 2024-25 was JT Miller. His most common linemate was Brock Boeser. Of course, JT Miller is no longer a Canuck, meaning DeBrusk will likely find himself on a line with Elias Pettersson or Filip Chytil (at least for now) when opening night comes around. In our recent examination of the Canucks’ projected lineup, we had DeBrusk on the second line with Filip Chytil and Conor Garland. DeBrusk found some late-season success with Chytil as his centre, and spent just over 170 minutes at 5v5 with Garland last season. That could certainly be a trio that works next season.
Recently, DeBrusk talked about Elias Pettersson, and how he has the utmost confidence in Pettersson bouncing back. But will they be linemates? While the Canucks are almost certainly going to try Evander Kane on Pettersson’s wing, DeBrusk is the obvious next man up on the depth chart if Kane and Pettersson don’t work well together. This is all to say: DeBrusk is going to get solid top-six usage again next season.
Exceeding expectations for Jake DeBrusk
Leading the Canucks in goalscoring again would be great, but doing it for a Canucks team that’s also able to make the playoffs would mean Jake DeBrusk has done more than his fair share of the lifting next season. It’s hard to quantify things like “causing chaos” and being more involved in the play, but obviously, it’s something we can all see. If DeBrusk sheds the title of “streaky scorer” once and for all — something he at least started to do last season — that would be another win. And if he can set a new career high in points by eclipsing 50? That would certainly fall into the exceeding expectations category.
Meeting expectations for Jake DeBrusk
It’s fair to expect DeBrusk to come close to matching last season’s totals. Throughout his career, DeBrusk has been steady at finishing in the 40-50 point range (even in the AHL!):
courtesy of hockeydb.com
Thus, meeting expectations is coming in somewhere around 24-28 goals, and at or under 50 points.
Below expectations for Jake DeBrusk
While nobody ever likes to hear what a bad year for a player looks like in the last couple of months before a season begins — when optimism is always high — it’s an important part of our season previews. For DeBrusk, coming in below expectations would be tallying under 20 goals and under 40 points. This would likely mean he’s also been bumped from the top six, has struggled to find consistency, and ultimately, that the Canucks are worse off because of it.
But it was a strong first season in Vancouver for DeBrusk, and there’s not much reason to believe he can’t continue to progress and put in another strong season for the Canucks in 2025-26.
