Vancouver and Calgary meet in a Sept. 22 preseason game in Calgary as both teams lean into rebuilding and evaluate young players for their next cores.
The Story
The Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames face each other in preseason action on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, and the matchup carries extra significance for both fan bases despite arriving before the regular season begins. The reason is that the teams are both in rebuild phases that emphasize developing younger talent, and the article frames this as a situation where the season-long trajectory could influence future draft positioning.
Vancouver and Calgary are presented as long-time rivals, with the overall competition described as relatively even in the context of rebuilding. For Vancouver supporters, the game in Calgary is positioned as a practical chance to see how prospects and players near the NHL level perform against opponents expected to be closer to the NHL group than a typical exhibition lineup against fringe competition.
The piece characterizes Tuesday’s game as “just the preseason,” which shapes what it can realistically determine. Still, it suggests the result could matter indirectly for the broader storyline—specifically through how each team’s season develops and how it might translate into where they pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.
The Canucks’ projected lineup reflects that preseason priorities in Vancouver have been limited by the schedule and by the coaching approach. With only four preseason games this year, the organization is described as having to be selective about who plays, balancing opportunities for players “on the bubble” with the need to get the core group up to speed ahead of the regular-season opener.
Veteran usage is also outlined as constrained. Veterans are limited to two preseason games, and the article says head coach Manny Malhotra is saving those veterans for the two games the Canucks play in Vancouver. As a result, the team is expected to send a notably youthful group to Calgary for the Sept. 22 contest.
In the projected Vancouver forward group, Adam Novotný plays between Braeden Cootes and Trey Fix-Wolansky. Arshdeep Bains is paired with Aatu Räty and Matthew Stienburg on the next unit, while Ilya Safonov is lined up with Ty Mueller and Brooks Rogowski. The Canucks also have Ben Berard, Riley Patterson, and Yaroslav Bryzgalov together, with Jimmy Schuldt and Victor Mancini paired in a separate group alongside Guillaume Brisebois and Tom Willander.
The defensive pairings in the projected Canucks lineup include Kirill Kudryavtsev, along with Tom Willander, and additional combinations built around the young group. Kevin Lankinen is expected to be Vancouver’s starting goaltender, described as the only real NHL veteran in the projected lineup, while the rest of the list includes prospects and development players.
Several specifics are highlighted about how certain line combinations could be tested in Calgary. The Novotný–Cootes pairing is described as having shown chemistry since both were placed together during the Prospect Showcase against the Seattle Kraken, with Trey Fix-Wolansky on the wing as an energetic component. The article also notes a possible development pathway if Novotný were assigned to the AHL, in which case that trio would be a group to watch in Abbotsford, rather than as a suggestion that such an assignment is likely.
Another focus for Vancouver is Ilya Safonov’s usage. The piece notes that Safonov, Ty Mueller, and Brooks Rogowski are “ostensibly” centres, but the Canucks are expected to evaluate them in roles that could include playing as wings. That is presented as especially notable for Safonov, who is said to have an outside chance of breaking camp as the Canucks’ fourth-line centre—while the same structure also implies the competition could be tougher if he is required to make the roster primarily as a winger.
On the Calgary side, the Flames are expected to present a lineup with more established players for home fans. The article frames it as a group designed to offer a better show than the Flames did on Sunday against the Seattle Kraken, though no specific date is attached to that earlier game beyond the day-of-week reference.
Calgary’s projected lines, as provided in the piece, include Matvei Gridin with Morgan Frost and Matt Coronato; Samuel Honzek with Mikael Backlund and Joel Farabee; and Connor Zary with Ryan Strome and Yegor Sharangovich. Another unit features Maxim Tsyplakov with Martin Pospisil and Adam Klapka, followed by a defensive mix that includes Kevin Bahl and Simon Nemec, as well as Jacob Middleton with Zayne Parekh. The projected groups also include Yan Kuznetsov with Zach Whitecloud.
The goaltending expectation for Calgary is also clearly laid out: Dustin Wolf is identified as the starting goaltender. The structure of the projected Flames lineup is described as the kind of roster group that Canucks fans should expect to see when Vancouver plays Calgary during the regular season, which would make Tuesday’s preseason look more like an early test of NHL-level matchups rather than a purely developmental scrimmage.
For Vancouver, the practical significance in the broader Canadian context is that the game can function as a focused evaluation exercise within a short preseason. Because the Canucks have only four preseason games and veterans are limited to two, the Calgary game is framed as an opportunity to assess how the organization’s younger players react to a lineup that should resemble the NHL teams they will face in the regular season.
For Calgary, the same logic runs in reverse: using a veteran-heavy preseason look at home against a young Vancouver lineup can help confirm which pieces are ready to carry into the season’s rebuild-and-competition dynamic. Taken together, the Sept. 22 preseason meeting is presented as an early measuring stick—less about immediate standings and more about how the next waves of players and role assignments fit into the NHL picture on both sides of the rivalry.
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