Puck Drop in Edmonton. Vancouver Goes in Banged Up and Unsettled.

The Canucks open tonight in Edmonton without Filip Chytil, with Jake DeBrusk listed as questionable, and with Thatcher Demko still not available. That is three contributors either out or uncertain before the first real game of the year. It is a lot to absorb on opening night, particularly for a team that spent the offseason trying to build depth precisely because it had none last year.

Kevin Lankinen starts in goal. That has been the plan since camp opened, but the crease situation around him remains unsettled — the Canucks claimed Leevi Meriläinen off waivers last week and have Chris Driedger on a tryout deal, which tells you how thin the contingency options are. Ryan Johnson spoke to the goaltending plan after Friday's practice without resolving much publicly. The organization is managing uncertainty, not projecting confidence.

On the forward side, DeBrusk's status is the live question tonight. He finished last season as one of Vancouver's more reliable contributors, and if he can't go, the depth behind him thins quickly. Chytil was brought in to add center depth behind Elias Pettersson — that gap is already open on game one. The drop-off at center was a documented problem all of last season, and the roster hasn't fully addressed it.

None of this means Vancouver loses tonight. It means they go into Edmonton carrying more risk than a team in rebuild mode should want to carry on the first night of a new regime's first real test.