In many ways,
Derek Forbort exceeded all expectations already in 2024-25.
The
Vancouver Canucks signed two veteran UFA defenders in the summer of 2024. They gave one, Vincent Desharnais, a two-year commitment at $2 million per season. The other, Derek Forbort, got just one year at $1.5 million.
A year later, however, it’s Forbort who is still around, and with a
shiny new extension and a slight raise to $2 million to boot.
How did he accomplish this? A few different ways, and a few different times over. Forbort started the season without a definitive spot in the starting six. He ended it so entrenched in the lineup that even the head-turning Elias Pettersson II couldn’t keep him off the ice.
The Canucks started 2024-25 with a middling penalty kill and ended the season with one of the league’s best. If credit for that goes to any one on-ice individual, it’s probably Forbort, who demonstrated some real
PK leadership chops.
He filled in as capably as possible when
Captain Quinn Hughes was on the IR. Throw in the fact that Forbort was also one of the only Canucks to actively stick up for smaller teammates like Hughes, and it’s hard to say if any Vancouver player has ever earned a $500K raise more.
Does Forbort need to match this effort to fully hit expectations in 2025-26?
A little bit ‘yes,’ and a little bit ‘no.’ The Canucks project to rely less on Forbort than they did in 2025-26, and if that changes, something has probably gone wrong. All the same, Forbort needs to stay ready to do all the right things whenever called upon.
Which is pretty much what he did in 2024-25, when one thinks about it. In general, more of the same from Forbort is more than welcome.
Meeting Expectations: The best 7D in the business
On the surface, it’s a bit strange to sign someone to a raise with the goal of them playing a
lesser role on the team the following year. But it makes perfect sense in the context of Forbort.
The Canucks have a clear-cut top-four set out for 2025-26 in the form of Hughes,
Filip Hronek, Marcus Pettersson, and
Tyler Myers.
Beyond that quartet, they’ve got a trio of young defenders that the front office believes have the ability to earn a role in the aforementioned Pettersson, along with RDs Victor Mancini and Tom Willander.
The plan seems to be for EP25 to be an every-night sort of player on LD, and for Mancini and Willander to battle it out, and then probably rotate, that third RD slot. But that’s handing a full half of the blueline to a group of players that is extremely short of experience. Coverage is required, and there’s scant better coverage available than Forbort.
Forbort spent much of the 2024-25 campaign proving his ability to play on any pairing and on either side. That means he can ably pop into the lineup to provide relief – or a night or two of educational observation from the press box – for any and all of Pettersson, Mancini, and Willander. And with Forbort providing that coverage, whichever young defender isn’t in the lineup long-term is free and clear to head down to Abbotsford for some additional development.
We haven’t even mentioned injuries yet, either, but they’re an inevitability. Here, Forbort’s versatility is another obvious boon. If he covered Hughes’ spot adequately enough in the short term last year, it’s safe to assume he can cover
anyone’s spot in the short term.
New head coach Adam Foote is intimately familiar with Forbort and has plenty of trust in him – far more than is granted the typical extra defender. The average 7D might not be given regular reps on the PK, for example, but that won’t be an issue with Forbort. If he’s in the lineup, he’s instantly being added to that PK unit and is probably increasing its performance through his presence.
That’s something very few 7Ds can be expected to provide.
Like we said at the outset, it feels weird to state that Forbort meeting expectations is equivalent to him doing less than he did last season. But it’s not without a challenge. Forbort will have to maintain his quality of play with fewer games and longer gaps in between them, and that’s not always easy.
Exceeding Expectations: Nightly appearances on the PK, and more
As well as Forbort performed in 2024-25, if he’s a nightly feature in the 2025-26 Canucks lineup, then something has gone awry.
It would have to mean a significant long-term injury to one of the other defenders. Or, in a perhaps worse scenario, it could mean that at least two of the three young defenders have proven themselves NOT ready for prime-time, and that’s a whole different sort of problem.
Think of it this way: EP25 has already been pencilled into the lineup. That 3RD spot has also been left wide open for Willander and Mancini to fight over. Those spots are theirs to lose, which means if they’re not in them to start the year – and Forbort is – something is not going to plan.
This isn’t necessarily a negative outcome for the Canucks in the short term. Forbort is a capable defender who probably deserves to be in the lineup every night on a league-wide basis. Chances are that, at least in the early going of their development, what Pettersson, Willander, and Mancini will offer will remain roughly equivalent to what Forbort already does.
But that trio of players is a long-term investment that the Canucks want to start paying off sooner, rather than later, and any delay on that is less than ideal. In other words, Forbort exceeding expectations equates to more important players subceeding their own expectations – or a season besieged by blueline injuries.
Neither sounds like a recipe for long-term success.
Below Expectations: A season spent largely in the press box
Forbort started his Canucks tenure as someone pencilled in to the press box, his place taken by the newly-acquired Erik Brännström. He fought his way out of that situation to end the 2024-25 campaign as one of the Canucks’ most important defenders.
But he might just find himself back where he started all the same.
As we said at the outset, part of the plan is for Forbort to be in the press box a lot, so that in and of itself could not be considered ‘below expectations. But it’s all in how Forbort makes the most of whatever on-ice opportunities come his way that will make the difference.
Last year, the coaching staff had ample reason to want to insert Forbort in the lineup. The team got a little tougher, and the PK got a lot more efficient with him out there.
Forbort needs to maintain that composure for 2025-26. Having someone capable of stepping into and improving upon some parts of the lineup at any time is a terrific motivator for those young defenders to keep their games as mistake-free as possible. It’s also a nice safety net for any of those inevitable lapses in play.
But if Forbort doesn’t maintain that readiness and that level of play when inserted into the lineup, the picture changes, and he becomes little more than an overly expensive extra day stuffed in the press box.
That would be well below expectations.
Goals for Derek Forbort in 2025-26
– Continue to be a leader on the PK.
– Continue to average about 17 minutes a night when in the lineup.
– Better his even-strength goals ratio (was a minus-seven last year).
– Maintain fitness with several large gaps between games.
– Bounce back to usual physicality despite late-season orbital bone injury.
It’s tough to put any sort of statistical expectations on a player like Forbort. It’s hard to even know how many games he will play, and he’s never been a big numbers guy, anyway. Last year, Forbort only notched 11 points…and that was still only seven off his career high.
As a result, all of Forbort’s goals are a little more vaguely defined and far more related to his role than his rate of performance.
A key note comes at the end there. Forbort had his orbital bone broken via a cheap shot in a fight with Yakov Trenin – a fight that started with Forbort sticking up for his captain. It’s hoped that this injury doesn’t hamper any of Forbort’s typical willingness to play physical, or to occasionally drop the gloves when the situation calls for it. Given his history, we assume he’ll be right back to the good ol’ Forbort as of October.
Beyond that, it’s just being reliable and making the most of the opportunities that come his way. The goals for Forbort in 2025-26 are essentially the same ones he already hit in 2024-25.
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(@simonplittle.ca) 2025-08-10T16:12:30.205Z
