The Vancouver Canucks ended the 2025-26 NHL season with a whimper.
Vancouver dropped a 6-1 decision on the road to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night, ending a dismal year with a 25-49-8 record and finishing last overall in the 32-team league.
Matt Savoie had his first-ever NHL hat trick to pace the Oilers (41-30-11), who finished second in the Pacific Division and will open playoff action Monday at home against the Anaheim Ducks.
Josh Samanski, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Colton Dach had the other goal for the Oilers, with Connor McDavid adding four assists and Connor Ingram earning the win in goal, making 10 saves.
Ty Mueller netted his first NHL goal for the Canucks, with Kevin Lankinen taking the loss in net, stopping 29 of 35 shots.
The Oilers opened the scoring 1:58 into the first period on a goal credited to Samanski after originally being given to Trent Frederic. Samanski’s shot deflected off a stick and past Lankinen.
Savoie made it 2-0 at 6:48, converting a nice feed after a feigned point shot from Evan Bouchard.
IT'S OFFICIAL: TY MUELLER @NHL GOAL-SCORER
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— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) April 17, 2026
Mueller brought the Canucks within 2-1 at 12:10, taking a flip pass from Curtis Douglas, then moving in and beating Ingram five-hole.
Savoie’s second of the game at 14:35 restored Edmonton’s two-goal lead. On his off-wing, the right-hander blasted a feed from McDavid past Lankinen.
He completed the hat trick at 19:02, converting another McDavid dish from basically the same spot for his 18th of the year, with hats then raining down at Rogers Place.
Shots after one period favoured the Oilers 13-5.
In the second, Nugent-Hopkins made it 5-1 at 16:46, batting a puck out of mid-air in front of Lankinen for his 20th goal of the season. It was the seventh time in his career that Nugent-Hopkins reached the 20-goal plateau.
Edmonton held a 27-8 shots on goal advantage after 40 minutes.
In the third, Dach knocked home a shot from in front of Lankinen for his fifth of the year to make it 6-1 at 8:20 and complete the scoring.
NOTES: McDavid finished in the campaign with 138 points, winning his sixth Art Ross Trophy as league scoring champion… There were a pair of fights in the contest, neither offering any significant blows landed. In the first period after hitting Vancouver’s Zeev Buium, Dach tangled with Canucks d-man Elias Pettersson. Following a hit on Vancouver’s Marcus Pettersson Edmonton’s Connor Murphy dropped the gloves with Drew O’Connor… The 11 shots on goal matched a season-low for the Canucks.