Handle With Care — The Power Play Keeps Him Relevant
Let’s be honest about what Jake DeBrusk is in 2026-27: a power play specialist on a rebuilding team, a streaky producer who will drive you absolutely crazy for stretches of the season, and yet somehow, somehow, a player you cannot completely ignore in fantasy hockey.
That tension is what makes him so complicated to own. And it is precisely why you need to go in with your eyes wide open.
DeBrusk finished the 2025-26 season with 23 goals and 19 assists for 42 points — a step back from his 48-point campaign the year prior, and entirely consistent with what happens when you put a good winger on a bad team. The Hockey Writers noted his season was a tale of two environments: elite on the power play, and increasingly invisible at even strength as the Canucks’ defensive erosion dragged his plus-minus to minus-14 and sapped the life out of an offence that had no real backbone once Quinn Hughes was gone. Nearly 80 per cent of his goals this season came on the power play — a number that tells you everything about where his fantasy value actually lives and where it does not.
The streakiness is real and well-documented. He went eight games without a goal at one point, nine games without finding the net at another, and then scored nine times in his final 13 games to close the season. That is DeBrusk in a nutshell. Cold for weeks. Scorching hot when you least expect it. The kind of player who will cost you a matchup in December and win you one in March.
Here is what keeps him on the fantasy radar heading into 2026-27: he is tied with Pavel Dorofeyev for the most power play goals in the NHL over the past two seasons combined, with 33. Thirty-three power play goals in two years. That is not a system stat — that is a shooter who knows where to be and has the release to capitalize when the puck finds him. Vancouver’s rebuild does not eliminate his power play role. If anything, it cements it. He is one of the only genuine finishing threats left on this roster, and with Caleb Malhotra arriving as the third overall pick and the Canucks beginning to build around Elias Pettersson again, there is at least the framework of a competent offence taking shape around him. A healthy Pettersson distributing on the power play remains one of the better setups DeBrusk could ask for, and that combination alone keeps him fantasy-relevant regardless of where Vancouver finishes in the standings.
The Hockey Writers noted he is 29 years old, squarely in his prime, and possesses a skill set that contending teams covet — which also means his name will dominate trade rumours at the deadline if Vancouver continues to bottom out. A mid-season trade to a contender could dramatically change his fantasy value in either direction — more ice time and better teammates on one hand, reduced power play role in a crowded lineup on the other.
The realistic projection for 2026-27 sits in the 20-25 goal range with 35-45 points — modest, power-play-dependent, and wildly uneven across the calendar.
Draft him late. Manage him actively. Never leave him in your lineup on a cold streak. And whatever you do, do not drop him in January — because April DeBrusk is an entirely different player.
– The Add List +
Statistics sourced from The Hockey Writers, CBS Sports, Sports Forecaster, and NHL.com, June 2026.