The Stanley Cup has been lifted, summer weather is here, and the NHL offseason has officially begun.With the hockey all settled, the business side of the game should pick up almost immediately. The first buyout window will open this week, as teams around the league go about filling out their coaching staffs. Then, in quick succession, the NHL’s 32 clubs will draft, work through the qualifying offer deadline and then the annual free agent frenzy.For the rebuilding Vancouver Canucks, under new management following the shocking 32nd-place campaign the team just endured, this offseason offers an opportunity to begin laying a new foundation.The offseason for a disciplined rebuilding team takes on something of a paradoxical bent. Rebuilding GMs are typically judged not on what they were able to add to their lineup, but on what they managed to subtract. That’s why a team like the Canucks enters the summer with both significant roster needs and no specific pressure to fill them.For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the offseason minutiae around the draft and the team to this point in the offseason, let’s get caught up ahead of the traditional silly season. Here’s your Canucks 2026 offseason primer.Unrestricted free agent questionsThis is far and away the least hyped pre-free agency period in recent Canucks history. None of Vancouver’s pending unrestricted free agents is a key figure in a big-picture rebuilding puzzle.It’s impossible to imagine that Evander Kane, 34, will return.Teddy Blueger, 31, has been an excellent teammate and penalty killer throughout his Canucks tenure. Younger teammates and fellow veterans alike were quick to credit Blueger’s leadership down the stretch run last season, when a younger Canucks team — just playing out the string — at least began to compete hard and stand up for one another.Returning Blueger wouldn’t be indefensible if the price is right. He’s a useful player, and probably a sharp value target for a contender in need of reliable centre depth in free agency.His skill set, however, is better suited to being a finishing fourth-line depth piece. Blueger has demonstrated the ability to move up the lineup in a pinch on a team with serious competitive aspirations, but his value would surely be higher in a team environment where that mattered. In Vancouver, Blueger would mostly just be blocking younger players during a rebuild, not to mention that his player archetype, a left-handed fourth-line centre, has proven increasingly difficult to monetize on the trade market over the past 24 months.Given the lack of centre options and Blueger’s quality as a teammate and player, if Vancouver were to extend him with an affordable short-term contract, it would be tough to get fussed about it. Provided, of course, the next Canucks head coach proves able to resist the temptation of deploying Blueger more frequently at five-on-five than Marco Rossi.Derek Forbort sustained a significant injury last season, and you just hope that he’s able to continue his playing career. Vancouver could certainly use another physical lefty with high defensive IQ, given the youthful composition of its blue-line group.