Home > 2020 > 01/05 > Blackfish: CanucksArmy Prospect Report – January 5, 2020
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Blackfish: CanucksArmy Prospect Report – January 5, 2020

| Brett Lee

Welcome to the first Blackfish of 2020! Jett Woo is heating up in Calgary, a trio of NCAA prospects had themselves a strong week, and there is plenty to cover over at the World Junior Championships.

CHL

  • Jett Woo is currently riding a 4-game point streak which includes a goal and 4 assists. He has stepped up in the absence of Egor Zamula for the Calgary Hitmen.

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  • Carson Focht is now up to 18 goals on the season as he scored twice this week and added two more assists.

  • Ethan Keppen scored a redirect goal this week while posting a -7 with 13 shots.
  • Arturs Silovs had a strong game this week in a loss to Sudbury. He stopped 30 of 33 to move his record to 9-9-1 on the season.

NCAA

  • Will Lockwood and Michigan ‘played in the Great Lakes Invitational early in the week. Lockwood had a goal and a secondary assist in 2 games.
  • Tyler Madden and Aidan McDonough had 2 points each this week in a 5-2 win over Connecticut.

  • Jack Rathbone had 3 assists this week for Harvard to go along with a power-play goal.

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Russia

  • Vasili Podkolzin and Russia play Canada later today (as of writing this). Podkolzin has been a solid playmaker in the offensive third of the ice when his team has established possession. He was impressive on the power-play in front of the net against Sweden in the semi-finals but I haven’t seen him be the effective 5-on-5 player that I know he can be so far this tournament. He has 1 goal and 4 assists in 6 games so far.

Sweden

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  • Nils Hoglander’s tournament ends with a Bronze medal. He is one of the tournament’s top scorers with 5 goals and 6 assists in 7 games. He was a standout for me at the tournament, not only because of his dynamic skill with the puck but also because of his playmaking ability. His skill creates space which in turn gives him time to find teammates in favourable positions and he is also very good at using his shot to generate rebounds. The tenacity and snarl in his game were also on display as he was ejected from the semi-finals for a hit to the head on Grigori Denisenko. I didn’t think the hit was predatory, Hoglander was protecting himself, but the IIHF is very protective of hits to the head which, in my opinion, is good for the game.

Czech

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  • Karel Plasek played 4 games in the World Juniors with a single power-play assist to his name. He was playing in the Czech’s top-six and I thought did not look out of place.

Finland

  • Petrus Palmu was scoreless in 2 games this week.
  • Toni Utunen and Finland finish fourth after losing to Sweden in the Bronze Medal game. The assistant captain had 1 primary-assist in 6 games.

AHL

  • Brogan Rafferty scored this week and was named to the AHL All-star game as well as AHL Rookie of the Month.
  • Kole Lind with 2 assists this week. He

  • Olli Juolevi was scratched yesterday due to an undisclosed injury. From the sounds of it, it is not serious and he should be back in the lineup shortly.
  • Sven Baertschi now has 31 points in 24 AHL games including 23 assists. It was rumoured that Calgary was interested in him on Saturday’s Headlines but no offer was made. Will be interesting to see what happens to the Swiss winger.