Penticton, BC – The Vancouver Canucks held their annual intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday.

Team White struck first off the stick of Kiefer Sherwood. But that was the only goal of the opening frame. When both White and Blue switched netminders, the game started to open up a bit more, as Arshdeep Bains and Vilmer Alriksson extended Team White’s lead to three. Teddy Blueger gave Team Blue some life, but it was short-lived as Brock Boeser secured the victory for Team White with an empty-netter.

Here are some takeaways from the scrimmage:

The trio got the scoring going with a nice play, where all three players made significant contributions that led to the goal.

Braeden Cootes heads into the defensive zone to support Kirill Kudryavtsev and is right there to grab the chopped puck. Seeing Teddy Blueger coming in, Cootes dekes towards the boards to his backhand and shovels the puck up the ice to Bains, to get it out of danger. The outlet pass is a bit behind Bains, but he makes a great play to spin around and get the puck a streaming Sherwood for a two-on-one with Cootes. Sawyer Mynio gets his skate in the way of the cross-ice pass, but Sherwood grabs the puck and fires it up high on Lankinen.

Team White’s second goal only happens because of Sherwood and Bains’ double-team pressure on Hughes at the top of the zone. It probably helped that Hughes blew a tire and wasn’t able to fully catch up, but the two connected for their second of the game.

Their strong play continued throughout the game, with some solid forechecking and sustained pressure in the offensive zone. It’s unlikely we see this trio in the regular season, but the three came ready to play today and should get plenty of run in the preseason.

Chytil centred Team Blue’s top line with Evander Kane and Jonathan Lekkerimäki, often lining up against the Canucks’ projected top line of Jake DeBrusk, Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser. While at first they were hemmed in their zone, as the game progressed, Chytil got back into the groove.

His quickness was evident, as he sped through all three zones. But it also seemed he was a bit more cautious not to put himself in vulnerable positions. He took his short passes in the neutral zone when he could, and then used his speed to get open for a pass or a quick snapshot if the puck came his way. Chytil had a few shots on goal, including a penalty shot, but could not beat Demko or Tolopilo. He put his set of skills on display, which translated into some solid offensive zone time for his linemates.

As long as he can stay healthy this season, he’ll be looking to prove he can be a 2C in the NHL.

There’s just something about Räty and Canucks training camp. Last year, he was the runaway standout for his offseason progression. And in this year’s scrimmage, he did a bit of the same. However, it was a bit different this time. It was the little things he did defensively, along with the hard work and determination he showed on every shift.

On two separate occasions, Räty was up against Quinn Hughes and was able to get his stick on the puck and strip the Canucks captain. One of those instances occurred in the defensive zone, which led to Team White clearing the zone.

Later in the scrimmage, Räty carried the puck through the neutral zone and left the puck for Linus Karlsson standing along the boards at the blueline. Räty entered with speed and had his eyes set on Filip Hronek, skating towards him and locking him up to free up more space for Karlsson. Or so we thought. With Hronek trying to shed the pressure, Räty lets him and scoots past him with his stick on the ice, heading toward the net and tips a Karlsson pass on net.

We know about his faceoff ability and how that and the Canucks’ lack of depth down the middle had him pencilled in to the opening night roster, but Räty looked like one of the organization’s top four centremen and ready to make the full-time jump.

There might not have been any Canucks prospect who had their stock plummet as much as Jonathan Lekkerimäki did after Abbotsford’s run. However, he clearly had a target to work on some areas of his game to improve, and that he did.

Listed at 5’11”, 172 pounds, Lekkerimäki needed to focus on bulking up this offseason. While he shared with CanucksArmy that he gained some muscle, it was evident in some of his plays today. He and Marcus Pettersson raced for a puck behind the net, with both players arriving at the same time. Surprisingly, Lekkerimäki out-bodied Pettersson and came away with the puck. On the same shift, Lekkerimäki had Pettersson draped all over him, and the young(er) Swede was able to drop his shoulder and use his body to shelter the puck.

Lekkerimäki did a bit of the same when he carried the puck into the offensive zone. He was met with early pressure, but was able to fend off two defenders to find some open ice in the high slot and fire a shot on net.

The only bad things to say about Lekkerimäki’s outing today were that he didn’t do a stick twirl for his shootout attempt and that he beat Tolopilo, but not the post.

It’s more than likely that Lekkerimäki starts the year as the No. 1 option for the Abbotsford Canucks. But with his growth over the offseason, he’s taking the proper steps to becoming a regular NHLer.

Sorry to say this Canucks fans, but he needs some more time. It was always a long shot for him to make the team in his first year at the professional level, but it was evident that he wasn’t ready.

There were multiple instances during some one-on-one drills where he was just out-bodied by other players. And that was evident in the game as well. Willander got beaten in the corners a few times, which led to extended offensive zone time for Team Blue. He made some solid plays with the puck, coupled with displaying some tremendous skating, but his size might cause him too many problems to make an impact in Vancouver this season.

Assistant coach Kevin Dean shared his thoughts on the young defenceman post scrimmage:

“He’s an excellent skater, he has a good stick. I think he’s been coached well in college. I think his fundamentals are going to be good. But for him, pro hockey’s going to be a little bit different with the strength of the person he’s playing against and the structure of the game. But he’s got some really good tools.”

All of this is okay. Willander is just 20 years old. All the tools are there for him to develop into a promising NHL defender, but it’s likely not going to happen in 2025-26.

Today’s scrimmage gave us the lowdown on the Canucks’ goaltending depth chart. There were some questions about who the two goaltenders Abbotsford would run with this season, and the scrimmage confirmed that for us, with Nikita Tolopilo and Ty Young coming out for the second period of the scrimmage.

Tolopilo had a fantastic showing in the second period, stopping multiple scoring chances as Team Blue put it on in the second period. And by now, we’ve all heard the organization’s admiration for Young and his development thus far. So it would be surprising to see them not give him a shot up in Abbotsford this season.

But where does this leave Jiri Patera?

We can’t fully confirm that Jiri Patera was not on the ice at all today, but we did not see him even on the second sheet of ice when players who weren’t playing in the scrimmage were out there. He was listed as a goaltender for Team Blue, but so was Aleksei Medvedev for Team White, and he was out with the players who were not participating in the scrimmage.

Again, we could have just missed him, or maybe he was just given the day off because he’s starting tomorrow’s preseason game against the Seattle Kraken. However, today’s scrimmage revealed that Tolopilo and Young are the next two on the depth chart, following Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen.

Through the first two days of camp, the Canucks put a heavy emphasis on rush offence and an aggressive approach in the neutral and defensive zone. While it worked on some occasions, such as when Bains helped support Sherwood up high to knock the stick off Hughes and turned it into a rush goal.

However, there were two other notable instances for Team White, where it led to chances going the other way.

Willander stepped up to pressure Drew O’Connor at the blueline, which opened up the ice for him to sauce the puck over to Max Sasson, who left all alone with a shot off the rush. But the one that hurt the Canucks even more was when Marcus Pettersson came out to support Tyler Myers with Conor Garland, and another saucer pass sprung Blueger in to give Team Blue their first and only goal of the game.

Like right here:

If Myers did not step up on Garland, Pettersson wouldn’t have had to cheat over to Myers’ side in case he beats him. This now leaves Höglander with a ton of ice to throw a pass to the right, knowing that Blueger is coming in with speed, win the race to the puck, and get a breakaway chance.

As you can see from these examples, this strategy is high-risk, high-reward. Sometimes it will pay off, and the Canucks will head the other way, but on other occasions, you put your goaltender in a bad spot, forcing them to make a one-on-one save. So, we’ll see if it works and how long the Canucks roll with this strategy. However, one thing is certain: this will lead to the Canucks becoming a more high-event hockey club.

This is obviously a little silly to say, cause any hockey observer can watch a minute of Canucks hockey and see that. But in today’s scrimmage, Hughes didn’t even look like he was trying, and he was by far the best player on the ice. He can’t help it. When he has the puck on his stick and sees a little bit of open ice, Hughes is going to make a miraculous play, like when he broke Karlsson’s ankles.

With training camp nearly in the books, the Canucks hit the ice one more time before their preseason opener in Seattle on Sunday night. The Canucks who will suit up for the preseason opener won’t be on the ice in Penticton. So, make sure to check back on CanucksArmy for the list of absentees and who will be in game action tomorrow.