Blackfish: CanucksArmy Prospect Report – December 20th, 2018

Photo credit:Canucks / Twitter

5 years ago

Don’t look now but the World Juniors are here, well basically here, but you get the idea!

It’s a fantastic time of the year that sees the best U20 players battling each in high-intensity games and it’s happening right here in Vancouver. If you can, make sure to check out one of the preliminary games around the province or one of the tournament games here in Victoria and Vancouver.

The Canucks still have four prospects at the various WJHC camps and only one of them is really a possible cut. It will be exciting times as Quinn Hughes and Michael DiPietro should be big parts of their respective countries.

We’ll talk about that and more in this week’s Blackfish: CanucksArmy Prospect Report.

Just a reminder, I was late last week, so this week is only six days of action.

Canada

WHL

Over the past week – Woo appeared in two games posting two assists and four penalty minutes. He was a guest of the Canucks earlier this week as Moose Jaw doesn’t play until after Christmas. Excited to see what he can do in the second half of the season.

OHL

Newly signed Mitch Eliot makes his Blackfish debut this week! He played two games since being signed (Dec 14th) posting one assist in those two contests.
Matt Brassard picked up three assists over the course of three games this past week. That pushed his PPG rate to 0.72 and is only slightly behind his pace of (0.76 PPG) last season.
Michael DiPietro is with Team Canada as they prepare for the World Juniors. He played Switzerland last night, stopping 14 shots in the 5-3 win.

United States

USHL

Matt Thiessen continues to see his numbers slowly improve. Last week he was 3.25 GAA and 0.825 SV% in 18 games. After two games this week, both numbers have improved. I’ve found him to appear more confident and in control of his movements. Curious how much of the struggles are due to him getting coaching for the Canucks and Dubuque and how much adjustment in his game.

NCAA

Quinn Hughes is with Team USA – he is not expected to dress for them tonight in Kamloops but that likely means he will play at the LEC on Saturday night.
Tyler Madden his also at the WJHC camp for the USA. They have to make a few more cuts before the tournament kicks off but Madden will be a fun player to watch in the preliminary games this week.
Due to winter break – Rathbone and Lockwood have not played any games this week. They get back going shortly after Christmas.

Europe

Russia

Artyom Manukyan was held off the scoresheet in his only game this week.
The same can be said about Tryamkin

Finland

Toni Utunen is playing for Finland at the WJHC exhibition games and has a legit chance to make the team.
Although not updated at the time of writing – Palmu played his first Liiga game of the season, picking up a primary assist in a 2-1 win. He played 18:33 in the contest.

Sweden

Kristoffer Gunnarsson is still on load to Linkoping – he appeared in one game this week and failed to register a point.

Czech Republic

Zhukenov appeared in two more games this week for AZ Havirov and was held without a point. At the very least, he is playing games and that should be viewed as a good thing.

AHL

There have been no transactions since last week.
Adam Gaudette and Alex Biega remain up with the Canucks.
Demko has been playing really well since returning to action.
As always Comets Cory has you covered for everything Comets – check them out here.