With everything going on with the NHL club, it would have been a great week for the Vancouver Canucks’ prospects to show up and give us some exciting news to talk about.

We had a pretty decent week for the prospects. There’s always a lot to talk about and this week and there’s a decent amount of video for us to dive into as well.

Let’s hit it!

Elias Pettersson (D-Petey) scored his first point of the SHL season and is trending in the right direction overseas.

The big, left-shot defenceman fired a shot that generated some frantic swinging of sticks around the crease and ended with a goal for Örebro.

As you can see in the tweet, Pettersson only had 2:52 of ice time in that game on Thursday but he saw a nice uptick in his ice time later in the week.

Saturday was a busy day for Canucks prospects in the SHL. We will get to that in a few paragraphs…

Pettersson played an SHL season-high 12:35 on Saturday and if he is able to earn more ice time in the SHL as an 18-year-old, his stock is surely going to rise as the season rolls along. There’s already been a lot of people asking me about his chances of making Sweden’s World Junior team this winter. I’ve checked in with some people who follow Swedish hockey closer than I and I’ve been told the same thing on a few occasions. Pettersson is apparently on the radar for sure, but is still a long-shot to make Sweden’s WJC team this year.

You shouldn’t worry about him not making the WJC team this year as he is eligible to play in the 2024 WJC. He’s participated in three games with Sweden’s U20 team over the past year and there’s still a lot to like about what this kid is doing this season. If he is able to find consistent minutes in the SHL as the year goes on, his stock will continue to climb and make him our fasted rising prospect in the Canucks’ system.

Another SHL player who had their season-high for minutes was right-shot defenceman Filip Johansson. He played 22:36 on Saturday in a 4-3 win.

Johansson now has one goal and five assists through 12 SHL games and we project Johansson to be in Abbotsford next season.

Moving to the Canucks’ top prospect, Jonathan Lekkerimäki put up a primary assist in an Allsvenskan game on Friday.

We haven’t seen the explosion of offence that we were hoping for this season from Lekkerimäki, but lately, he has been putting up more five-on-five points including this assist.

The pace with which Lekkerimäki moves is nice to see but there still needs to be more engagement in the defensive zone and we want to see him be a driver instead of a passenger on his current Allsvenskan line.

Lekkerimäki has one goal and two assists through nine games this season.

Speaking of the Allsvenskan league, as well as playing season-high minutes in the SHL, Lucas Forsell hits both of those topics this week.

On Saturday, Forsell played 12:21 in the SHL but just days later was loaned to the Allsvenskan league to see more minutes.

Forsell seems to be too good in the J20 Swedish league but not good enough to get consistent minutes in the SHL. This loan should help find the sweet spot in a Goldilocks situation but instead of porridge, we’re talking ice time.

It’s been a nice bounce-back season so far for 20-year-old defenceman Joni Jurmo. The 6’4″ defender has been playing top-four minutes with Jukurit in Liiga and put IP another point on Wednesday.

The Finnish defenceman has had good ice time throughout the season and is doing what he hoped he would and earning ice time in Finland’s top league.

Aidan McDonough had a goal and assist through two NCAA games this week.

It was another one-timer on the power play for McDonough who continues to have a strong start to his senior season.

As for Aku Koskenvuo, he was perfect for Harvard through two periods in an exhibition game against Guelph.

It wasn’t much of a tough night for Koskenvuo as Harvard won 9-0.

Danila Klimovich found the back of the net on Sunday for his first AHL goal of the season.

The 19-year-old has been playing on Abbotsford’s third line this season and is getting time on the power play.

Abbotsford has its home opener on Friday and kicks off three weekends in a row of home games. It’s a good time to make the drive down to the Abbotsford Centre and check out prospects like Klimovich, Arturs Silovs, and Linus Karlsson.

Jacob Truscott had a four-point game on Friday as Michigan won 5-2. Truscott, who played for the USA at this past summer’s WJC, is now a point-per-game player in the NCAA through six games. He will draw more attention from us after this strong start to the season.

Connor Lockhart’s OHL production has slowed down quite a bit. He had two assists in three games this week. He’s still top-10 in scoring but has slipped down the charts in the OHL.

Linus Karlsson had a pair of assists over the weekend in the AHL. He’s been the best offensive creator for the AHL squad and it looks like the 22-year-old may get a chance to play in the NHL as the first call-up if the Canucks need to try something new in their top-nine because of poor play or an injury.

Arturs Silovs looks to be the starter for the AHL team after he started in both of Abbotsford’s games on the weekend. He won on Friday, stopping 23 of 26 shots and then lost on Sunday when he allowed six goals on 27 shots. The numbers don’t look great through three starts but Silovs has had a lot of high-danger scoring chances against him in the AHL. He has a 3.93 goals against average and .855% save percentage this season.

This wraps up another Blackfish Prospects Report here at CanucksArmy. If there’s a player you’d like to hear from or hear more about, let me know in the comments.

See you all next Tuesday!