CanucksArmy Prospect Mailbag – November 17th, 2017

Another week has passed and luckily I remembered that I wanted to make every effort to have this prospect mailbag a regular weekly thing. Obviously, I can’t predict what will happen in the future, by two weeks in a row is good, right?

At least we’re starting out on a good foot.

As promised, I reviewed the questions in the comment section last week and will add them for this week.

For the first part of Dan’s question – I actually see it (very optimistically) as follows going forward:

Dahlen – Pettersson – ?

? – Horvat – Boeser

Then it’s plug and play from there. It could be Baertschi for the next few years, maybe Goldobin fits with Horvat and Boeser. Playing style wise, I think that Jonah Gadjovich would be a really good fit with the two Swedes, but he generally plays the left side. I do like the Baertschi, Horvat and Boeser line right now and think they should continue to play together,

Things change rapidly and we don’t know who will be at the Canucks disposal in two or three years, but those four making up most of the Canucks top two lines for the foreseeable future is encouraging.

He’s such a raw player but from what I saw at Canucks Development Camp in the summer, there is a lot to like about his game. He’s a very fluid skater and reads the play really well. He did have issues with the bigger and more developed players but that is to be expected given that he is playing US High School hockey. I think his potential is a puck-moving defender who helps in transition, moving the puck, and on the powerplay. I wouldn’t expect an impact player but a bottom four defender.

He starts his season with Dexter this weekend (albeit exhibition) and then heads to Harvard. The benefit is that he can take his time developing at Harvard and become a bit of a forgotten prospect. Harvard quietly has a really good hockey program that is producing legitimate prospects. It’ll be a while before we see Rathbone as he doesn’t have his freshman season at Harvard until 2018-19, but the raw skill set is encouraging.

There were quite a few reports that the Canucks stole Rathbone in the 4th round because teams were concerned about judging his skillset against his peers, as he only played USHS. But I think Rathbone is exactly the player you take that dice roll on in the middle rounds.

From what I understand – Tryamkin will be welcome back with open arms if he chooses to return. The Canucks didn’t want him to leave and even discussed a new contract to get him to stay but were unable to change his mind. The organization does hold his NHL rights until July 1, 2022 – so if he does want to return to the NHL, he has to go through them.

From a positive standpoint – Tryamkin has been playing a lot of minutes and putting up regular points. It’s one of those making lemonade out lemons situations, but he has been rounding out his game and looking very good in the process.

Both actually – which probably wasn’t the right answer haha.

When looking at players in their D+1 season – you want them to take that next step forward offensively while rounding out their game. Both players have done that so far. Sean is right that Heponiemi has the benefit of playing 87% of his time with Glenn Gawdin and 79.6% of his time with Tyler Steenbergen.

While Lind has played the majority of his time with 2018 draft eligible Kyle Topping (56.8%) and 2019 draft eligible Nolan Foote (43.2%). That may make Lind’s performance stand out a little bit more as he has been the driver of the bus most of the time. Lind has been a part of 41.0% of Kelowna’s goals this season – which is an extremely impressive percentage.

I think so.

There is another publication that I contribute to – that had one of their writers do a top 20 ranking of Canucks prospects and he asked for my input. Cole Candella was a player that immediately jumped out as a ‘need to be higher’ player. (we both had him ranked in the top 20)

Sudbury has been leaning very heavily on the Canucks prospect and he has been delivering in the last few weeks – I caught a game of his two weeks ago, and he was out for an entire powerplay and it wasn’t a situation where he got stuck out there, he was rushing the puck, quarterbacking, and then out there for another faceoff.

Candella is an interesting case. There was some mid-round hype for him entering the 2015 draft prior to him suffering an injury that wrote off the majority of his draft season. Then his D+1 season was just odd, he couldn’t get a break anywhere. It cast a shadow over him. But he’s come back this year and doing everything right.

The Canucks will have to decide if they want to sign him prior to June 1, 2018 otherwise they relinquish his rights. If he continues to trend the way he has, it’ll be a hard decision.

Given the CBA rules – if the Canucks sign Pettersson at any point after January 1st, they will be unable to slide his contract. I’m working on the details of the plans with Pettersson and why they likely won’t get the deal done before the end of 2017, but I can speculate the plan.

Pettersson is in a great situation and the Canucks retain his rights for four years, so there is no rush to get a deal done. If and when they feel he can make an impact at the NHL level, they will sign him and bring him over. That could be as early as next year, or they may want him to go back to Vaxjo for another year (as he signed a two year deal with them last summer).

There are always so many things to these dealings that it’s hard to know the exact path – but if the Canucks feel Pettersson is ready to go, he’ll be here.

I’m a huge fan of his game and if he is on the board when the Canucks pick, they would be wise to take him.

With that being said – that likely requires the Canucks to have a top 5 pick again this year.

For Gunnarsson – realistic hopes is that he can become a depth defender for the Canucks. With that being said, he doesn’t really have any offensive game and that could hold him back from breaking through to the NHL level. His game is good though, he is able to move and skate with the puck and is effective at defending the front of the net. Even though he is 20 years old, getting a regular role in the SHL is a good sign.

For Brisebois – he’s been fine. I’ve never been a huge fan of his game and I do have some confirmation bias when he makes a bad play but have made a conscious effort to notice the good plays he is making. He’s been regularly playing with Philip Holm on the top pair and has been getting better with each passing game. Looking more comfortable and getting used the rigors of professional hockey. The organization is very high on him, and you can see why that may be the case based on his play. He does make smart plays but lacks consistency, compete on the puck and tenacity.

Chatfield’s preseason may have been the worst thing to happen to him, as everybody thought he was going to be an option sooner rather than later. With that being said, I do think that he has the right skillset to be an NHL player but the question will be if he can reach that potential.

Chatfield has been playing with Sautner on the third pairing for most of the year. There have been miscues, there have been bad plays, but there have been good things happening too. It’s all part of the learning process for both of them. I wouldn’t be too concerned about point totals as Chatfield isn’t really being put in situations where he will put up points. This year will be all about getting used the professional game, and then next year should be a chance for him to take that next step offensively.

I think Gaudette will be best suited for a third line centre role with some powerplay time on the wing. He could surprise me and push that ceiling higher but I think that is where he will be the most effective. Given where the Canucks selected him and his underwhelming numbers, you can’t really ask for a better outcome.

Palmu is fun to watch – he still needs to work quite a few parts of his game but aside from the TOP prospects of the organization, he is the one with the best finish and creativity.

Lastly – I really liked Dominik Bokk’s games with Vaxjo last week, I feel like there is something there.  Adam Ginning with Linkoping is another player who has caught my eye, getting regular shifts in the SHL as a 17-year-old defenceman is always a good sign. Serron Noel continues to rise up draft rankings and is someone that I’ve liked since Ivan Hlinka. In the WHL, Milos Roman with the Giants and the aforementioned Kyle Topping are players that have stood out to me, which is likely because I’ve watched a lot of both teams through video.

Great name who is also a really good player – currently sitting with 17 points in 18 games with Moose Jaw. Woo will likely hear his name called in the first round in Dallas.

Same as last week – if you have a question and don’t have twitter, go ahead and leave a question in the comment section and I will grab a couple to use next week.