CanucksArmy 2020 Vancouver Canucks prospect rankings: #16 Jonah Gadjovich

With a new draft class crop and some different faces in different places, it’s time for us to rank the Vancouver Canucks’ top prospects.

This year we are going to go with our top 16 prospects in the system. We have compared our lists and came up with a final product that we are proud of. I hope you enjoy another year of ranking the prospects at CanucksArmy.

Let’s get to the top prospects in the Canucks system as we begin with number 16 on our list.

He came in at number 14 on our 2019 preseason rankings and has fallen a couple spots even after scoring 13 goals in 38 AHL games this past season.

Number 16 on our list is left winger Jonah Gadjovich.

Jonah Gadjovich can score goals, he is strong in front of the net and he can fight. He seems like a good bottom six prospect for the Canucks and he will be playing in his third AHL season at the tender age of 22.

There are a few things that are holding Gadjovich back in his career. The first being injuries, he missed 23 games last season due to injury and for the second year in a row was not able to consistently play in the Comets’ top six forward group. The other big knock is his skating, though he is fine once he gets up to full speed, it feels like it takes too many steps for him to get there and he isn’t generating the power that he needs in his strides.

As for the positives, he is tough as nails. He will drop the gloves against anyone and is always ready to back up a teammate after a big hit. When I spoke to him in September he said that sticking up for his teammates has been a thing he has done all his life and that mentality was fluid throughout the Utica Comets roster last season.

Gadjovich scored 13 goals in 38 games last season and some of them were beauties. His shot can be lethal if given enough space and he does his best work on the power play.

Though we have him ranked pretty low on our list, it may have something to do with him not having much potential to be a top six player. His best shot to crack the NHL is to know the role that he needs to play and be the best man for the job when a call-up arises.

Gadjovich knows his role. He did it for team Canada at the 2018 World Junior Championships as he played in a fourth line role with limited time on special teams units. He could really boost his stock with the organization if he is able to kill penalties but he did not do a ton of that in his past two AHL seasons.

He knows that bottom six players can help bring success to their team and Gadjovich knows what he needs to do. Calling his ideal role a “power-forward shutdown player that can also score”.

We’ve got him dropping from last year’s spot but that is because of an influx of young talent that has showcased themselves very well overseas.

Gadjovich is pretty close to being in an NHL game, much closer than probably 10 of the players ahead of him on this list. He has the body and grit to be a bottom six contributor but will have to add some speed and agility to his game for him to climb our rankings.

This AHL season will be very telling for Gadjovich. We need to remember that he just turned 22 years old. There’s still time for him to climb the ranks.

I have been working on a deep dive into Jonah Gadjovich for a few weeks now and should have that dropping soon here at CanucksArmy.