Talking Josh Bloom, Vitali Kravtsov, and why not to worry about Jonathan Lekkerimäki: Canucks Conversation

On today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, I was joined by Daniel Gee of Elite Prospects for a 15 minute conversation about the Vancouver Canucks’ prospects.

Faber has been feeling a little under the weather the past couple of days, which is why there was no Blackfish prospect report on Tuesday, and why I was hosting the show alone yesterday and today.

For all you prospect lovers out there though, Daniel Gee more than delivered.

We talked about Josh Bloom, the prospect acquired in exchange for Riley Stillman, and Daniel discussed his findings after pouring over Bloom’s OHL game tape. We also talked about Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who has had a disappointing season over in Sweden. Daniel suggested that Canucks fans shouldn’t be extremely worried about Lekkerimäki’s future, despite the awful D+1 season.

“Shooters like Lekkerimäki, they just take more time,” said Gee. “I look at players like Owen Tippett, Eeli Tolvanen… it just takes time. There’s so many circumstances that have hindered Lekkerimäki this season. Mono, unable to train, draft, I don’t think he really gets the opportunity needed to produce, especially when you’re looking at players who need a lot of touches. I saw a lot of great flashes at the World Juniors despite the issues that we saw. He’s proving to be a way better playmaker than what a lot of people expect. I’m not too too worried. Was it an awful season? 100%, but I think what’s going to be more interesting is how next season goes.

“I think one of the biggest things, when he was sent down to the Junior 20 league, he was dominant, which is a great sign. You can take things from that Junior 20 league and see how it translates to the SHL and the Allsvenskan, and I think at the end of the day, he’ll be fine. It was a really unfortunate year at an unfortunate time.”

We also talked about Vitali Kravtsov, Aidan McDonough, and goaltender Ty Young!

Watch the full conversation below!

You can catch the livestream of Canucks Conversation at 1 PM Pacific Monday through Friday on the CanucksArmy YouTube channel and the CanucksArmy Twitter account here. Clips of the show are also posted daily to the CanucksArmy YouTube channel, which you can find by clicking here.

The show is also available in podcast format around 2 PM every day wherever you get your podcasts!

Be sure to subscribe to the CanucksArmy YouTube channel!