Notes

• As mentioned, this weekend is awfully busy. All six CHL prospect teams are in action, as are both the AHL and ECHL teams. Northeastern and Michigan are both playing as well, as is Jack Rathbone and a host of the European prospects. Unfortunately, not of all the Canucks prospects will be playing when the rest of their teams are, as we’ll see below.
• There are a couple of injuries of note. First, Will Lockwood injured his shoulder yet at the World Junior Championships and is expected to miss the rest of the season (so I’ll have to amend future charts to reflect that, no point on having him there anymore I guess). Additionally, Jonah Gadjovich, who of course won Gold at that same tournament with Canada, has been “ill” lately and has missed several games. It’s difficult to say for sure at this point whether he’ll be in action on Saturday.
• The most notable events this weekend are the various all-star games. Of course the NHL’s will be occurring and Brock Boeser will be representing the Canucks at both the Skills Competition on Saturday and the 3-on-3 tournament on Sunday.
• The AHL’s version is offset by a day: their skills competition is on Sunday and their 3-on-3 tournament is on Monday. The Comets/Canucks will be represented by Thatcher Demko and Reid Boucher. There is plenty of other Utica content for the AHL All-Star Classic: it is being held in the newly renovated, and succinctly named Adirondack Bank Centre at the Utica Memorial Auditorium in Utica, and play-by-play will be handled by Brendan Burke, the former radio play-by-play man of the Comets prior to taking over TV play-by-play duties for the New York Islanders in 2016-17. Both the skills competition and the games will be broadcast on Sportsnet, at 5:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. respectively (the All-Star game itself will be on next week’s chart of course).
• The CHL has its own version of the all-star game, with the Top Prospects Game taking place on Thursday. It’s limited to first time draft eligible prospects only, and is an absolute must see for any draft fans. I should remind everyone, however, that it is only one game, and performance here is not 100% guaranteed to be indicative of any given prospect’s overall ability. But still, it’s fun as hell. Game time is 4:00 p.m. locally, and it can be seen on Sportsnet.