Welcome back to the Blackfish Prospect Report, your weekly deep dive into the world of Vancouver Canucks prospects.
This week, we’ve got a few red-hot streaks, standout performances across multiple leagues, an NHL debut, and a few impressive stretches within their new homes.

Abbotsford Canucks

If Vancouver’s play has gotten you down, we highly recommend tuning into what’s happening down the highway in Abbotsford.
With two more wins, the affiliates are now the sole owners of the American League’s longest active winning streak, eight consecutive.
They are now just two more wins shy of matching the league’s longest streak this season, held by the Cleveland Monsters back in November, and also just one away from a franchise record (from 2021-22).
What’s working, you ask? At the moment, it’s everything. As the saying goes, the team is firing on all cylinders and receiving contributions from everyone.
During those eight games, here are the point totals from some of the go-to contributors and where they sit among the AHL leaders:
  • 1. Aatu Räty: 13 points
  • Tied-2. Nils Åman: 11 points
  • Tied-3. Linus Karlsson: 9 points
  • Tied-4. Sammy Blais: 8 points
  • Tied-4. Erik Brännström: 8 points (just five games)
  • Tied-5. Nate Smith: 7 points
That’s right. Aatu Räty has been the AHL’s top Scorer since January 10th, and after taking home last week’s AHL Player of the Week award, he continued that trend with a goal and three points over the weekend.
His goal came off a wicked shot on the rush, where he took his time and finished with a short-side laser. Confidence does wonders for any player, and the confidence in his willingness to hold, hold, hold, and snap the puck shot side was oozing.
He added two assists in the game prior, one being the primary assist to Erik Brännström’s first goal as an Abbotsford Canuck. Räty stopped up, got position on his check and dropped the puck to a trailing defender for the shot.
He’s found a nice little home centring a line alongside Arshdeep Bains and Jonathan Lekkerimäki and has shown a strong will to re-earn his spot in Vancouver’s bottom six.
Speaking of Lekkerimäki, he provided his second consecutive game-winning goal on Friday, both of which came in the game’s final minute. This time, it was courtesy of a deflected Cole McWard shot, set up by a tremendous feed from Räty behind the goal line.
With five game-winning goals on his ledger, he now sits just one behind the leader leaguewide, despite playing 16 fewer games.
With 14 goals, Jonathan Lekkerimäki not only leads the Abbotsford Canucks but sits second among AHL rookies. He’s played 15 fewer than Jani Nyman, who sits first among rookies with 16 goals.
Unfortunately, the weekend ended with a scary incident: He collided with a Tuscon player and headfirst into the boards in the final minutes of Saturday’s third period.
Although he was in obvious pain, he was able to skate off the ice on his own. When asked about his status on Sunday morning, Vancouver’s GM Patrik Allvin told CanucksArmy’s Jeff Patterson that the injury does not appear severe. We will see how things progress throughout the week.
Arshdeep Bains may not be grabbing the limelight or scoring many points (just one assist over the weekend), but the Surrey native provides the oil for the engine to run smoothly on that line. He’s working hard and making room for his linemates. It’s just not showing up on the scoresheet, like most of the other heavy hitters.
But you know who finally has? Danila Klimovich. He snapped an 11-game pointless skid, collecting two goals on Saturday and enjoying time on the team’s top line. He also co-led the way with seven shots, six coming in that game.
So far, the majority of his 13 goals – second on Abbotsford – have come courtesy of some wicked shots. This time, however, he got the monkey off his back with some greasy ones.
The backend did look a little different this weekend, though. Elias Pettersson was called up for the second time in his young career. The difference this time was that he actually drew into the lineup.
His debut went as expected: simple. As we’ve ranted about many times here at Blackfish, he doesn’t necessarily play a “sexy” game. Just a simple meat and potatoes style that should translate well for a bottom-four role.
He’s aggressive. He can make a good first pass. He can skate. And if it weren’t for his duties as a member of next week’s AHL All-Star game, he might get a solid stretch of look at the NHL level.
In honour of his NHL debut, we put together a clip of a few times he had been a bully over the years since the Canucks had drafted him. Safe to say, it’s a fun montage.
As the sole 20-year-old on the Abby backend, Kirill Kudryavtsev provided two more assists in Saturday’s 6-2 victory. That pair of helpers put him up to 18 points (two goals, 16 assists) in his rookie year, leading all Abbotsford defenders in scoring. He also sits fifth among all AHL rookie defenders.
He’s also third on the team in plus/minus as a plus-7 for the year, just one behind Elias Pettersson and two behind Erik Brännström.
Obviously, with eight wins, it’s not just the offence that has been clicking. Goaltending has been perfect, with each of the team’s duo earning four-game streaks.
With a 21-save victory on Friday, Nikita Tolopilo has tied his AHL high with four straight wins from last year. Despite the up-and-down season, the Belorussian still shows just as strong of numbers as his successful rookie year, with a 2.62 goals against average (GAA), .902% save percentage (S%) and three shutouts.
With 20 saves, Arturs Silovs wasn’t very tested, either. It’s a solid stretch for the tweener netminder, enjoying his first real taste of any sustained success throughout the year.

ECHL

Speaking of netminding, Ty Young had himself a week, stopping 59 of 63 saves through two games. Unfortunately, he did not receive much help on the offensive side in game one of the week, suffering a 2-1 shootout loss despite stopping 34 of 35 shots. He backed that performance with a 25-save game for a 6-3 victory, giving him a 6-5-1 record at the ECHL level.
Josh Bloom also had a solid week, providing a goal, assists, five shots and a plus-4 through three games. The 21-year-old has officially hit the 10-point mark for the first time in his professional career.
Given that he’s coming back from injury and Abbotsford has been playing out of their minds lately, we don’t anticipate seeing him in Abbotsford this season. But with a solid full year of pro hockey under his belt, there’s a good chance that he will push the envelope for a spot at training camp next year.

CHL

It’s safe to say that Sawyer Mynio has settled in nicely with his new role with the Calgary Hitmen. Since joining the squad, he’s been the heaviest-utilized player by far, averaging nearly 23 minutes per game.
What’s even more encouraging is that Carter Yakemchuk, considered the team’s crown jewel on the backend, has returned to the lineup, and Mynio is still overtaking the head in minutes. Instead of replacing Mynio on the power play, they’ve conjoined forces.
Since joining, Mynio’s third on the team in points (eight points in eight games), leads the team in blocked shots (20), shots on goal (29), and third in assists.
He added three goals and five points over three games this week.
Riley Patterson continues to play with the utmost poise, adding another four points to his total. He has now had multipoint games in three of his last four.
He co-leads the Barrie Colts in both goals (19) and points (40) while playing in all citations for a fourth-ranked OHL team overall. He’s also a plus-20 on the season, for good measure.
Although he collected a garbage goal through three games, it’s been a quiet return from a several-month absence for Anthony Romani.
Despite seeing top-line minutes, he’s scored just three goals in six games with his new team. Are we concerned? Not at all. Returning from a several-month injury will take the best of them some time to adjust, let alone with a new team on a brand-new system.
After a red-hot start with his new team, Vilmer Alriksson’s contributions have slowed down in Brampton as well. The same can be said about the team as a whole.
With a goal this week, he’s up to eight points through 11 games with his new team, staying on pace for just over 50 points.

SHL

Lucas Forsell will play for a Euro Champions League title. Following a 10-4 aggregate two-game victory over Sparta Prague, Farjastad will move on to the final against Zurich.
We’re starting to lose hope for his future within the Canucks’ system, but a Champions League title would be an appropriate way to end his run within our Blackfish report.
The final game takes place on February 18th.
Over in Örebro, Melvin Fernström failed to register any points through two games. He failed to generate any points, but he’s still being well-utilized in the country’s top circuit, enjoying top-six minutes in both games.
He’s still maintaining a 50% Corsi on the year and continues to see time on the power play.

NCAA

Tom Willander picked up a secondary power play assist, but it’s been a slightly quiet return since his World Junior stint. Although he’s still seeing tons of minutes, he has just three assists and is a minus-1 through six games. He still sits fourth as a plus-5 on the year and third on BU with 30 blocked shots.
BU will play one last match before the annual Beanpot tournament kicks off next week.
The Beanpot features BU, Boston College, Harvard and Northeastern. This means that Wallander, Aiden Celebrini, Aku Koskenvuo, and Jackson Dorrington will all attend the event.
Day one of the annual event is Monday, February 3rd. BU will face Harvard, and Northeastern will draw against Boston College.
As for Aku, he posted another subpar outing after finally catching some traction with back-to-back wins in last week’s installment. He allowed four goals on 24 shots with a 4-1 loss to Cornell. Given the slip in play, we won’t be shocked to see Harvard’s second netminder get the go for the Beanpot.
We’ll return next week with another edition of the Blackfish Prospect Report. Keep an eye out as we prepare for our mid-term prospect ranks for February!
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