Welcome back for another CanucksArmy Blackfish Canucks Prospects Report.
This is where we look back at the week that was for Vancouver Canucks prospects and show you all the top highlights of the week.
It was another great week for the Canucks’ prospect pool.
The OHL players were scoring, the SHL kids are rolling into their playoffs, and the youngsters on the farm continued to show extremely well.
We’ve got a lot of highlights to get to, so let’s dive right in!
The OHL boys are all scoring
It was another nice scoring week for new Canucks prospect Josh Bloom.
The two-way winger picked up a hat trick on Sunday, with the third goal coming in the form of an overtime tally to give his North Bay Battalion a big win over the Sudbury Wolves.
Here's a look at Josh Bloom's hat trick 🚨🚨🚨on Sunday.
Bloom also picked up two assists in his one and only other game this week. The kid finished with three goals and two assists over two OHL games. That five-point week sets Bloom over the point-per-game rate, as he is now up to 31 goals and 37 assists for 68 points through 66 games.
Josh Bloom, you have our attention.
The next OHL scorer we have to get to is Connor Lockhart.
Lockhart’s Peterborough Peteres were busy this week, they played four games over the past seven days and Lockhart picked up a goal and two assists over those four games.
Sweden always gets its own heading (PLAYOFF EDITION)
The SHL playoffs are underway and one Canucks prospect is lighting it up.
Once again, the man we have to talk about is Lucas Forsell.
The teenage winger has been crushing the SHL playoffs early on. He picked up two goals and an assist in his SHL playoffs debut on Friday and followed that up with an assist in Sunday’s game.
Forsell puts Färjestad in the lead with another great clean-up for his second goal and third point of the match. Talk about making an impact in your first playoff game! #Canuckspic.twitter.com/fw9rTe41Ie
Forsell is cooking and he is matched up against fellow Canucks’ prospect and childhood friend Filip Johansson.
Their teams slipt the opening two games of the series and Johansson played 17:27 in the first game and 22:02 in the second game. Johansson’s team won the second game, so maybe the secret is to play Johansson more to secure a win. Or maybe Forsell just needs to be the lead dog for his squad. No matter the case, this is becoming a fun series to follow from the SHL playoffs.
The other prospect to mention from the SHL playoffs is Elias Pettersson (D-Petey). The kid was slotted in on the third pairing in the first game of the series, where he played 14:00 but then slid down to the seventh defenceman for game two, where he only played 4:10.
We will follow along with D-Petey’s ice time as the series goes on.
AHL Update
The kids have been producing on the farm over the past week. The Abbotsford Canucks have won four of their last five games and have not allowed more than two goals in each of those five games.
On the back of good goaltending from Spencer Martin and Arturs Silovs, the Abby Canucks have been rolling through the league as the playoffs approach.
Silovs only played in one game last week and stopped 42 of the 44 shots he faced. He was tested early and often and held the Canucks in the game before they put up a five-spot.
Linus Karlsson continues his scoring ways in his rookie AHL season. He picked up a goal in one of Abbotsford’s two games this past week.
Another excellent play moving the puck in the right direction from Arshdeep Bains.
Now, it’s going to take an injury, but as I said in the tweet, Bains is deserving of an NHL look. The kid is incredibly smart and now being able to contribute to both special teams units. Bains will join me on Tuesday’s episode of the Canucks Conversation show. Check it out on the CanucksArmy YouTube!
Let’s give a quick shoutout to Nils Höglander, even though we don’t consider him on our prospects list due to the NHL games — he is still just 22 years old.
Höglander has five goals over his last nine AHL games and is playing with confidence along with pissing off the opposition on almost every shift. He’s playing tough and it looks like he’s improved his play with the puck in his own zone. We don’t know if he’s made massive strides defensively but he is much better with the puck away from the offensive zone — that is clear.
Put another one on the board for Nils Höglander. 🚨
There’s good process in Klimovich’s game of late, we weren’t worried about the scoring slump because it looked like he was engaged in most of those games, even if he is still stuck in a fourth-line role.
Aatu Räty is back to putting up points in the AHL after a short NHL stint.
The 20-year-old centre has seven points in seven games since being reassigned to the AHL. Räty picked up three assists over Abbotsford’s two games this week and looks to be having much more fun playing the game he loves.
It was a difficult few weeks when he arrived in Abbotsford but it feels like Räty now has his feet on the ground and he’s burning it down like Alicia Keys.
Finally, making his return to the Blackfish Prospects Report is Jett Woo.
The 22-year-old right-shot defenceman has been playing the best hockey of his career over the past four months. He still has a lot of work to do before he gets a chance in the NHL but there’s been a rise in his physical play over the past few months and he is beginning to chip in offensively and even in the shootout.
He hasn’t just been scoring in shootouts, Woo made a great play on the puck in his own zone and went from one end of the rink to the other on this nice backhand goal.
Add in the physical play that he has been showcasing lately, and there’s maybe still a path for Woo to get into the NHL one day. He just needs to keep this up for the remainder of the season and ride into next year with a new level of confidence in his own game.
Joni Jurmo has not signed a contract with the Canucks and though he has a small injury, if he was going to sign with the Canucks and join Abbotsford for a playoffs run, we would have thought the deal should be signed by now. It looks like he is out on this season and maybe we have to wait until the conclusion of his 2023-24 season to become an AHLer with Abbotsford.
It’s possible that left-shot Jacob Truscott returns from injury to play with Michigan as they set their eyes on the Frozen Four, which takes place on April 6th and 8th.
We spotted Jonathan Lekkerimäki in the locker room with his Allsvenskan team as they participate in their playoffs. He was without any kind of visible brace or limp and the team statement on the player was that he had a foot injury and will miss an estimated eight weeks. That team announcement was on February 7th, we will check in and see if a return for the playoffs is a possibility.
This wraps up another Blackfish Report. Thanks for checking out the article. It’s now time for me to work on the video version of the article.
